A dataset of water pH and total dissolved solid contents of Chinese Ecosystem Research Network during 2004–2016

The pH and salinity of water are important monitoring indicators of the Chinese Ecosystem Research Network (CERN), which can provide important data for the study of long-term changes of water within ecosystems. The pH of precipitation can indicate whether it is acid deposition or not. Besides, the pH of surface water and groundwater pH determines whether water quality is harmful to plant growth and drinking by animals. Furthermore, salinity is an indicator of the total soluble solids content in water, which also affects the water absorption by plant roots and the survival distribution of animals. This dataset consists of pH and salinity of precipitation, surface water, groundwater data from 33 field stations in five ecosystem of CERN (agro-ecosystem, forest, desert, grassland and marsh) from 2004 to 2016. The dataset can provide data for the analysis of temporal variation and spatial pattern of acidity and salinity of precipitation, surface water and groundwater. It can also provide data for studying the long-term changes of water quality, pH and salinization in typical ecosystems in China.