Plant traits and vegetation data from climate warming experiments along an 1100 m elevation gradient in Gongga Mountains, China

• Published in: Scientific data Vol. 7; no. 1; p. 189
• Main Authors: Vandvik, Vigdis, Halbritter, Aud H., Yang, Yan, He, Hai, Zhang, Li, Brummer, Alexander B., Klanderud, Kari, Maitner, Brian S., Michaletz, Sean T., Sun, Xiangyang, Telford, Richard J., Wang, Genxu, Althuizen, Inge H. J., Henn, Jonathan J., Garcia, William Fernando Erazo, Gya, Ragnhild, Jaroszynska, Francesca, Joyce, Blake L., Lehman, Rebecca, Moerland, Michelangelo Sergio, Nesheim-Hauge, Elisabeth, Nordås, Linda Hovde, Peng, Ahui, Ponsac, Claire, Seltzer, Lorah, Steyn, Christien, Sullivan, Megan K., Tjendra, Jesslyn, Xiao, Yao, Zhao, Xiaoxiang, Enquist, Brian J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: London Nature Publishing Group UK 19.06.2020; Nature Publishing Group
• Subjects: 631/158/2165; 631/158/853; 631/449/1870; Altitude; Biodiversity; China; Climate Change; Coverage; Data Descriptor; Dry matter; Ecosystem; Humanities and Social Sciences; Isotopes; Leaf area; Life history; multidisciplinary; Plant Leaves - physiology; Plants; Plants - classification; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Stoichiometry; Temperature; Vegetation; China
• ISSN: 2052-4463; 2052-4463
• DOI: 10.1038/s41597-020-0529-0

Functional trait data enhance climate change research by linking climate change, biodiversity response, and ecosystem functioning, and by enabling comparison between systems sharing few taxa. Across four sites along a 3000–4130 m a.s.l. gradient spanning 5.3 °C in growing season temperature in Mt. Gongga, Sichuan, China, we collected plant functional trait and vegetation data from control plots, open top chambers (OTCs), and reciprocally transplanted vegetation turfs. Over five years, we recorded vascular plant composition in 140 experimental treatment and control plots. We collected trait data associated with plant resource use, growth, and life history strategies (leaf area, leaf thickness, specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content, leaf C, N and P content and C and N isotopes) from local populations and from experimental treatments. The database consists of 6,671 plant records and 36,743 trait measurements (increasing the trait data coverage of the regional flora by 500%) covering 11 traits and 193 plant taxa (ca. 50% of which have no previous published trait data) across 37 families. Measurement(s) leaf growth and development trait • Abundance • leaf area trait • leaf composition trait • leaf morphology trait • Vascular Plant • total biomass yield • climate Technology Type(s) balance • visual observation method • Scanner Device • leaf stoichiometry and isotope assays • weather station Factor Type(s) plants • temperature • plant functional traits (specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content, leaf carbon content, leaf nitrogen content, leaf size, leaf thickness) • type of treatment (e.g in situ warming experiments using an Open Top Chamber) Sample Characteristic - Organism Tracheophyta Sample Characteristic - Environment area of sedge- and forb-dominated herbaceous vegetation Sample Characteristic - Location Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data: https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12033786