Nitrogen and carbon concentrations and stable isotope ratios (δ¹⁵N and δ¹³C) in European moss samples, 2005-2006

This dataset contains nitrogen (N) and carbon (C) concentrations and stable isotope ratios (δ¹⁵N and δ¹³C) measured in moss samples collected across Europe within the framework of the ICP Vegetation programme (International Cooperative Programme on Effects of Air Pollution on Natural Vegetation and Crops, UNECE LRTAP Convention). Moss surveys are conducted every five years and the data presented here correspond specifically to the first sampling campaign, carried out in 2005/2006. During the 2005/2006 European moss survey, approximately 3,000 moss samples were collected at non-urban and semi-natural sites across 16 European countries following a standardized biomonitoring protocol. The dataset used in this study comprises a subset of 1,022 moss samples (approximately 35 % of the total survey), provided by 12 European countries, which were selected for the determination of nitrogen and carbon concentrations and their corresponding stable isotope signatures (δ¹⁵N and δ¹³C). Moss samples collected by each participating country were sent to the Integrated Environmental Quality Laboratory (LICA), Institute for Biodiversity and Environment (BIOMA - University of Navarra), where all chemical and isotopic analyses were subsequently performed under uniform analytical conditions. In addition, this dataset incorporates moss data from Sweden, Croatia and Macedonia for the same sampling year, which were not included in the official ICP Vegetation 2005/2006 dataset. The European moss biomonitoring network was established to provide a complementary, high spatial resolution and time-integrated measure of atmospheric deposition of nitrogen and other pollutants within terrestrial ecosystems. The approach is based on the ability of ectohydric mosses to accumulate nutrients and trace elements directly from wet and dry atmospheric deposition, enabling dense spatial sampling across large geographical areas. This biomonitoring framework supports the assessment of spatial patterns of atmospheric nitrogen deposition and the evaluation of atmospheric transport and deposition models, including those developed under the EMEP programme (co-operative programme for monitoring and evaluation of the long-range transmission of air pollutants in Europe). The most frequently sampled species were Hypnum cupressiforme (36%), Hylocomium splendens (22%), Pleurozium schreberi (17%) and Scleropodium purum (7%), with the remaining samples corresponding to seventeen additional moss species. Sampling and sample preparation followed the ICP Vegetation protocol for the 2005/2006 survey. The dataset includes georeferenced sampling locations and associated metadata suitable for spatial analyses and reuse in large-scale assessments of atmospheric nitrogen deposition, source attribution and environmental monitoring across Europe. The data described in these metadata served as the dataset for the research article titled “Spatial distribution and isotopic signatures of N and C in mosses across Europe” (Izquieta-Rojano, S. et al., 2025, Sci. Total Environ. 958, 178043,https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.178043).