This is the 2008 CSP PLFA data from a subset of 12 CSPs representing the age gradient. Samples were analyzed over the depth profile of each CSP (see detailed methods below) and analyzed for phospholipid fatty acid profiles, which represent both the biomass and broad community structure of the soil microbial community including broad groups of bacteria and fungi. The point of this study was to characterize the microbial community of the CSPs, as well as to determine which factors most influence microbial community dynamics, including forest age and other factors. This dataset includes the abundance for separate lipid fractions.

A subset of 12 CSPs were selected according to an successional age and a diversity gradient; based on the original age classifications which were later changed: young (CSPs 16,17,25,26), medium (CSPs 1,5,8,9) and old (CSPs 2,4,12,13). At each CSP, samples were originally taken by SP6 at 5 cm intervals down to 50 cm, and then combined according to soil horizons. For each depth, samples were taken from all 9 subplots then combined into one pooled sample.

The Gutianshan National Nature Reserve (NNR) is located in the western part of Zhejiang Province (29º8'18" – 29º17'29" N, 118º2'14" – 118º11'12" E, Fig. 1). The Gutianshan NNR has an area of approximately 81 km2 and was initially established as a National Forest Reserve in 1975 and became a National Nature Reserve in 2001. The NNR comprises a large portion of broad-leaved forests of advanced successional stages (Hu & Yu 2008), which have not been managed since the beginning of the 1990ies, as well as young successional stages and conifer plantations, mainly of Cunninghamia lanceolata and Pinus massoniana. --- The vegetation is composed of different types of subtropical evergreen and mixed broad-leaved forests (Yu et al. 2001). Most of the stands are secondary forests, evidenced by maximum tree ages of 180 years, by agricultural terraces in almost all plots and by the presence of charcoal in almost all soil profiles. Around the Gutianshan NRR extensive deforestation has occurred during the Great Leap Forward in the 1950s, as in most parts of Southeast China. However, due to prevailing steep slopes, the Gutianshan area was only marginally usable for agricultural activities, and thus an exceptionally intact forest cover has been preserved. --- The climate at Gutianshan NNR is warm and temperate with a short dry season in November and December and with warm summers. The climatic conditions are characteristic for the subtropics with an annual average temperature of 15.1°C, January minimum temperatures of -6.8°C, July maximum temperatures of 38.1°C and an accumulated temperature sum (≥ 5°C) of 5221.5 degree days.

Samples were taken in August and September 2008 from the CSPs, taken to Germany, and analyzed in the laboratory afterward (over the next several months).

bacterial or fungal communities based on lipid indicators, the fungal to bacterial ratio, or total microbial biomass (lipid biomass). See column descriptions for more detail about individual lipid indicators.

This data was from the PhD thesis of Yuting Wu, the initial data was generated before Jessica Gutknecht was at the UFZ (with Francois Buscot, Uwe Lange, and Tesfaye Wubet), and all calculations, interpretation, and manuscript writing were performed after Jessica Gutknecht was there. Methods used for analysis changed for all the work performed by SP13, so methods used for this dataset should only be noted for this dataset.

Microbial biomass: all lipids less than 20 carbons in length were summed to give the total biomass. Lipids were otherwise used according to specific microbial indicator groups and either the abundance (nmol lipid g dry wt-1) or in relative abundance (abundance divided by total lipid biomass). Data were then analyzed in R using multivariate (NMDS) or univariate (co-variate regressions and ANOVA) methods. The columns of CSP name, depth, and horizon name are explanitory variables, the response columns are the lipid biomass, fungal to bacterial ratio, and the individual fatty acid indicators --- note that the age classes analyzed here are not the most current age classes. They were changed, but analysis was already deep underway on the paper at that point.