A systematic review dataset of Soil Organic Carbon (SOC) under different land uses and forms of land use change in the British Isles, measured between 1955-2021.

These data are soil organic carbon (SOC) values under different land uses and forms of land use change, extracted from scientific papers from the British Isles identified during a systematic review. SOCba data are measurements taken before and after land use change at the same site, to allow for assessments of land use change effects. SOClc data are SOC measurements taken from different types of land use that did not undergo land use change, allowing for comparisons between them. Contextual information including author, publication year, journal, type of study (research or modelling), sample location and sample depth, alongside the type of value (mean, median, range) and SOC (stock or concentration). Details on the type of land use change and implications for SOC are then given, e.g. the land use type before and after conversion, direction of change in SOC, and actual SOC values (before and after) in standardised units. The original value and unit of measurement are also provided in the dataset. The difference in SOC values (i.e., before – after values) is also included. for SOCba data.