LTER Zöbelboden, Austria, Soil water chemistry 2014

Soil solution was collected at plots with condensed field measurement equipment (so called intensive monitoring plots IP1, IP2 and IP3) at the LTER Zöbelboden site (LTER_EU_AT_003), Austria. IP1 and IP3 are situated on a plateau (850–956 m a.s.l.) and IP2 on a steep north facing slope (30–60°) extending from 850 m down to 550 m a.s.l. Triassic dolomite is the predominant bedrock material, partly interspersed with limestone plate layers. Soils are mainly chromic cambisols or hydromorphic stagnosols on the plateau and lithic or rendzic leptosols with patches of chromic cambisols on the slope.

Soil water (abbreviation in column SUBPROG = SW) was collected at the subsoil – bedrock interface (B/C horizon) using tension plate lysimeters (r = 3 cm) with a double 0.2 µm nylon filter membrane. At IP2, three clusters with each five to six lysimeters (n = 16) cover the heterogeneity of microtopography on soils characterized by Rendzic Leptosols (abbreviation in column MEDIUM = LP), i.e. pit (SCODE=756), mound (SCODE=757) and an intermediary between pit and mound (SCODE=755). At IP3, three clusters with each 3x5 lysimeters (n=45) account for the variety of soil types and soil depths, i.e. (i) Rendzic Leptosols (SCODE= 2957), (ii) Hydromorphic Stagnosols (MEDIUM = PL, SCODE= 2955) and (iii) deep Chromic Cambisols (MEDIUM= CM, SCODE = 2956). Weekly soil water samples from four consecutive weeks were pooled (volume-weighted) and analysed. Samples were solely filtered by the double nylon membrane (0.2 µm) of the lysimeters in the field, except for DOC, which was filtered until 2018.