Soil and stem xylem water isotope data from two pan-European sampling campaigns

  • Marco M Lehmann* (Corresponding Author)
  • , Josie Geris
  • , Ilja van Meerveld
  • , Daniele Penna
  • , Youri Rothfuss
  • , Matteo Verdone
  • , Pertii Ala-aho
  • , Matyas Arvai
  • , Alise Babre
  • , Philippe Balandier
  • , Fabian Bernhard
  • , Lukrecija Butorac
  • , Simon D. Carriere
  • , Natalie C. Ceperley
  • , Zuosinan Chen
  • , Alicia Correa
  • , Haoyu Diao
  • , David Dubbert
  • , Maren Dubbert
  • , Fabio Ercoli
    • Marius G. Floriancic, Teresa E. Gimeno, Damien Gounelle, Frank Hagedorn, Christophe Hissler, Frederic Huneau, Alberto Iraheta, Tamara Jakovljevic, Nerantzis Kazakis, Zoltan Kern, Karl Knaebel, Johannes Kobler, Jiří Kocum, Charlotte Koeber, Gerbrand Koren , Angelika Kübert, Dawid Kupka, Samuel Le Gall, Aleksi Lehtonen, Thomas Leydier, Philippe Malagoli, Francesca Sofia Manca di Villahermosa, Chiara Marchina, Núria Martinez-Carreras, Nicolas Martin-StPaul, Hannu Marttila, Aline Meyer Oliveira, Gaël Monvoisin, Natalie Orlowski, Kadi Palmik-Das, Aurel Persoiu, Andrei Popa, Egor Prikaziuk, Cécile Quantin, Katja T Rinne-Garmston, Clara Rohde, Martin Sanda, Matthias Saurer, Daniel Schulz, Michael P. Stockinger, Christine Stumpp, Jean-Stéphane Venisse, Lukas Vlcek, Stylianos Voudouris, Björn Weeser, Mark E. Wilkinson, Giulia Zuecco, Katrin Meusburger
*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Stable isotope ratios of hydrogen (δ2H) and oxygen (δ18O) are crucial for studying ecohydrological dynamics in forests. However, most studies are confined to single sites, resulting in a lack of large-scale isotope data for understanding tree water uptake. Here, we provide a first systematic isotope dataset of soil and stem xylem water collected during two pan-European sampling campaigns at 40 beech (Fagus sylvatica), spruce (Picea abies), or mixed beech-spruce forest sites in spring and summer 2023 (Lehmann et al., 2024). The dataset is complemented by additional site-, soil-, and tree-specific metadata. The samples and metadata were collected by different researchers across Europe following a standardized protocol. Soil samples were taken at up to 5 depths (ranging from 0 to 90 cm) and stem xylem samples from three beech and/or spruce trees per site. All samples were sent to a single laboratory, where all analytical work was conducted. Water was extracted using cryogenic vacuum distillation and analyzed with an isotope laser spectrometer. Additionally, a subset of the samples was analyzed with an isotope ratio mass spectrometer. Data quality checks revealed a high mean total extraction efficiency, mean absolute water amount (> 1 mL), as well as high analytical accuracy and precision. The water isotopic signature of soil and stem xylem water varied as a function of the geographic origin and changed from spring to summer across all sites. While δ2H and δ18O values were strongly correlated, the soil water data plotted closer to the Global Meteoric Water Line (GMWL) than the stem xylem water. Specifically, the δ2H values of the stem xylem were more enriched than those of the soil water, leading to a systematic deviation from the GMWL. Isotopic enrichment of the stem xylem water was larger for spruce than for beech trees at mixed forest sites. This dataset is particularly useful for large-scale studies on plant water use, ecohydrological model testing, and isotope mapping across Europe.
Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)6129–6147
Number of pages19
JournalEarth System Science Data
Volume17
Issue number11
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 14 Nov 2025

Bibliographical note

The WATSON sampling campaign core organization and writing team consisted of Marco M. Lehmann (MML), Josie Geris (JG), Ilja van Meerveld (IvM), Daniele Penna (DP), Youri Rothfuss (YR) and Katrin Meusburger (KM). The photographs were analysed by Matteo Verdone (MV). Conceptualization: MML, JG, IvM, DP, YR, KM; Data curation: MML, MV; Formal Analysis: MML, JG, IvM, DP, YR, MV, KM; Funding acquisition: MML, JG, IvM, DP, YR, KM; Investigation: MML, JG, IvM, DP, YR, KM; Methodology: MML, JG, IvM, DP, YR, KM; Project administration: MML, JG, IvM, DP, YR, KM; Resources: MML, KM; Validation: MML, JG, IvM, DP, YR, KM; Visualization: MML, JG, IvM, DP, YR, KM; Writing – original draft: MML, JG, IvM, DP, YR, KM; Writing – review and editing: all authors.

Data Availability Statement

All data is freely available under the agreement “Creative Commons Zero – No Rights Reserved (CC0 1.0)” in the data repository EnviDat (Lehmann et al., 2024). https://doi.org/10.16904/envidat.542.

Funding

This study was financially supported by the COST Action: “WATSON” CA19120 (https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA19120, last access: 6 November 2025). The extraction of the water and isotope analyses were financially supported by the Swiss National Science Foundation (“TreeWater”, grant no. 205492; “InsightForest”, grant no. 213367) and by WSL (“Innovative project Oxygen17”). Alicia Correa was supported by the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) from funds of Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation (BMZ), SDGnexus Network (grant no. 57526248). Aurel Persoiu and Andrei Popa were supported by UEFISCDI Romania (grant nos. PN-III-P2-2.1-PED-2019-4102 and PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2020-2723). Maren Dubbert received funding by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (grant no. 501530203) and by the Leibniz collaborative excellent grant (grant no. K444/2022), supporting Alberto Iraheta, Charlotte Koeber, and Clara Rohde. Katja Rinne was funded by the Academy of Finland (grant no. 343059). Research part at University of Oulu was supported by Research Council of Finland (grant nos. 347348 and 356043), and Marie Skłodowska-Curie Postdoctoral Fellowship (grant no. 101111527). Lukas Vlcek acknowledges funding by Czech Science Foundation (grant no. 22-12837S). Jiri Kocum was supported by the Czech Academy of Sciences (RVO: grant no. 67985874) and Faculty of Science, Charles University in Prague (SVV grant no. 244-260694).

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    • Soil and stem xylem water isotope data from two pan-European sampling campaigns

      Lehmann, M. (Creator), Geris, J. (Creator), van Meerveld, I. (Creator), Penna, D. (Creator), Rothfuss, Y. (Creator), Verdone, M. (Creator), Ala-aho, P. (Creator), Arvai, M. (Creator), Babre, A. (Creator), Balandier, P. (Creator), Bernhard, F. (Creator), Butorac, L. (Creator), Carriere, S. D. (Creator), Ceperley, N. C. (Creator), Chen, Z. (Creator), Correa, A. (Creator), Diao, H. (Creator), Dubbert, D. (Creator), Dubbert, M. (Creator), Ercoli, F. (Creator), Floriancic, M. G. (Creator), Gimeno, T. E. (Creator), Gounelle, D. (Creator), Hagedorn, F. (Creator), Hissler, C. (Creator), Huneau, F. (Creator), Iraheta, A. (Creator), Jakovljevic, T. (Creator), Kazakis, N. (Creator), Kern, Z. (Creator), Knaebel, K. (Creator), Kobler, J. (Creator), Kocum, J. (Creator), Koeber, C. (Creator), Koren , G. (Creator), Kubert, A. (Creator), Kupka, D. (Creator), le Gall, S. (Creator), Lehtonen, A. (Creator), Leydier, T. (Creator), Malagoli, P. (Creator), Manca di Villahermosa, F. S. (Creator), Marchina, C. (Creator), Martinez-Carreras, N. (Creator), Martin-StPaul, N. (Creator), Marttila, H. (Creator), Meyer Oliveira, A. (Creator), Monvoisin, G. (Creator), Orlowski, N. (Creator), Palmik-Das, K. (Creator), Persoiu, A. (Creator), Popa, A. (Creator), Prikaziuk, E. (Creator), Quantin, C. (Creator), Rinne-Garmston, K. T. (Creator), Rohde, C. (Creator), Sanda, M. (Creator), Sauer, M. (Creator), Schulz, D. (Creator), Stockinger, M. P. (Creator), Stumpp, C. (Creator), Venisse, J.-S. (Creator), Vlcek, L. (Creator), Voudouris, S. (Creator), Weeser, B. (Creator), Wilkinson, M. (Creator), Zuecco, G. (Creator) & Meusburger, K. (Creator), EnviDat, 27 Aug 2024

      DOI: 10.16904/envidat.542

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