Soil nutrient fluxes and hot spots in a Mediterranean mixed-conifer forest

We evaluated the spatial and temporal patterns in nutrient HSs in two mixed-conifer forest soils at the Southern Sierra Critical Zone Observatory. The study area is located on the western slope of the southern Sierra Nevada, California, USA. This region experiences a Mediterranean-type climate where mean annual air temperature is 9.8 °C, and mean annual precipitation is 1325 mm y-1, with 35-60% falling as winter snow (Yang et al. 2021). The vegetation is a mixed-conifer forest and soils are derived from granitic parent material.
Ion exchange resin capsules were installed in three-dimensional plots over multiple seasons and years. Data include soil nutrient (phosphate, ammonium, nitrate, sodium, calcium, and magnesium) concentrations (micromole per squared centimeter) and fluxes (micromole per squared centimeter per day), designation of resin locations as soil nutrient hot spots (binary; 0 not identified as a hot spot, 1 identified as a hot spot), volumetric water content (average from 1...