Soil water release curves and hydraulic conductivity measurements at four long-term grassl

Four long-term grassland-to-woodland land use contrasts across England were sampled between 2018 and 2021. The dataset contains soil water release curves for topsoil and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity measurements, collocated with biomass, litter depth, soil properties, and earthworm data. It was produced by the Environmental Information Data Centre as part of the UK-SCAPE programme funded by the Natural Environment Research Council.

Use Cases

• Modeling soil water retention and movement based on soil water release curves and hydraulic conductivity measurements.
• Analyzing the impact of land use change from grassland to woodland on soil hydrology based on the four paired-site contrasts.
• Correlating soil hydraulic properties with co-located data on soil physical, chemical, and biological properties.
• Studying relationships between soil water characteristics and aboveground biomass production or earthworm populations.

Strengths

• Data is from four distinct, long-term land use contrasts sampled across England.
• Hydraulic measurements are collocated with a wide range of complementary soil and ecological data.
• Measurements were taken using a specific, named system (HYPROP) for consistency.

Limitations

• Column-level documentation is absent; field semantics must be inferred after download.
• Row count is unknown, which may limit suitability assessment.
• Data is from a single sampling campaign per site between 2018 and 2021.

Provenance

Source

Environmental Information Data Centre, UK-SCAPE programme.

Collection Method

Field measurements using the HYPROP system during soil sampling campaigns.

Time Range

2018 to 2021

Freshness

Last updated 2026-03-19 07:33:45.910800; freshness should be verified.

Geography

Four sites across England: Gisburn, Wytham Woods, and Kielder Forest.