Top 30 cm soil C org stocks, isotopic C org signature (13dC) and fine sediment content (silt and clay %) estimated in soil cores sampled in seagrass meadows around Australia [dataset]

This database contains data on top 30 cm soil biogeochemical properties from soil cores (minimum length of 30 cm) sampled in seagrass (n=201 cores) and adjacent unvegetated patches (n=39) around Australia.

Average biogeochemical properties per core along with information about type of environment, biotic characteristics and environmental conditions.

In particular, the variables included in sheet 1 are:

- Core ID (column A): core code

- Location (column B): name of the region of the sampling site.

- Latitude / Longitude (columns C, D): latitude and longitude

- Bioregion (column E): classified the sampling sites according to their location in Temperate-Southern Oceans and Tropical-Indo Pacific, following Short et al. (2007) classification.

- Coastal geomorphic setting (column F): classified sampling sites in estuarine settings, if influenced by riverine inputs, or coastal settings, in case located in open waters, no influence by rivers.

- Vegetated vs. bare (column G): refers to the vegetated vs. unvegetated condition of the sampling patch.

- Genus (column H): refers to the genus of the dominant species, in the case of vegetated patches.

- Species size (column I): classify vegetated sampling sites by the size of the dominat species in considering species of Posidonia and Amphibolis as large species, and those of Halodule, Halophila, Ruppia, Zostera, Cymodocea and Syringodium as small species (Kiminster et al., 2015).

- Water depth (m) (column J): depth of the sampling site. 0 for intertidal meadows.

- Dominant wind fetch (km) (column K): fetch in the direction of the dominant wind, calculated with ‘fetchR’ package, using the Australian coastline shapefile from GADM database (www.gadm.org, version 2.0) and the dominant wind for each location obtained from the Bureau of Meteorology (http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/data/). Fetch estimations are provided only for coastal locations or outer estuarine locations due to the spatial resolution of the Australian coastline.

- Air Tª (Cº)_Annual avg. (column L): Annual average air temperature from 1995-2005 at the sampling location, extracted from Australian Bureau of Meteorology: http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/climate_averages/temperature/index.jsp.

- Solar exposure (MJ m-2)_Annual avg. (column M): Annual mean solar exposure extracted from 1990-2011, extracted from Australian Bureau of Meteorology:http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/climate_averages/solar-exposure/index.jsp

- Rainfall (mm)_Decadal avg. (column N): Decadal average rainfall from 1996 to 2005 extracted from Australian Bureau of Meteorology: http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/climate_averages/decadal-rainfall/index.jsp?maptype=1&period=9605&product=totals

- Deviation from natural state (column O): index to estimate the level of human pressure, calculated based on the intensity of land use (adapted from Lenzen and Murray 2006). Land use data was obtained from the Australian Bureau of Agriculture and Resource Economics and Sciences.

-Top 30 cm Corg stock (g cm-2) (column P): cumulative soil Corg stocks within the top 30 cm of soil (decompressed depth).

- Top 30 cm_13dC_avg (column Q): average Corg isotopic signature (d13C) within the top 30 cm of soil (decompressed depth).

- Top 30 cm_13dC_SE (column R): standard error of Corg isotopic signature (d13C) within the top 30 cm of soil (decompressed depth).

- Top 30 cm_% Silt & Clay_avg. (column S): average mud content (%) within the top 30 cm of soil (decompressed depth).

- Top 30 cm_% Silt & Clay_SE (column T): standard error of mud content (%) within the top 30 cm of soil (decompressed depth).