Agri-ecological dataset from vegetation surveys on organic legume fields in Tuscany, Italy

Abstract

Legumes are becoming increasingly important regarding the transformation of food consumption and production systems towards more sustainability. Apart from supporting and production services, legumes can also enhance biodiversity in agroecosystems. In this dataset, we present results from vegetation surveys of 244 samplings on 32 lentil and chickpea fields of five organic farms in Tuscany, Italy. Centre and edge zones of the fields were surveyed separately. Additionally, the dataset provides a comprehensive summary of the associated management practices applied to the respective fields as well as a characterisation of the site conditions through soil texture, organic matter, local weather data during the legume growing period and the diversity of the field's landscape contexts. This additional extensive characterisation of the management system and environment allows the data to be used for a variety of multivariate analysis on biodiversity and agroecosystems.