Data from: The Effect of the Frequency of Prescribed Burning on Annual Soil Carbon Balance in a Loblolly-Shortleaf Pine Forest in East Texas

This is the dataset for the manuscript "The Effect of the Frequency of Prescribed Burning on Annual Soil Carbon Balance in a Loblolly-Shortleaf Pine Forest in East Texas". This study reports the effect of prescribed burning frequency on net soil C balance in three loblolly-shortleaf pine stands with different burn frequencies over the past 20 years (with low-intensity ground fires applied (i) annually, (ii) intermittently (every 2-4 years), and (iii) not at all) in Cook's Branch Conservancy, Texas, USA (30.2919 N, 95.6989 W), located in a humid subtropical climate.

The submitted data were collected monthly at study plots (each 730 m²) located in each stand (4 study plots per stand) between 2020 and 2021. Specifically, soil respiration were measured over five pairs of control and root exclusion collars per study plot. Litterfall production was sampled using litter traps with a surface area of 0.86 m² at a height of 0.5 m from three locations within each study plot. Soil samples were collected using a soil core (5.2 cm diameter with 33 cm length) from five locations within each study plot. Subsequently, fine root were extracted using a 1-mm sieve, and then then sorted based on diameter into fine roots (< 2 mm diameter) and coarse roots (> 2 mm diameter), and further categorized as dead and live roots based on color and texture.