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Carbonate geochemistry dataset of the soil and an underlying cave in the Ozark Plateaus, central United States

Metadata Updated: July 6, 2024

The nature of carbon (C) cycling in the vadose zone where groundwater is in contact with abundant gas-filled voids is poorly understood. The objective of this study was to trace C cycling in a karst landscape using stable-C isotopes, with emphasis on a shallow groundwater flow path through the soil, to an underlying cave, and to the spring outlet of a cave stream in the Ozark Plateaus of northwestern Arkansas. Blowing Spring Cave (BSC) occurs in the Springfield Plateau of the Ozark Plateaus. The cave passage is relatively horizontal, the entrance to BSC is a spring outlet, and no other human-sized entrances into the cave are known to occur. Soils generally are less than 2 to 3 meters thick above the cave and dominated by the Clarksville soil series (loamy-skeletal, siliceous, semiactive, mesic Typic Paleudults). Gas samples for carbon dioxide (CO₂) concentration and isotopic composition (δ¹³C-CO₂) and water samples for dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) concentration and isotopic composition (δ¹³C-DIC) were collected from two suction-cup soil samplers above the cave (L1 and L2) and from within the cave. Cave-sampling locations included a drip-water pool fed by a waterfall in a side-passage of the cave (BS06), two locations along the main passage of the cave stream (BS07 and BS03), and at the spring outlet of the cave stream (BS01). Preliminary, intermittent sampling began in June 2011 and regular, bi-monthly sampling continued from March 2012 to May 2013, including storm-event sampling during high-flow conditions when discharge generally exceeded 0.5 cubic meters per second. This dataset includes inorganic carbon species concentrations and isotopic compositions (CO₂, δ¹³C-CO₂, DIC, δ¹³C-DIC, bicarbonate, carbonate, carbonic acid, and aqueous CO₂), physical water parameters (pH, specific conductance, temperature), calcium, calcite saturation, and stable C isotope equilibrium values (∆DIC-CO₂, εDIC-CO₂(g)) for samples collected at the BSC study site. For a complete description of sampling methods, laboratory analysis, and data analysis, see: Knierim, K.J., 2015. Stable Isotopes as a Tool to Characterize Carbon Cycling and Develop Hydrologic Budgets in Mantled Karst Settings (Dissertation). University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, Arkansas.

Access & Use Information

Public: This dataset is intended for public access and use. License: No license information was provided. If this work was prepared by an officer or employee of the United States government as part of that person's official duties it is considered a U.S. Government Work.

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Dates

Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024

Metadata Source

Harvested from DOI EDI

Additional Metadata

Resource Type Dataset
Metadata Created Date June 1, 2023
Metadata Updated Date July 6, 2024
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Maintainer
@Id http://datainventory.doi.gov/id/dataset/1edd9e6fece1b1ba24251ccb0bc780f8
Identifier USGS:58af22ede4b01ccd54f9ef90
Data Last Modified 20200821
Category geospatial
Public Access Level public
Bureau Code 010:12
Metadata Context https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.jsonld
Metadata Catalog ID https://datainventory.doi.gov/data.json
Schema Version https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema
Catalog Describedby https://project-open-data.cio.gov/v1.1/schema/catalog.json
Harvest Object Id 171bfcae-77e1-4311-ac46-562e7c9d3250
Harvest Source Id 52bfcc16-6e15-478f-809a-b1bc76f1aeda
Harvest Source Title DOI EDI
Metadata Type geospatial
Old Spatial -94.224548,36.446014,-94.22037,36.450391
Publisher Hierarchy White House > U.S. Department of the Interior > U.S. Geological Survey
Source Datajson Identifier True
Source Hash 15eeab594f2b00e8b7cf38569219511fc9cf3df2db132f633fef813c639ff10e
Source Schema Version 1.1
Spatial {"type": "Polygon", "coordinates": -94.224548, 36.446014, -94.224548, 36.450391, -94.22037, 36.450391, -94.22037, 36.446014, -94.224548, 36.446014}

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