Data for: The effect of land-use change on soil C, N, P, and their stoichiometries: A global synthesis

Data description

This dataset includes detailed information about five different types of land use change reported in “The effect of land-use change on soil C, N, P, and their stoichiometries: A global synthesis (Agriculture, Ecosystems and Environment; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.agee.2023.108402)”.  

Lists of five different types of land use change

1) conversion of primary forest to cropland

2) conversion of primary forest to grassland

3) conversion of cropland to forest

4) conversion of grassland to forest

5) conversion of grassland to cropland

Lists of detailed information

• Land use change (pre-LUC, post-LUC)
• Country, Location, Geographic position (Longitude, Latitude)  
• Altitude (m)
• Climate zone
• Weather [rainfall (mm yr^-1) and temperature (°C)]
• Reported time of change (years)
• Vegetation type (pre-LUC, post-LUC)
• Fertilizer (pre-LUC, post-LUC: type, application; change)
• Soil sampling depth (cm)
• Soil type [units, pre-LUC, post-LUC, change rate (%)]
• Soil pH, bulk density, CEC [units, pre-LUC, post-LUC, change rate (%)]
• Soil organic carbon [units, pre-LUC, post-LUC, change rate (%)]
• Soil total nitrogen [units, pre-LUC, post-LUC, change rate (%)]
• Soil total phosphorus [units, pre-LUC, post-LUC, change rate (%)]
• Soil C:N [units, pre-LUC, post-LUC, change rate (%)]
• Soil C:P [units, pre-LUC, post-LUC, change rate (%)]
• Soil N:P [units, pre-LUC, post-LUC, change rate (%)]
• Reference

Data collection method

We analyzed five different types of LUC: 1) conversion of primary forest to cropland, 2) conversion of primary forest to grassland, 3) conversion of cropland to forest, 4) conversion of grassland to forest, and 5) conversion of grassland to cropland.

We classified primary forest as forest that had not previously been cleared and used for other land uses. The conversion of cropland or grassland to forest includes naturally generated and intentionally planted forest. Cropland is land used for growing agricultural crops and may include short pasture phases, and grassland is land used continuously for grazing purposes, but may include occasional and repeated pasture-renewal phases.

While we tried to make categorical distinctions between these land-use types, land uses are often more fluid in practice, which may not always have been stated in the publications underlying our data compilation.

When a paper reported both contents and stocks, we used the stock-based measure. We used reported stocks if the original work had already been corrected to equivalent soil mass (Ellert and Bettany, 1995) or if corrected stocks had been reported in previous reviews or meta-analyses (Don et al., 2011; Poeplau et al., 2011; Guo and Gifford, 2002). Where bulk-density correction had not been applied, we tried to make those corrections to estimate changes to equivalent soil mass if studies provided sufficient information on soil bulk density and depth, using the method of Zhang et al. (2004). If that was not possible, we used the reported SOC, TN, or TP contents.

Acknowledgements

We thank scientists who measured, analyzed, and published the data compiled for this study. We are especially grateful to Drs. Axel Don, Christopher Poeplau, Lex Bouwman, and Gaihe Yang, who provided their global meta-data through personal communication. D.-G.K. acknowledges support from the IAEA CRP D15020. M.U.F.K and L.L.L. were supported by the Strategic Science Investment Fund (SSIF) of New Zealand’s Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.