1. ABOUT THE DATASET -------------------- Title: Carbon and nitrogen content of aboveground biomass components of woody hedgerow species Creator(s): Sofia Biffi, Pippa J Chapman, Richard P Grayson, Guy Ziv Organisation(s): School of Geography, University of Leeds, UK Rights-holder(s): Copyright 2023 University of Leeds Publication Year: 2023 Description: This dataset contains the carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) content of different woody species components of UK native hedge species. Samples were taken from shoot, stem, and roots of different hedge species. Shoot and root samples were also taken from adjacent grassland fields. Cite as: Biffi S., Chapman, P. J., Grayson, R. P., Ziv G. (2023): Aboveground biomass carbon storage by managed hedgerows. University of Leeds. [Dataset] Related publication: Contact: S.Biffi@leeds.ac.uk 2. TERMS OF USE --------------- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. 3. PROJECT AND FUNDING INFORMATION ---------------------------------- Title: Resilient Dairy Landscapes Dates: 01-01-2018/31-12-2022. Funding organisation: 'Resilience of the UK Food System Programme’ with support from BBSRC, ESRC, NERC and Scottish Government. Grant no.: BB/R005664/1 This project was also supported with funding from Research England’s Quality-related Research Strategic Priorities Funding (QR SPF). 4. CONTENTS ----------- 1 file: Biffi_C_N_content_woody_hedge_species_2023.csv 185 rows, 7 columns Variables in the dataset are: - sample_num: individual sample number. - treatment: five treatments, ordered by age of the hedge, with the last treatment (E) being field samples from grassland fields adjacent to the hedges. - component: biomass component of the sample, either shoot, stem, or root. - common_name: common name of woody hedge species. - scientific_name: scientific name of woody hedge species. - C_content_g_kg: C content in g C kg^-1. - C_content_g_kg: N content in g N kg^-1. 5. METHODS ---------- The sampling was conducted in Cumbria, UK, on hedges with native species composition. Hedges were visited in July 2021 to sample woody biomass components (stem, shoot and root) of different hedge species for C and N analysis. Aboveground and belowground biomass in a 15×15 cm square was sampled for comparison of grassland C and N content with woody hedgerow species. Hedgerows were divided into four age groups: - 3-6 years old: hedges planted between 2017 and 2020 - 12 years old: hedges planted planted between 2016 and 2010 - 39 years old: mature hedgerows planted in 1987 - Old: mature hedgerows for which the exact year of planting was not known. Due to the prevalence of hawthorn and blackthorn only these two species were sampled across all age categories. The remaining 13 species were sampled based on their occurrence. In hedges: - Shoot samples were taken by harvesting all new hedge growth from a known surface area (size of an A4 sheet of paper). - Stem samples were obtained by cutting a length (minimum 15 cm) of woody stem from within the permanent hedge biomass. - A root sample of hawthorn and blackthorn was taken from one individual of each species from each of the hedge age categories. Only roots with at least 3 cm diameter at approximately 15 cm depth were selected. Moreover, a sample of grass was taken from a point 15 m in the field perpendicularly to the hedgerow. On return to the laboratory, all harvested biomass components were oven dried at 65C until constant mass was reached. Root samples were thoroughly washed with deionised water to remove soil debris prior to oven drying. Each sample was passed through a 500 μm screen using a floor standing cutting mill. Total C and N concentrations were determined using an elemental analysis. For more information about the experimental design, see: Biffi, et al. (2023) STOTEN. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.164482