Crop growth and aphid populations in winter wheat fields from across Europe

This is the dataset used for the paper �Enhancing soil organic matter as a route to the ecological intensification of European arable systems� published in the journal Ecosystems. It contains data on aphid abundance, crop morphology and yield from 84 wheat fields across Europe including from the UK, Sweden, Poland, Germany and the Netherlands. The dataset is made up of 3 parts. The first covers data for three aphid species provided as 'Aphid days per tiller' as a measure of pest pressure. Data on aphid numbers were collected on crop searches across experimental plots three times during the growing season. The second contains data on crop morphology provided as tiller mass and ear mass as well as yield in tonnes per hectare. All were collected as sub-samples at harvest and oven-dried before weighing. Thirdly data on a cage study is provided and involved inoculation and caging of sub-plots of crop with S. avenae aphids followed by population growth assessments after 5 days. Experimental treatments in the study include nitrogen fertiliser application and low and high soil organic carbon. See manuscript for full experimental details.