ALBERT

Description: Anaerobically fermented digestates as well as aerobically composted organic substances (OS) are used as valuable organic fertilizers in agriculture. Besides their benefits for plant nutrition and carbon sequestration potential, these amendments are also suspected to interfere negatively with the soil matrix. To compare the relevance of digestates and compost for priming effects and water repellency of soils, a moderate (40m3ha−1) and a threefold (120m3ha−1) amount of digestate derived from mechanically pre-treated silage from 80% maize and 20% sugar beet or 10t and 30t of compost, respectively, was mixed with homogenized samples of a loamy Cambic Luvisol (Ut3) and a sandy Podzol (Ss) in a laboratory experiment. The basal respiration rate (BAS) and the repellency index (RI) of moist (pre-dried to −60hPa) soil-digestate-mixtures (SDM) or soil-compost-mixtures (SCM) were analyzed to determine the effect of digestate and compost on microbial activity and hydrophobicity of soils. Additionally, the content of organic carbon (Corg) was investigated using air-dried and finely milled mixtures. The Ss showed quantitative reduction of Corg in the SDM and SCM and an increased BAS, which could be explained by a beginning priming effect through microbial stimulation. As a result of enhanced OS protection in the Ut3, constant amounts of Corg and a subsequent declined BAS could be detected. The wettability was reduced in both soils; directly in the Ut3 by the supply of amphiphilic components and indirectly in the Ss by increased incorporation of microbial exsudates and mucilages. The supply of higher contents of available organic compounds with digestate and higher amounts of hydrophobic humic acids applied with the compost could be assumed to be the controlling factors decisive for the impact of this amendment on soil wettability. But also the inherent textural composition of the soil controlled the microbial activity and subsequent decomposition and release processes at high degree, since the Ut3 exhibited higher incorporation of OS in finer pores and contributed to the protection against microbial decay.

Description: In this paper, we present and analyze a global database of soil infiltration measurements, the Soil Water Infiltration Global (SWIG) database, for the first time. In total, 5023 infiltration curves were collected across all continents in the SWIG database. These data were either provided and quality checked by the scientists who performed the experiments or they were digitized from published articles. Data from 54 different countries were included in the database with major contributions from Iran, China, and USA. In addition to its global spatial coverage, the collected infiltration curves cover a time span of research from 1976 to late 2017. Basic information on measurement location and method, soil properties, and land use were gathered along with the infiltration data, which makes the database valuable for the development of pedo-transfer functions for estimating soil hydraulic properties, for the evaluation of infiltration measurement methods, and for developing and validating infiltration models. Soil textural information (clay, silt, and sand content) is available for 3842 out of 5023 infiltration measurements (~76 %) covering nearly all soil USDA textural classes except for the sandy clay and silt classes. Information on the land use is available for 76 % of experimental sites with agricultural land use as the dominant type (~40 %). We are convinced that the SWIG database will allow for a better parameterization of the infiltration process in land surface models and for testing infiltration models. All collected data and related soil characteristics are provided online in *.xlsx and *.csv formats for reference, and we add a disclaimer that the database is for use by public domain only and can be copied freely by referencing it. Supplementary data are available at doi:10.1594/PANGAEA.885492. Data quality assessment is strongly advised prior to any use of this database. Finally, we would like to encourage scientists to extend/update the SWIG by uploading new data to it.

Description: In this paper, we present and analyze a novel global database of soil infiltration measurements, the Soil Water Infiltration Global (SWIG) database. In total, 5023 infiltration curves were collected across all continents in the SWIG database. These data were either provided and quality checked by the scientists who performed the experiments or they were digitized from published articles. Data from 54 different countries were included in the database with major contributions from Iran, China, and the USA. In addition to its extensive geographical coverage, the collected infiltration curves cover research from 1976 to late 2017. Basic information on measurement location and method, soil properties, and land use was gathered along with the infiltration data, making the database valuable for the development of pedotransfer functions (PTFs) for estimating soil hydraulic properties, for the evaluation of infiltration measurement methods, and for developing and validating infiltration models. Soil textural information (clay, silt, and sand content) is available for 3842 out of 5023 infiltration measurements (∼ 76%) covering nearly all soil USDA textural classes except for the sandy clay and silt classes. Information on land use is available for 76 % of the experimental sites with agricultural land use as the dominant type (∼ 40%). We are convinced that the SWIG database will allow for a better parameterization of the infiltration process in land surface models and for testing infiltration models. All collected data and related soil characteristics are provided online in *.xlsx and *.csv formats for reference, and we add a disclaimer that the database is for public domain use only and can be copied freely by referencing it. Supplementary data are available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.885492 (Rahmati et al., 2018). Data quality assessment is strongly advised prior to any use of this database. Finally, we would like to encourage scientists to extend and update the SWIG database by uploading new data to it.