The data herein were used to trace the source and depth of nutrient uptake in two mountainous temperate forest ecosystems in southern Germany (Conventwald/Black Forest and Mitterfels/Bavarian Forest). Presented are phosphorus (P) concentrations from various P fractions of soil, saprolite, weathered bedrock and unweathered bedrock samples from drilling cores (depth: 20 m, site Conventwald (CON), and 30 m, site Mitterfels (MIT)) obtained by sequential extractions following the Hedley fractionation method. Further, the dataset contains strontium (Sr) and beryllium (Be) isotope data from drilling cores mentioned above. 87Sr/86Sr data are provided for bulk samples of forest floor, soil, saprolite, weathered bedrock, and unweathered bedrock. For soil and saprolite samples, additional Sr isotope ratios of the water-soluble and the exchangeable Sr fractions are provided.

87Sr/86Sr, beryllium concentrations (measured by Quadrupole-ICP-MS) and 10Be(meteoric)/9Be data from living leaves, needles, and stem wood (heartwood and sapwood of Fagus sylvatica and Picea abies) from both study sites are reported. Beryllium concentrations (measured by ICP-OES) and isotope ratios of amorphous oxides sequentially extracted from soil and saprolite at CON and MIT are provided. Soil pH at CON and MIT is also provided. Compiled concentrations of K, Ca, Mg and P and total deposition rates of atmospheric dust deposition are also included in the dataset.

The data presented here stem from sampling campaigns and analyses described in Uhlig et al. (2020) to which they are supplementary material to. Samples were mainly processed in the Helmholtz Laboratory for the Geochemistry of the Earth Surface (HELGES), the University of Bonn (P Hedley fractionation) and the University of Cologne - Centre for Accelerator Mass Spectrometry (AMS) (10Be measurements).

Tables supplementary to the article, including data quality control, are provided in pdf and xls formats. In addition, data measured in the course of the study are also provided as machine readable ASCII files. All samples are indexed with an International Geo Sample Number (IGSN). Sample metadata can be viewed by adding the IGSN to the “http://igsn.org/” URL (e.g. igsn.org/GFDUH00LT).