DOI: 10.23637/wrn20-sed-01
title: Dataset: Woburn Erosion Reference Experiment soil erosion and surface runoff data

description: The dataset contains details of the soil loss, runoff, sediment chemistry and texture, and water chemistry data for each erosion and runoff event from each plot of the Woburn Erosion Reference Experiment, 1989-1998. The experiment had eight plots, in a 2x2 factorial, with two blocks. Treatments were two directions of cultivation (cultivated and drilled parallel to the contour <i>v</i> up and down the slope) and two types of cultivation (standard cultivation, residue removed <i>v</i> minimal tillage, residues retained). 

The total number of erosion events was determined by those occurring on Plot 7, which always produced runoff and erosion when any other plot was eroded, and occasionally when no other plot was. There were a maximum of 63 events, 1989-1998. 

Crop yield and plot soil data is published separately.
description: The experiment was situated on a sandy soil at Woburn Experimental Farm (Great Hill II/III) on a slope of about five degrees (7-13%), which had been subject to periodic erosion since at least 1950. The eight plots were approximately 24 x 36m (0.086 ha), separated by grassed earth banks 1m wide and 30cm high which prevented runoff and eroded soil leaving the plots. The eroded soil and runoff were collected in tanks at the end of each plot after each erosion event. Four plots were cultivated and drilled parallel to the contour, and four up and down the slope. Four plots received conventional tilage and four minimal tillage. All plots grew the same crops each year, in a rotation typical of the sandy soils of Bedfordshire.
description: An Excel file, 01-wrn20sed.xlsx, contains the erosion and runoff data, for 1989-1998. Frictionless CSV files are provided for users who prefer CSV over Excel files. A README file contains extensive metadata information.
description: **Minimal tillage:** cereal straw chopped, potato haulms pulverised and retained and beet tops retained, both partially incorporated by shallow tines or discs to 10cm depth. Between crops soil was left in post-harvest condition, covered with stubble and crop residues until cultivated for the seedbed. 

**Conventional (standard) tillage:** cereal straw baled and removed, potato haulm and beet tops raked up and removed, plots ploughed with a general purpose mouldboard plough to 25cm depth. Between crops soil was in bare fallow after ploughing. The plots can be crossed by farm machinery to allow cultivation. 

**Particle size distribution** in the sediment was determined by the pipette method of Avery and Bascombe (1974). 

**Sediment and water elements** P, K, Ca, Mg, Na, Fe, Al, Ti, Ba, Co, Cr, Cu, Mg, Mo, Ni, Pb and Sr concentrations were determined by ICP-OES spectrometry.

**Total N and C** were measured in the sediment, and **NO<sub>3</sub>-N and NH<sub>4</sub>-N** in the water

The sediment heavy metal data described by Quinton and Catt (2007) is from 1989-1994. Most of the raw data for 1992 has been lost and is not included in this dataset. Data for heavy metals in plot soil is not available. Summaries are reported in Quinton and Catt, 2007.
description: Sediment and water runoff chemistry data are from data files provided by John Quinton. Background information was also taken from Quinton and Catt, 2001, Quinton et al, 2006, Quinton and Catt 2007. Once the data were entered into e-RA, they were independently back-checked against the original data sheets.