DOI: 10.5061/dryad.bcc2fqzsc
title: Data from: Increased belowground carbon allocation reduces soil carbon losses under long-term warming

description: The response of the carbon cycle in forests to global warming could lead
 to a positive climate feedback if warming accelerates the mineralization
 of soil organic carbon (SOC), thereby causing net emissions of CO2 into
 the atmosphere. In Europe, humus-rich alpine forest soils could be
 particularly affected by global warming, as a greater rise in temperature
 is expected in this region than the global average. Here we show that
 nearly two decades of experimental soil warming (+4°C during the snow-free
 seasons) in a mountain forest in the Northern Limestone Alps significantly
 (13% per 1°C warming) and persistently (no change in response over 18
 years) increased soil CO2 effluxes. The SOC stocks in the warmed plots
 decreased compared to controls, yet non-significantly, and quantitatively
 much less than the surplus carbon outflux from warmed soil suggests. We
 attribute the increase in soil CO2 efflux primarily to stimulation of root
 respiration, which was most sensitive to long-term warming.
description: # Data from: Increased belowground carbon allocation reduces soil carbon
 losses under long-term warming Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.bcc2fqzsc](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.bcc2fqzsc) ##
 Description of the data and file structure ### Files and variables ####
 File: Soil_CO2_Efflux_Achenkirch_2005-2022.csv **Description:**  #####
 Variables * date: Date of measurement (day.month.year) * plotname: name of
 the plot (e.g. 1c = plot 1 control; 1h = plot 1 warmed) * Block: name of
 the block, n = 6 blocks (each block 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 consisted of a
 control and heated plot, 1c, 1h, 2c, 2h, etc.) * Treatment: warm, control
 * Season: meteorological seasons (winter, spring, summer, fall) * heating
 on/off: heating system switched “off” or “on” * soil temp logger: soil
 temperature at 5 cm soil depth. Daily means calculated from 30-minute
 interval records (°C) * soil temp manual: soil temperature measured
 manually at 5 cm soil depth with a handheld probe during soil CO~2~ efflux
 measurements (°C) * CO~2~ flux measured: measured soil CO~2~ efflux
 (µmol/m^2^/sec) * Exp flux: mean daily soil CO~2~ efflux modelled with an
 exponential soil temperature driven function (µmol/m^2^/sec) * Gauss flux:
 mean daily soil CO~2~ efflux modelled with a Gaussian temperature function
 (µmol/m^2^/sec) * linear interpol flux: daily soil CO~2~ efflux linearly
 interpolated between two successive flux measurement dates (g
 CO~2~-C/m^2^/day) * air_temp: daily mean air temperature measured at a
 weather station (about 100 m away from the plots) (°C) * precip: daily
 precipitation sum measured at the weather station (mm) * rel_humidity:
 relative humidity measured at the weather station (%) * soil_moist_manual:
 soil moisture at 0-7 cm soil depth measured with a field scout device
 (Vol%) #### File: Root_Respiration_Achenkirch_2022.csv **Description:** 
 ##### Variables * Year: sampling year * Month: sampling month * Plot: plot
 number, 1-6 * Treatment: warmed, control * Flux actual soil temperature
 (µg C/g Root/sec): Measured respiratory flux of cleaned fine roots
 incubated at exactly the same temperature as the soil in the corresponding
 plot (at 5 cm depth). * Flux reference temperature (µg C/g Root/sec):
 Measured respiratory flux of cleaned fine roots incubated at a reference
 temperature of 17°C. ## Code/software csv data files/tables