Jeffrey A. Wolf, Stephen P. Hubbell, Geoffrey A. Fricker, and Benjamin L. Turner. 2015. Geospatial observations on tropical forest surface soil chemistry. Ecology 96:2313. http://dx.doi.org/10.1890/15-0558.1


Data Paper

Ecological Archives E096-204-D1.

Copyright


Authors
Data Files
Abstract
Metadata


Author(s)

Jeffrey A. Wolf,1,4 Stephen P. Hubbell,1,2 Geoffrey A. Fricker,3 Benjamin L. Turner2

1 Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA ([email protected], [email protected])

2 Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute, Apartado 0843-03092, Balboa, Ancon, Republic of Panama ([email protected])

3 Department of Geography, Bunche Hall, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA ([email protected])

4 Corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected].


Data Files

corners.csv (MD5: 00b9af230a2cd73315d473083f6e7647)

soils.csv (MD5: d4deb84fa3a2300097efc07a7a42700c)

standards.csv (MD5: bdeb50c58864228f02b06be2971d11dc)

afproj-master.zip (MD5: 30f8248abbe2851dd2b5763933ca6165)


Abstract

At plot scales (<1 km²) used to study tropical forest plant communities the causes of spatial heterogeneity of soils are disputed. We collected, georeferenced, and chemically analyzed a large spatial sample of soil cores (n = 625 sites, 6.25 cm diameter × 10 cm depth cores) on an approximately 28 m regular grid from the Barro Colorado Island (BCI) 50-ha (0.5 km²) forest dynamics plot (FDP), Republic of Panama (9.15° N, 79.8° W). Here we present these data for general use. We also present differential GPS measurements of the plot corners for the BCI 50-ha FDP, which aid in geospatial research in one of the most studied tropical forests. Further, we present a free open source command line software program written in Python that allows point data referenced to the plot coordinate system to be converted to a projected coordinate reference system for geospatial research. Together, the data sets allow for testing the drivers of soil heterogeneity in a tropical tree community using a wide variety of geospatial data sources.

Key words: Barro Colorado Island; biodiversity; biogeochemistry; Geographic Information Systems; nutrients; remote sensing; spatial projection; soil.