From leaf to soil: n-alkane signal preservation, despite degradation along an environmental gradient in the tropical Andes.

Data presented in the manuscript "From leaf to soil: n-alkane signal preservation, despite degradation along an environmental gradient in the tropical Andes.”Data file consists of three tabs: reference information of the publication, n-alkane concentration of all (leaf, necromass and soil) samples, and the metadata of the sites. Data tab contains permanent plot code (PLOT), altitude (ALT, in m above sea level), mean annual temperature (MAT, in Celsius) and mean annual relative air humidity (RH, in %). Annual precipitation (AP, in mm) was obtained from the CHELSA dataset (Karger et al., 2017). Data tab also contains sample field code (SAMPLEID), sample type (TYPE), grams of dried sample extracted (WEIGHT), carbon content (C, in % of sample, estimated for leafy material). The n-alkanes (C23-C33) and total n-alkane concentration (CONw) are given in ng/g of dried sample. Average chain length (ACL), the C31/(C31+C29) ratio (RATIO) and CPI are all unitless and were calculated using the equations in the main article, based on the n-alkane concentrations data.The second tab contains the permanent plot code (PLOT), the natural reserve in which the plot is situated (RESERVE), altitude (ALT) in m above sea level, and the site latitude (LAT) and longitude (LONG) coordinates.