Carbon Dynamics Along a Permafrost Gradient at Caribou-Poker Creeks Research Watershed (CPCRW) in Interior Alaska: Specific Leaf Area (SLA) for alder (Alnus crispa) and black spruce (Picea mariana) in a 75x75m spatial domain along a permafrost and vegetation gradient.

This dataset includes depth-resolved soils data from September 2014 coring: soil pH, gravimetric soil moisture, roots/rocks, bulk density, humification indices as determined by FTIR, total elemental composition (carbon, nitrogen, sulfur), depth to mineral horizon, thickness of the moss layer, percent groundcover at the sampling location of several common species, and soil temperature at the time of coring. Project summary: Specific leaf area (SLA, leaf area per unit dry mass) is a key canopy structural characteristic, a measure of photosynthetic capacity, and an important input into many terrestrial process models. Although many studies have examined SLA variation, relatively few data exist from high latitude, climate-sensitive permafrost regions. We measured SLA and soil and topographic properties across a boreal forest permafrost transition, in which forest composition changed as permafrost deepened from 54 to >150 cm over 75 m hillslope transects in Caribou-Poker Creeks Research Watershed, Alaska. This is an exploratory study to begin understanding SLA variation and controls thereof in a non-contiguous permafrost system.