This is a comprehensive dataset on microbial abundance, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and total nitrogen (TN) for glaciers on the TP based on extensive field sampling from 2010. The dataset comprises 5,409 microbial abundance records of ice cores and snow pits from 12 glaciers and 2,532 DOC and TN records of five habitats, including ice core, snow pit, surface ice, surface snow, and proglacial runoff, from 38 glaciers. These glaciers covered broad areas and diverse climate conditions with a multiyear average temperature ranging from -13.4 ℃ (the Guliya glacier) to 2.9 ℃ (the Zhuxigou glacier) and multiyear average precipitation ranging from 76.9 mm (the No.15 glacier) to 927.8 mm (the 24K glacier), which makes this dataset suitable for studies across the entire TP. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first dataset of microbial abundance and TN in glaciers on the TP, and also the first dataset of DOC in ice cores on the TP. These new data could provide valuable information for researches on the glacier carbon and nitrogen cycle and assessing the potential impacts of glacier retreat due to global warming on downstream ecosystems.

File naming and required software

The data is stored in Excel format, and the contents of each file are:
1. Glacier-info.xlsx: glacier name and location
2. Icecore-info.xlsx：information about ice-core sampling points
3. Snowpit-info.xlsx：information about snow-pit sampling points
4. Microbial abundance-ice core.xlsx: microbial abundance in ice cores
5. Microbial abundance-snow pit.xlsx: microbial abundance in snow pits
6. DOC-TN-ice core.xlsx: DOC and TN concentrations in ice cores
7. DOC-TN-sonw pit.xlsx: DOC and TN concentrations in snow pits
8. DOC-TN-surface snow ice.xlsx: DOC and TN concentrations in surface ice and snow
9. DOC-TN-runoff.xlsx: DOC and TN concentrations in proglacial runoff

Data Citations Data citation guideline What's data citation?

Cite as:

Liu, Y. (2021). Dataset of microbial abundance, dissolved organic carbon, and total nitrogen in Tibetan Plateau glaciers. A Big Earth Data Platform for Three Poles, DOI: 10.11888/Cryos.tpdc.271841. CSTR: 18406.11.Cryos.tpdc.271841. (Download the reference： RIS | Bibtex )

Using this data, the data citation is required to be referenced and the related literatures are suggested to be cited.

Support Program

Second Tibetan Plateau Scientific Expedition Program

Copyright & License

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License： This work is licensed under an Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)