Field features of the North Wyke Farm Platform: weather, topography, soil, ecosystem services provision index and management

This dataset comprises both original outputs generated by the authors (i.e. the Ecosystem Services Provision Index estimated from remote sensing and which can be used as a proxy for carbon inputs to the soil) and derived data obtained after processing data from different sources from 1995 to 2022. This dataset refers to yearly-estimated features for the fields included in the North Wyke Farm Platform (NWFP), a farm-scale experimental system established in southwestern England in 2010 (Orr et al., 2016). These features refer to weather conditions, topography, soil characteristics and farming management. Together with ESPI, the variables included in this dataset have been used to predict soil organic carbon at the NWFP (Segura et al., 2023). However, its use does not have to be limited to this sole objective.

The Ecosystem Services Provision Index (ESPI) was estimated using remote sensing and the methods described in Segura et al. (2023) for the period 1995 to 2022. However, note that only the period from 2012 to 2021 has been used in the manuscript to coincide with data availability from the Farm Platform.

To create this dataset, raw data relating to soil properties and field events from 2012 to 2021 were downloaded from the NWFP Data Portal (https://nwfp.rothamsted.ac.uk/) for data processing. From the field survey data, we downloaded relevant soil chemical properties (0-10 cm depth) - total carbon(referred to as soil organic carbon in the manuscript arising from this data), total nitrogen, available phosphorus (as Olsen phosphorus), available potassium, and pH. For a given variable, measurements were averaged to provide a single value per field, per year. Note that due to some adjustments made to homogenise field names over time, there may be a mismatch for some fields between the Data Portal and this dataset. Field event records, relating to daily farm management activities, were also obtained from the NWFP data portal. In this dataset, these farm field events records were interpreted to construct the variables related to the main farming management practices by year and by field. The data from the NWFP data portal are free to access after registration on the portal. North Wyke Farm Platform and Data Portal user guides are available for more detailed information about soil measurements and field events. In particular, the Design, Establishment and Development of the NWFP (https://doi.org/10.23637/rothamsted.98y1x), the user guide for field survey data https://doi.org/10.23637/rothamsted.98y51), the User Guide to Field Events (https://doi.org/10.23637/rothamsted.98y4z) and the User Guide to Livestock data (https://doi.org/10.23637/rothamsted.98y50).

The soil units (which show the predominant soil series in a location, according to the British soil classification) were extracted from the report Soils of North Wyke  [Harrod and Hogan, 2008]. Meteorological data (monthly mean temperature and monthly precipitation) were provided by a weather station owned and operated by the UK Meteorological Office at North Wyke. Field terrain attributes (aspect and slope) were determined using Google Earth Engine according to the methods described in Segura et al. (2023), or by using the information provided in https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/2005RG000183 and https://developers.google.com/earth-engine/datasets/catalog/USGS_SRT...

A full set of variables included in this dataset can be consulted in Columns_units_and_descriptors.csv, which also includes a description of each data column and the units of measurement. The text file main_analyses_figures_code.txt can be used along with the data file to reproduce the main results in Segura et al. (2023).

Additional information
The North Wyke Farm Platform is a UK National Capability supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBS/E/C/000J0100). We acknowledge the interests of the Ecological Continuity Trust (ECT), whose national network of LTEs includes the experiment on which this research was conducted. Meteorological data adapted from Crown copyright data supplied by the Met Office.

During the embargo period, please contact carmen.segura-quirante@rothamsted.ac.uk if you wish to access the data.