Aboveground biomass and species abundances estimated in the Jena-Ecotron experiment

This dataset contains aboveground biomass and species abundances in the Jena-Ecotron Experiment in 2012. This experiment was conducted in the Montpellier European Ecotron (CNRS, France), an advanced controlled environment facility for ecosystem research, and aimed at understanding the impact of plant species richness (4 vs. 16 species) for ecosystem carbon and water fluxes.
The soil monoliths used in this experiment contained plant communities originating from the long- term Jena Experiment (50°57.1' N, 11°37.5' E, 130 m above sea level; mean annual temperature 9.3°C, mean annual precipitation 587 mm) established in May 2002. Twelve plots were selected for the Jena-Ecotron study according to the following criteria: (1) the four functional groups grasses, legumes, small and tall herbs were present, (2) realized species numbers were close to sown species richness, and (3) plots were equally distributed across the experimental field site to account for different soil textures. Large monoliths (2 m² surface area, diameter of 1.6 m, 2 m depth with a weight of 7 to 8 tons) including intact soil and vegetation were excavated in December 2011 and placed in lysimeters. In March 2012, before the start of the vegetation growth, the lysimeters were transported and installed in the Macrocosms platform of the Montpellier European Ecotron.
Aboveground biomass production was determined from a final destructive harvest of the Ecotron experiment by clipping the vegetation at ground level on an area of 90 × 55 cm (=0.495m²) in each experimental unit (23-24 July 2012). Samples were sorted to target (= sown) species and weeds (= species not sown into a particular plot). Detached dead plant material was separated. A portion of the species-specific biomass was separated into leaves, shoot and inflorescences. Shoot biomass was dried at 65°C for 48 hours before weighing.