January 15, 2025 Dataset Open Access

VSC lignin monomers, and hydrolysable neutral sugars in soils of Mount Kilimanjaro

Joscha N. Becker; Michaela A. Dippold; Emanueli M. Ndossi; Yakov Kuzyakov; Bahar S. Razavi; Sandra Spielvogel

This dataset includes data from soil organo-chemical analyses conducted on the southwestern slope of Mount Kilimanjaro (3°4’33’’S; 37°21’12 E). Soil samples from seven research plots from 951 to 4190 m a.s.l.: A colline savanna (SAV), located below 1000 m a.s.l; grassland (GRA), located on the lower montane zone (1660 m a.s.l.); lower montane forest (FLM) at 1920 m a.s.l., dominated by Macaranga kilimandscharica, Agauria salicifolia; forest dominated by Ocotea usambarensis and Cyathea manniana (FOC) at 2120 m a.s.l.; podocarpus latifolius, Prunus Africana and Hagenia abyssinica dominated forest (FPO) at 2850 m a.s.l.; sub-alpine erica forest (FER) at 4000 m a.s.l.; alpine Helichrysum cussion vegetation (HEL) at 4200 m a.s.l.

Soil Samples

• 7 elevation zones (951 - 4190 m a.s.l.)
• 3 independent field replicates per elevation zone
• Sampling depth: 0-10 cm

Methods

• Lignin phenols: alkaline cupric oxide oxidation (Hedges and Ertel, 1982))
• Non-cellulosic neutral sugar concentration was analyzed by gas chromatography (Banfield et al. 2018, Prietzel et al., 2013).

Data structure

• The dataset presents processed data as mean values of laboratory duplicates
• Sugars: rhamnose, fucose, ribose, arabinose, xylose, mannose, galactose, glucose [mg*g^-1_soil]
• Sum of sugars per total organic carbon [%]
• Ligning monomers: p-hydroxybenzaldehyde, p-hydroxyacetophenone, vanillin, acetovanillon, p-hydroxybenzoic-acid, syringaldehyde, vanillic-acid, acetosyringon, syringic-acid, p-coumaric-acid, ferulic-acid, vanillyl+syringyl+cinnamyl (VSC) [mg*g^-1_soil]
• Acid-to-aldehyde ratios of vanillyl (Ac-Al-V) and syringyl (Ac-Al-S) [mg*mg^-1]
• VSC per total organic carbon [%]

Reference:

Becker, J.N., Dippold, M.A., Ndossi, E.M., Kuzyakov, Y., Razavi, B.S., Spielvogel, S., 2025. Soil organic matter origin and composition along a 3200 m elevation gradient on Mount Kilimanjaro, CATENA, Volume 258, 2025, 109319, ISSN 0341-8162, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.catena.2025.109319.