Linking leaf economic traits with forage quality across temperate grasslands under ambient and drought conditions

Intensifying droughts may disrupt grassland services, including the forage provision for herbivores. However, less is known about drought impacts on forage quality. While previous studies have shown that leaf economic traits reflect drought effects on plant communities, whether leaf traits can predict forage quality pattern under drought remains unclear. So, we simulated early- and late-season droughts in three grasslands in the Swiss Jura Mountains over two growing seasons. Early-season drought involved a 70% reduction in ambient precipitation during the first two-month growth cycle of a six-month growing season, while late-season drought reduced same precipitation during the second two-month growth cycle. We collected data on forage quality parameters (protein, minerals, water-soluble carbohydrates, neutral detergent fibre, and acid detergent fibre) and leaf traits [community-weighted mean (CWM) specific leaf area (SLA) and leaf dry matter content (LDMC)]. We used these data to addres..., , # Linking leaf economic traits with forage quality across temperate grasslands under ambient and drought conditions

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.3xsj3txtd](10.5061/dryad.3xsj3txtd)

## Description of the data and file structure

**Study Overview**
This study examined how early- and late-season extreme droughts affect forage quality and community-weighted leaf traits across three grassland sites in the Swiss Jura Mountains—Chéserex (Site A; N 46°24’, E 6°10’), Saint-George (Site B; N 46°30’, E 6°15’), and Trois Chalets (Site C; N 46°53’, E 6°21’)—during the 2015 and 2016 growing seasons.

**Experimental Design**

* **Treatments**:
* Control (normal precipitation all season)
* Early-season drought (first 2 months of growing season)
* Late-season drought (next 2 months)
* **Plot Setup**:
* Each of the three sites had 5 blocks (12 m × 6 m each)
* Each block contained 3 plots (4 m × 0.9 m each), one per treatment, spaced 80 cm apart

**Rainout Shelter System**

* All plots (control...,