Soil boron is relatively depleted in South African landscapes where tree establishment is constrained

I sampled the soil surface (0-2 cm) from treeless and treed landscapes - in which there had been no tree-clearing operations for at least three decades - at 20 sites across South Africa, collecting a total of 762 samples. Soil samples were air-dried and sieved to &lt; 2 mm. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry was used to analyse B (hot water extract). I opted to sample only the top two centimetres of soil because the initial competition between tree seedlings and grasses is likely to be profoundly influenced by nutrient availability in this layer. 'Boron data_18 Nov 2024_AS.xlsx' contains soil boron measurements from grasslands, fynbos, and savanna across South Africa, with the following eight columns:1: 'ID' (The unique sample ID)<br><br>2: 'Biome' (identifying whether a sample is derived from grassland, fynbos, or savanna)<br><br>3: 'Area' (the broader area in which the sample was taken)<br><br>4: 'Site' (the precise area in which the sample was taken)<br>5: 'Status' (additional information on environmental conditions of the sample site)<br><br>6: 'Condition' (whether the vegetation is tall or short)<br><br>7: 'B' (soil boron concentration (mg kg^-1)<br>'boron_short_tall_7 Nov 2024 17h45_RvM_GM' contains <br>

我在南非的20个研究点采集了无树和有树景观的表层土壤（0-2厘米）——这些区域至少三十年来未进行过树木砍伐作业——共收集762份样本。土壤样本经风干后过筛，保留粒径小于2毫米的部分。采用电感耦合等离子体质谱法（Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry）分析硼元素（热水提取物）。我选择仅采集表层2厘米土壤，因为树苗与草本植物的初始竞争很可能受该层养分有效性的深刻影响。"Boron data_18 Nov 2024_AS.xlsx"包含南非草原、凡波斯（fynbos）和稀树草原的土壤硼元素测量数据，包含以下8列：1：'ID'（样本唯一标识符）<br><br>2：'Biome'（标识样本来源的生物群系：草原、凡波斯或稀树草原）<br><br>3：'Area'（样本采集的广域区域）<br><br>4：'Site'（样本采集的精确地点）<br>5：'Status'（样本点环境条件的附加信息）<br><br>6：'Condition'（植被高度：高或矮）<br><br>7：'B'（土壤硼浓度，单位：mg kg^-1）<br>"boron_short_tall_7 Nov 2024 17h45_RvM_GM"包含 <br>