Full data of basal area increment of E. grandis trees, rainfall, temperature, vapor pressure deficit, and soil water content, collected in fortnightly periods, by treatment of fertilization and water regime.
Description
This data contains the basal area increment, meteorological variability and soil water content, collected in fortnightly periods over two years (october 2013 to october 2015) from a throughfall exclusion experiment set up in Itatinga, São Paulo State-Brazil to study the effects of potassium (K) and sodium (Na) fertilization and their interaction with water supply in the growth of Eucalyptus grandis trees over an abnormal season of 6 months of extreme drought in comparison with that in normal seasons, as well as the differences in responsiveness to intra-annual meteorological variability. Arranged in a split-plot design, the factors were water supply (37% throughfall exclusion versus no throughfall exclusion) and fertilization regime (K, Na, and control). We hypothesize that, over normal rainy and dry seasonal periods, K and Na fertilization would promote high growth rates, increasing the basal area growth up to three to four-fold. Over an abnormal dry season, characterized by a severe drought, the positive effects of K and Na fertilization on basal area increment would be suppressed and a lower cumulative basal area than that in K and Na deficient trees would be observed. We expected that 37% throughfall exclusion would decrease tree growth independent of fertilization regime and climatic conditions. Finally, we hypothesized that K and Na fertilization would significantly increase the responsiveness of trees to intra-annual meteorological variability.