Climatic and environmental constraints on aboveground-belowground linkages on the Antarctic Peninsula

From multiple sites over a latitudinal gradient along the Antarctic Peninsula, we collected up to 20 soil and vegetation samples from each of the available aboveground cover types (including moss, grass, fellfield, lichen, and algae). On the samples, we measured:

Soil chemical parameters, including: gravimetric soil water content, inorganic extractable nitrogen (KCl extracts measured on a Lachat autoanalyzer), extractable phosphate (NaHCO3 extracts measured on a TrAAcs), total and organic carbon and nitrogen (measured on an elemental analyzer), pH (1:2 soil solution using pH meter), and electrical conductivity (1:5 soil solution using EC meter)

Soil and vegetation biotic community, including: nematode diversity and abundance (species level), tardigrade and rotifer abundance, microarthropod diversity and abundance (species level), microbial biomass (chloroform fumigation extraction measured on a Shimadzu TOC analyzer), bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequences, fungal ITS1 sequences, and metagenomic sequences