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

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 [...]