Druridge Bay (Northumberland, UK) pond sediment carbon core data for 40 ponds

The data are from 40 ponds in the Druridge Bay area of Northumberland, UK. A sediment core was taken from each pond (depth of sediment varies 10-30 cm), and the analyses are carried out on the whole core, as ~1 cm slices, focusing on organic carbon. The ponds are characterised by surrounding land use, regularity of drying out and plant communities (based on TWINSPAN groups). The data were collected to (1) quantify organic carbon the the sediments of typical lowland temperate ponds and (2) test differences in the amount of carbon between sets of ponds categorised by land use, plant type and drying regime, which we hypothesised would cause marked systematic differenes in carbon stock