This dataset includes data from soil organo-chemical analyses conducted on the southwestern slope of Mount Kilimanjaro (3°4’33’’S; 37°21’12 E). Soil samples from seven research plots from 951 to 4190 m a.s.l.: A colline savanna (SAV), located below 1000 m a.s.l; grassland (GRA), located on the lower montane zone (1660 m a.s.l.); lower montane forest (FLM) at 1920 m a.s.l., dominated by Macaranga kilimandscharica, Agauria salicifolia; forest dominated by Ocotea usambarensis and Cyathea manniana (FOC) at 2120 m a.s.l.; podocarpus latifolius, Prunus Africana and Hagenia abyssinica dominated forest (FPO) at 2850 m a.s.l.; sub-alpine erica forest (FER) at 4000 m a.s.l.; alpine Helichrysum cussion vegetation (HEL) at 4200 m a.s.l.
Soil Samples
7 elevation zones (951 - 4190 m a.s.l.)
3 independent field replicates per elevation zone
Sampling depth: 0-10 cm
Methods
Lignin phenols: alkaline cupric oxide oxidation (Hedges and Ertel, 1982))
Non-cellulosic neutral sugar concentration was analyzed by gas chromatography (Banfield et al. 2018, Prietzel et al., 2013).
Data structure
The dataset presents processed data as mean values of laboratory duplicates
Sugars: rhamnose, fucose, ribose, arabinose, xylose, mannose, galactose, glucose [mg*g-1soil]
Sum of sugars per total organic carbon [%]
Ligning monomers: p-hydroxybenzaldehyde, p-hydroxyacetophenone, vanillin, acetovanillon, p-hydroxybenzoic-acid, syringaldehyde, vanillic-acid, acetosyringon, syringic-acid, p-coumaric-acid, ferulic-acid, vanillyl+syringyl+cinnamyl (VSC) [mg*g-1soil]
Acid-to-aldehyde ratios of vanillyl (Ac-Al-V) and syringyl (Ac-Al-S) [mg*mg-1]
VSC per total organic carbon [%]
References:
Banfield, C.C., Pausch, J., Kuzyakov, Y., Dippold, M.A., 2018. Microbial processing of plant residues in the subsoil – The role of biopores. Soil Biology and Biochemistry 125, 309-318.
Hedges, J.I., Ertel, J.R., 1982. Characterization of Lignin by Gas Capillary Chromatography of Cupric Oxide Oxidation-Products. Anal Chem 54(2), 174-178.
Prietzel, J., Dechamps, N., Spielvogel, S., 2013. Analysis of non-cellulosic polysaccharides helps to reveal the history of thick organic surface layers on calcareous Alpine soils. Plant and Soil 365(1-2), 93-114.
