Soil property data from landscape-scale and identifying candidate soil funcitoning
Description
This dataset contains raw soil physical, chemical, and biological collected across three contrasting landscapes in the Central Highlands of Madagascar. The dataset includes the geographic location of sampling sites, topographic position, geological type, local site (fokontany), landscape type, land cover, soil depth, and replicates. Soil properties include bulk density, soil moisture, pH, total nitrogen, soil organic carbon, Olsen phosphorus, microbial phosphorus, resin phosphorus, and soil texture (clay, silt, and sand). Macrofauna variables include total density, total biomass, taxonomic richness, and Shannon diversity index. Soil samples were collected at three depths (0–10, 10–20, and 20–30 cm), with up to four replicates per sampling site. The dataset is provided as raw observations and includes the original measurements used for the analyses presented in the associated study. All soil samples were collected in the Itasy Region in may/june 2023, in the central highlands of Madagascar. The study area is located approximately between 46°10′– 47°00′ E and 19°25′–19°39′ S. The precise geographic coordinates of individual sampling plots are not provided in the publicly available dataset.