Evaluating Nitrate Removal and Travel Times in a Bare Deciduous Forest Soil Using a Tracer-Based Soil Column Experiment

This dataset summarizes the experimental data from a study investigating the relationship between hydrodynamic properties, transport age characteristics (traced using the conservative tracer bromide), and nitrate consumption by native microbial communities in a deciduous forest soil near Lausanne, Switzerland. Experimental Setup Native soil was collected, sieved, and packed into homogeneous soil columns (lysimeters) with a porosity of 0.4. To stimulate microbial activity, the soil underwent carbon amendment for several weeks before the experiment. On June 10, 2021, a pulse of bromide and nitrate (referred to as SPIKE) was applied to the bare soil that had undergone carbon amendment. The dataset covers experimental conditions recorded from May 25, 2021, to August 12, 2021. Included Data & Models SPIKE experiment (pulse of bromide and nitrate) all other files HYDRUS-1D Simulations The dataset includes HYDRUS-1D simulation files to reproduce nitrate and bromide breakthrough curves: 0_Nitrate-double-compartment.zip 0_Bromide-double-compartment.zip Soil Characterization using Multi-Step Outflow (MSOM) Method Before the main experiment, the multi-step outflow method was performed to characterize the soil. The original experimental data was collected at a 15-minute resolution but has been upscaled to hourly resolution to reduce noise and facilitate data handling. multi-step_outflow_method.csv The processed data (at hourly resolution) and HYDRUS-1D inverse modeling simulations for soil parameter estimation are provided under two configurations: config_1_MSOM.zip config_2_MSOM.zip