Carbon and Nitrogen Cycling in Forest Ecosystems (CANIF)

CANIF is an investigation of the carbon and nitrogen cycles in coniferous and deciduous forests along a transect of climate and deposition through Europe with emphasis of the biogeochemical cycles and their interaction with biodiversity. CANIF addresses the following questions:

1) What are the processes regulating the carbon and nitrogen cycles of deciduous and coniferous forests in different environments?
2) How do these cycles interact and relate to the function of plants, animals, fungi and microorganisms?

The final report of the CANIF project is available as:
Schulze E-D (ed.). 2000. Carbon and nitrogen cycling in European forest ecosystems, Ecological Studies 142, 500 pp +CD-ROM, Springer: Berlin, Heidelberg, New York.

The data on CD-ROM are free for anyone to use when crediting data products and holders by correct citation. The data are also available for downloading in Excel or Ascii format at [http://www.bgc-jena.mpg.de/bgc-processes/research/canif_cd/readme.html].

Part 1 of the CANIF database contains figures, figure data, and tables from the book.

Part 2 of the CANIF database contains field data for each site in separate files for each study site. The collected data include data on the tree species, field-layer vegetation, soil organic matter, soil data, soil chemistry data, hydrology as well as climatic conditions and deposition data. The databank covers mainly the years 1993-1998, although information from earlier years is also included when available. The data include primary data from the sites. The availability of data varies between the sites depending on the depth of the study.

Part 3 of the CANIF database contains data on abundance and diversity of soil fauna, soil microfungi, and mycorrhizae. These data are given in separate files containing lists of species present and abundances of these species. Data are ordered by groups of organisms; each file contains data for several sites.