Soil Moisture, Temperature, and Earthworm Abundance Transects at a Yorkshire Farm

Field measurements from Spens farm in West Yorkshire document earthworm abundance, soil moisture, temperature, and bulk density along transects from hedges into arable and pasture fields. Sampling occurred annually from April 2015 to April 2017, with additional surveys in December 2015, July 2016, and October 2016. The data were collected by Miranda Prendergast-Miller and colleagues for the SoilBioHedge project.

Use Cases

• Analyze earthworm abundance trends with distance from hedgerows to assess hedge influence on soil fauna.
• Model relationships between soil moisture, soil temperature, and earthworm biomass across different field types.
• Investigate how soil bulk density varies between arable fields, pasture leys, and transitional strips.
• Assess seasonal changes in soil quality indicators from repeated sampling between 2015 and 2017.

Strengths

• Multi-year temporal coverage with sampling from 2015 to 2017.
• Includes multiple physical soil measurements: moisture, temperature, and bulk density.
• Data collected using standardized field methods: pit excavation, hand sorting, and mustard solution extraction.

Limitations

• Dataset is marked as withdrawn, indicating potential data quality issues or restricted access.
• Sample size and number of measurement rows are unknown.
• Geographic scope is limited to a single farm in West Yorkshire.

Provenance

Source

Environmental Information Data Centre

Collection Method

Pits were excavated and soil hand-sorted for earthworms; mustard solution was used to extract additional earthworms; soil moisture, temperature, and bulk density were measured per pit.

Time Range

April 2015 to April 2017, with additional sampling in December 2015, July 2016, October 2016.

Freshness

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Geography

Spens farm, University of Leeds experiment farms, West Yorkshire, UK.