A time-series of leaf-level optical hyperspectral reflectance captured using a leaf-clip and handheld spectrometer for 17 herbaceous species typical of chalk grassland habitat in Kent UK, over 13 sampling dates in 2021. Data were collected using a non-imaging spectrometer manufactured by Spectra-vista Corporation fitted with a leaf-clip; capturing reflectance from 350 - 2500nm. Funded by NERC Grant NE/L002566/1.

Vascular plant and bryophyte survey data from a 33-year chronosequence on bare chalk, used to investigate primary succession. The bare chalk plots were created from archaeological excavations on Down Farm, north Dorset, between the years 1986 and 2018, resulting in 13 different plots. The vascular plant survey was carried out in July 2019 using 50 cm x 50 cm quadrats. Quadrats were recorded every 1 m along a 16 m transect in each of the 13 plots. The bryophyte survey was carried out in February 2020 using 20 cm x 20 cm quadrats, along the same transects for 11 of the 13 plots. Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/358eb380-74a0-4acd-9df2-696fdf13a6d7

The dataset contains carbon dioxide and methane emissions, as well as resorufin production (as a proxy for microbial metabolic activity) and dissolved oxygen concentrations, resulting from laboratory incubation experiments of streambed sediments. The sediments were collected from the upper 10 centimetres of the streambed in the River Tern and the River Lambourn in September 2015, with three samples collected from each river. These samples were collected from three areas: silt-dominated sediment underneath vegetation (fine), sand-dominated sediment from unvegetated zones (medium) and gravel-dominated sediment from unvegetated zones (coarse). The sediment was used in laboratory incubation experiments to determine the effect of temperature, organic matter content, substrate type and geological origin on streambed microbial metabolic activity, and carbon dioxide and methane production. The work was carried out as part of a Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) funded PhD (NERC award number 1602135). The work was also part funded through the Seventh Framework Programme (EU grant number 607150). Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/3a0a5132-797c-4ed5-98b9-1c17eaa2f2b7

This dataset contains in-stream measurements of sediment porewater nutrients, nitrification rates (and the fraction which is either fully oxidised to nitrate or reduced to N2 gas), and the abundance of microbial 16S rRNA and specific N-cycling genes and transcripts. Sediments were sampled in winter (February 2018) and summer (July 2018), from 12 UK rivers with permeable beds (sand or chalk geology) and a gradient of P concentrations, in the Hampshire Avon catchment, Kent, and Essex. Methods included measurements of porewater nutrients using Skalar SAN++AutoAnalyser, nitrification rates from in-situ ‘push-pull’ injections of 15N-labelled ammonia and -nitrite, and sediment microbial gene and transcript abundance by DNA extraction and qPCR. The work was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (Grants NE/P01142X/1, NE/P011624/1; A new dynamic for Phosphorus in RIverbed Nitrogen Cycling - PRINCe Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/d432d96c-7aff-45a5-9d4b-37e4065afdd7