Nutrients from spawning salmon influence leaf area, tissue density, and nitrogen-15 in riparian plant leaves

Nutrient subsidies have significant impacts on ecosystems by connecting disjunct habitats, often through long distance animal migrations. Salmon migrations on the North Pacific coasts provide these kinds of nutrient subsidies from senescent fish at the end of their life cycle, which can have significant ecological effects on terrestrial species. This can include impacts on individuals, populations, and communities, where shifts in community composition towards nitrophilic plant species have been documented. We investigated the effects of variation in salmon spawning density on the leaf traits of four common riparian plant species on the central coast of British Columbia, Canada. We found that all plant species had higher foliar salmon-derived nitrogen on streams with a higher spawning density. Three of the four species had larger leaves, and one species also had higher leaf mass per area on streams with more salmon. However, we found no differences in leaf greenness or foliar percent ni..., , , # Nutrients from spawning salmon influence leaf area, tissue density, and nitrogen-15 in riparian plant leaves

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.p5hqbzkwk](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.p5hqbzkwk)

This data set is associated with the collection of field and lab data on riparian plant traits in Haíɫzaqv Territory on the Central Coast of British Columbia, Canada. Leaves from multiple species of riparian were collected from 14 different salmon-bearing rivers that vary in spawner abundance. Within the 14 different rivers, we used a stratified random sampling approach to collect leaf samples from these plants across four different reaches, or strata, and four different sites within each strata (up to 16 sites per stream). These leaf samples were collected from within multiple quadrats at each site. The leaves were measured for leaf nitrogen-15, percent nitrogen, leaf mass per area, leaf greenness, and leaf area. Several environmental covariates at the site of field collection were also measur...