Population-level leaf and rhizosphere cation chemistry dataset for Salicornia europaea across 18 natural populations in China
Description
This dataset contains population-level leaf and rhizosphere soil cation chemistry measurements for Salicornia europaea sampled from 18 natural populations across eight provinces of China during the 2024 growing season. For each population, 12 individual plants and their paired rhizosphere soils were sampled (216 plants and 216 paired soils in total). Variables include leaf concentrations of Na, K, Ca, and Mg (g kg⁻¹ dry mass), corresponding rhizosphere soil concentrations of the same four cations, soil pH, soil salinity, geographic coordinates (latitude, longitude, altitude), and biological absorption coefficients (BAC) calculated as leaf/soil concentration ratios for each cation. Cation concentrations were determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy following HF acid digestion (Sparks et al. 2020). Soil pH was measured in 1:5 soil:water suspension; soil salinity was determined gravimetrically as total soluble salts in 1:5 soil:water extract. The dataset supports analyses presented in the manuscript "Active ion regulation drives population-level decoupling of leaf and rhizosphere cation chemistry in Salicornia europaea across China" submitted to Plant and Soil.
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Steps to reproduce
1. Salicornia europaea plants were sampled at the late vegetative to early reproductive stage (August–September 2024) from 18 natural populations across northern and northwestern China. 2. At each population, 12 plants were collected from a 100 m × 100 m sampling area, with paired rhizosphere soil (the soil adhering to roots after gentle shaking). 3. Plant shoot tissue was washed, oven-dried at 65 °C to constant mass, ground, and digested using H₂SO₄–HClO₄ for total cation analysis. 4. Soil samples were air-dried, sieved (<2 mm), and digested using HF–HClO₄ at 121 °C for total cation analysis. 5. Cation concentrations (Na, K, Ca, Mg) were determined by atomic absorption spectrometry with reagent-blank correction. 6. Soil pH was measured in 1:5 soil:water suspension after 30 min equilibration; soil salinity was determined gravimetrically as g kg⁻¹ total soluble salts in 1:5 water extract dried at 105 °C. 7. Biological absorption coefficient (BAC) was calculated separately for each plant–soil pair as BAC = (leaf cation concentration) / (paired rhizosphere soil cation concentration), expressed as a dimensionless ratio. 8. Statistical analyses were performed in Python 3.11 (one-way ANOVA, post-hoc Tukey HSD, Pearson correlation with Holm correction, redundancy analysis, variance partitioning).
Institutions
- Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and GeographyXinjiang, Ürümqi