Soil water release curves and hydraulic conductivity measurements at four long-term grassland-to-woodland land use contrasts across England

This dataset contains soil water release curves and un-saturated hydraulic conductivity measurements from four long-term grassland-to-woodland land use contrasts across England between 2018 and 2021. Each land use contrast was assigned one grassland and one woodland plot respectively. Each of the plots was further divided into three grids (grassland grids 1 to 3 / woodland grids 4 to 6) with grids 1 and 6 being the furthest apart. The four grassland-to-woodland contrasts were located across England and sampled once : Gisburn (Gisburn-1, Gisburn-2), Wytham Woods, and Kielder Forest. Soil water release curves were measured for topsoil (0-5 cm) using the HYPROP system (UMS, Munich, Germany). Soil water infiltration (unsaturated hydraulic conductivity) was measured during soil sampling campaigns. Soil hydraulic measurements in this dataset are collocated with aboveground biomass production estimates and litter layer depth measurements, soil physical, chemical and biological properties (0-1 m), and earthworm counts and identification. A file is provided to connect all co-located measurements. This project was part of the UK-SCAPE programme which started in 2018 and was funded by the Natural Environment Research Council as National Capability (award number NE/R016429/1).