Plant trait measurements of species at snowfences around Toolik Lake, Alaska, 2010-2011.

To determine how snow depth impacts the growth of arctic plants, we studied the effect of multiple years of added snow on plant growth by using fences to create snow drifts. We studied nine common plant species, consisting of shrubs and graminoids, to determine how plants distribute their resources among various components (i.e. stems, leaves, branches) under added snow. We sampled from several habitat types near Toolik Lake, Alaska, ranging from low to high shrub biomass to see if species responded differently depending on their environment. Our goal was to understand how deeper snow may contribute to widespread shrub expansion across the Arctic by studying plant biomass allocation patterns; the dataset consists of trait measurements associated with biomass.