Physical, chemical and biological characteristics of soils from the western Wright Vanda (Lake Vanda district), Ross Sea Region, 2006

These data consist of a number of subsets of soil samples gathered from the Wright Valley in January 2006. Replicate randomly-located samples of surface soils to 10 cm depth have been gathered from common landforms in the area. Within the most widespread landforms, the same type of samples have been gathered along transects of increasing distance from Lake Vanda and ... from the banks of the lower Onyx River. For each soil sample, lab-based measurements include: bulk density, texture, moisture content at time of collection, organic carbon (after acidification to remove carbonates) and total nitrogen by Carlo Erba elemental analyzer, ammonium and nitrate (in KCl extraction) by TRAACS auto-analyzer, chlorophyll concentration, CO2 flux at controlled (and varied) temperature and moisture by LiCor 6400, and CO2 fluxes after addition of carbon and nitrogen at controlled temperature and moisture by LiCor 6400. At time of writing this abstract, compilation of data and statistical analysis are not complete. Subsamples of soil samples have been stored at -80C for future analysis of microbial diversity using DNA and RNA probing techniques.