Dataset: Woburn Erosion Reference Experiment plot soil total C and N

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Standardised plan of the experiment

Summary

Soil data for each plot of the Woburn Erosion Reference Experiment, 1989-1996. The soil from each plot was sampled in 1990, 1991, 1992, 1993 and 1996 and analysed for total carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) concentration (%). Total N was also measured in 1989. Data is for topsoil (0-10, 0-15 or 0-20cm) plus 50-60cm in 1992 only. This is the data described by Quinton et al, 2006. Clay content was also measured in 1996, as reported by Quinton and Catt, 2007. The experiment had eight plots, in a 2x2 factorial, with two blocks. Treatments were two directions of cultivation (cultivated and drilled parallel to the contour v up and down the slope) and two types of tillage (conventional tillage, residue removed v minimal tillage, residues retained).

Crop yield and erosion and runoff data is published separately.

Methods

The experiment was situated on a sandy soil at Woburn Experimental Farm (Great Hill II/III) on a five-degree slope, which had been subject to periodic erosion since at least 1950. The eight plots were approximately 24 x 36m (0.086 ha), separated by grassed earth banks 1m wide and 30cm high which prevented runoff and eroded soil leaving the plots. Four plots were cultivated and drilled parallel to the contour, and four up and down the slope. Four plots received conventional tillage and four minimal tillage. All plots grew the same crops each year, in a rotation typical of the sandy soils of Bedfordshire. The soil was sampled on a grid with nine or 12 samples from each plot. In 1989-1991 several samples were taken from each plot and bulked together for analysis (composite samples).

Technical Information

Soil total % C was measured in sieved (2mm) air-dried soil, ground in an agate mill and analysed using a Perkin-Elmer CHN elemental analyser.

Soil total % N was measured in sieved (2mm) air-dried soil, ground in an agate mill, by Kjeldahl digestion.

Soil clay content was measured in air-dried unground soil using the particle size distribution pipette method (Avery and Bascombe, 1982). The results are the means of two determinations for each plot.

Minimal tillage: cereal straw chopped, potato haulms pulverised and retained and beet tops retained, both partially incorporated by shallow tines or discs to 10cm depth. Between crops soil was left in post-harvest condition, covered with stubble and crop residues until cultivated for the seedbed.

Conventional (standard) tillage: cereal straw baled and removed, potato haulm and beet tops raked up and removed, plots ploughed with a general purpose mouldboard plough to 25cm depth. Between crops soil was in bare fallow after ploughing.

Related Documents

• Quinton et al, 2006 Soil C in the Woburn Erosion Experiment :
• Quinton et al, 2007. Enrichment of heavy metals in sediment from the Woburn Erosion Experiment :

Related Datasets

• Woburn Erosion Reference Experiment crop yields.
• Woburn Erosion Reference Experiment soil erosion and surface runoff data

Contributors

• Margaret Glendining: Data curator
• Nathalie Castells: Data manager
• Richard Ostler: Project leader
• Kevin Coleman: Project member
• John Quinton: Data collector
• Jeanne Day: Data collector
• Ruth Skilton: Data collector

Dataset Access and Conditions

Rights Holder

Rothamsted Research

License

This dataset is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Licence (4.0).

Cite this Dataset

YOU MUST CITE AS: John Quinton, Margaret Glendining, Kevin Coleman, Richard Ostler (2024). Dataset: Woburn Erosion Reference Experiment plot soil total C and N Electronic Rothamsted Archive, Rothamsted Research, Harpenden, UK https://doi.org/10.23637/wrn20-soil-01

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