For the analysis, eleven spruce samples (Picea abies) from a growing area in the Rothaargebirge (Saßmannshausen close to Bad Laasphe, Germany, coordinate 50°57’00.0’’N 8°22’12.0’’E, altitude 400 m above sea level) and twenty spruce samples from Southern Palatinate Forest (Hinterweidenthal, Germany, coordinate 4 9°10’4 8.0’’N 7°40’4 8.0’’E, altitude 305 m above sea level) were used. The two locations were approximately 250 km apart. The spruce test areas were laid out in 1968/69, so that they were samples of the same age. Further information about the growing conditions can be found in the supplementary material. All the samples were collected manually in autumn 2016 because the tree ring formation is then complete and the transition of the spruce to dormancy takes place. In detail, the samples were increment cores that were taken from the tree trunks at a height of 1.30 m above the ground and had a diameter of 5 mm as well as and a maximum length of 40 cm. The samples were stored dry at room temperature until analysis.

Data set

The samples were measured with four different LC-MS methods, so that four data sets were obtained accordingly. The naming of the data sets contains information about the polarity of the analytes, due to the chromatographic column (polar and nonpolar) as well as the ionization mode of the MS (positive and negative).

Link to the paper: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chroma.2021.462737

The research for this study was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany's Excellence Strategy – EXC 2176 'Understanding Written Artefacts: Material, Interaction and Transmission in Manuscript Cultures', project no. 390893796. The research was conducted within the scope of the Centre for the Study of Manuscript Cultures (CSMC) at Universität Hamburg.