Continental-Scale Subsoil Extracellular Enzyme Activity Across 19 Soil Profiles

19 soil profiles across the Critical Zone Observatory Network were sampled to a depth of 1 meter in 10 cm increments. Activities of seven carbon-, nitrogen-, and phosphorus-acquiring extracellular enzymes were measured fluorometrically along with soil properties like organic carbon, total nitrogen, pH, and clay concentration. The dataset, authored by Nicholas C. Dove of Oak Ridge National Laboratory, reveals that over half of potential soil enzyme activity occurs below 20 cm.

Use Cases

• Modeling relationships between soil depth and microbial activity based on enzyme measurements.
• Predicting soil organic carbon persistence based on correlations with extracellular enzyme activity and clay content.
• Analyzing decoupling of nutrient availability and enzyme activity in subsurface horizons.
• Training models to estimate microbial biomass from phospholipid fatty acid data across diverse soil orders.

Strengths

• Data from 19 soil profiles across a wide range of climates, soil orders, and vegetation types.
• Measurements taken at 10 cm depth increments down to 1 meter, providing high vertical resolution.
• Includes seven specific enzyme activities alongside key soil properties like SOC, total N, pH, and clay concentration.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Last update date is unknown; freshness unverified.

Provenance

Source

Oak Ridge National Laboratory

Collection Method

Soil samples collected from the Critical Zone Observatory Network and analyzed fluorometrically.

Geography

Continental-scale across the Critical Zone Observatory Network.