Soil chemical, microbial properties and CO2 flux under low and high compost application rates in Albic Retisols (Moscow region, Russia)

The database of a field experiment on the application of low (30 Mg ha⁻¹) and high (70 Mg ha⁻¹) rates of compost to Albic Retisols at the experimental station in the Moscow Region (mixed forest zone, 55.631902°N, 36.950092°E). The soil property dataset presents the following: pHw measured in suspension, total carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) content, microbial biomass carbon (MBC) and basal respiration rate (BR) for the topsoil (0–10 cm) and subsoil (10–30 cm) layers. Soil sampling was carried out in autumn 2022 and 2023, i.e. five months and one-and-a-half years after the single compost application (June 2022). The experimental design includes: 1 control plot (no compost application) and 2 treated plots (two compost application rates) × 4 plots with different crop systems (aubergine/beetroot, courgette/potato, tomato/courgette, and cabbage/bare fallow in 2022/2023) × 4 replicates × 2 years × 2 soil layers. Thus, the total dataset includes 192 observations. The soil CO2 flux dataset presents values of soil respiration, soil temperature and air temperature measured from June to September 2023 at the study sites. This dataset contains 705 observations.