Data for: electronic appendix for the thesis 'Effects of pyrolytic biochar on soil properties, Collembola, mites and seed performance' by Olivia Roithmeier (2025)

This dataset includes the data of the electronic appendix for the dissertation 'Effects of pyrolytic biochar on soil properties, Collembola, mites and seed performance' by Olivia Roithmeier (2025) conducted at the University of Bremen (Germany). The dissertation investigated the effects of a biochar produced from plant-material (wood) via pyrolysis (pmpBC), which was bio-activated with compost for several weeks before being applied into the soil of a temperate grassland in Germany. The effects of the BCa on soil properties, soil mesofauna and early seed performance of grassland plants were assessed by a field experiment (run May 2014 to September 2015) and three laboratory experiments (run between November 2014 and June 2016). Please note that to access the tables and text files, you will need the LibreOffice (The Document Foundation) programs. To access the data exploration and modelling files, you will need the R© statistical and programming environment (R Core Team). For more details on material and methods behind the dataset (e.g. software and statistics), please refer to Chapter 3.8 and 3.9 of the dissertation (Roithmeier, O. (2025). Effects of pyrolytic biochar on soil properties, Collembola, mites and seed performance. DOI: /10.26092/elib/4060). The dataset is comprised of eleven folders (Appendix 1e to 11e): 

Appendix 1e: Raw data on the physico-chemical properties of the raw substrates

• Appendix 1e_a: raw data on the field soil of the grassland in Borgfeld, Germany
• Appendix 1e_b: analysis data sheet of the BC as provided by Carbon Terra
• Appendix 1e_c: grain sizes of compost, soil, pmpBCC, BCa
• Appendix 1e_d: pH values of compost, soil, pmpBC, BCa
• Appendix 1e_e: data of the raw substrates as determined during the bio-activation of the biochar, the field and laboratory experiments 1‑3

Appendix 2e: Biochar bio-activation procedure

• Detailed documentation of the biochar bio-activation procedure

Appendix 3e: Recalculation of the application rates

• Documentation of the recalculation of the application rates from fresh weight to dry weight for the field experiment and from the field experiment application rates to the rates to be applied in experiments 1-3, as these three experiments were to apply the higher application rate of the field study for the compost (C5) and biochar (BCa5) treatments

Appendix 4e: Logbook of the field experiment test area

• Logbook of the field experiment test area in Borgfeld, Germany, from the biochar bio-activation procedure prior to the start of the field study to the last sampling taken at the test area for this thesis

Appendix 5e: Documentation of plant performance during experiments 1-3

• Documentation of the seedling performance as investigated once a week and at the test termination (test vessel-specific raw data and photographs)

Appendix 6e: Logbook and photographs of experiments 1‑3

• Logbook of experiment 1 (no logbook was written for experiments 2 and 3 as these two experiments followed the procedure of their its precursor experiment 1)
• Documentation of mesofauna at test start of experiments 1‑3
• Photographical documentation of experiments 1‑3
  

Appendix 7e: Mesofauna identification key and identification card template

This appendix includes two documents developed by me for this thesis:

• an identification card template to document the identified specimens per extracted sample in a standardised way,
• a one-page identification key illustrating the most common taxa of the test area, used for preliminary mesofauna identification.

Appendix 8e: Photographs of the mesofauna

• Example photographs (raw data, adjusted ones) of the mesofauna found in the test area throughout the thesis

Appendix 9e: Statistical evaluation with R

This appendix is split in an Appendix a) for the field experiment and an Appendix b) for experiments 1-3, each containing the following data:

• Data per indicator summarised in tabular master-files (LibreOffice© Calc): e.g. "alpha_borgfeld_field_experiment_boku_smf_alle_termine.odt" for data on soil properties (buko) and soil mesofauna (SMF) of the field experiment for all sampling dates, or "THESIS_daten_smf_labvers1bis3" for all mesofauna data of laboratory experiments 1-3:
• Folder 'r_scripe_csv':
  • csv_files csv-files for data upload into R©: extracted from master-files mentioned before, e.g. for "glmer_boku_6weeks.csv" to analyse the soil property data of the samples collected six weeks after the start of the field experiment to be analysed by a GLMER,
  • R©-script files run by me: e.g. in folder "scripte_67weeks", the R-file "b_67_weeks_sum_coll_26oct.R" for the mesofauna indicator "total sum of Collembola", based on samples collected at week 67. For the field experiment, R© master scripts were written individually for each sampling date and separately for soil property and mesofauna data each (e.g. "b_6_weeks_boku_master", "b_6_weeks_SMF_master"). Based on these master scripts, individual scripts were created per indicator (e.g. "b_6_weeks_boku_ph", "b_6_weeks_sum_coll"). For experiments 1‑3, R© scripts were written individually for each of experiments 1‑3, sampling date, soil property and seed performance data (e.g. "cn_etal_CNratio_vers3_dry_wet" contained the R© script for the soil property C/N‑ratio, experiment 3, with a code implemented in the script to switch between the 'dry soil' and 'wet soil' sub-data set
• Folder 'results':
  
  • Result files (LibreOffice Writer©) of the statistical evaluation: e.g. "b_6weeks_sum_collembola_1bis2mm" for the mesofauna indicator sum of Collembola, body size 1‑2 mm, sampled at week six after the start of the field experiment). These files summarise the outputs of the statistical analysis run for each indicator to be analysed specifically (e.g. model evaluations and outputs).

Appendix 10e: Mesofauna extraction and insertion of experiment 1-3 (raw data)

• Experiments 1-2: Raw data of mesofauna control extractions carried out at the start of the test and during the tests
• Experiment 3: Raw data from the mesofauna extraction and Collembola hand-insertion performed at the start of the test and of the mesofauna control extractions performed during the test

Appendix 11e: Desoria trispinata breeding

• Documentation of the breeding (raw data photographs, notes on the breeding)
• See also Roithmeier et al. 2018. Desoria trispinata (MacGillivray, 1896), a promising model Collembola species to study biological invasions in soil communities. Pedobiologia, Vol. 67, 45-56, doi.org/10.10166/j.pedobi.20167.11.003