Soil boron is relatively depleted in South African landscapes where tree establishment is constrained

I sampled the soil surface (0-2 cm) from treeless and treed landscapes - in which there had been no tree-clearing operations for at least three decades - at 20 sites across South Africa, collecting a total of 762 samples. Soil samples were air-dried and sieved to < 2 mm. Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry was used to analyse B (hot water extract). I opted to sample only the top two centimetres of soil because the initial competition between tree seedlings and grasses is likely to be profoundly influenced by nutrient availability in this layer.

'Boron data_18 Nov 2024_AS.xlsx' contains soil boron measurements from grasslands, fynbos, and savanna across South Africa, with the following eight columns:

1: 'ID' (The unique sample ID)

2: 'Biome' (identifying whether a sample is derived from grassland, fynbos, or savanna)

3: 'Area' (the broader area in which the sample was taken)

4: 'Site' (the precise area in which the sample was taken)

5: 'Status' (additional information on environmental conditions of the sample site)

6: 'Condition' (whether the vegetation is tall or short)

7: 'B' (soil boron concentration (mg kg^-1)

'boron_short_tall_7 Nov 2024 17h45_RvM_GM' contains