Regional and local variation in chemical, structural, and physical leaf traits for tree species in the northeastern United States

This dataset is a compilation of leaf trait measurements for tree species in the northeastern United States collected between 2017 and 2022 by the Terrestrial Ecosystems Analysis Lab at the University of New Hampshire. Currently, this dataset contains 1351 samples, including 18 chemical, physical and structural traits collected across 25 different tree species. Traits include stable isotopes for carbon (C) and nitrogen (N), percent C and N, C:N ratio, total chlorophyll (chl), chl a, chl b, chl a:b ratio, leaf mass per area, average leaf dry mass, average leaf area, length, and width, leaf water content, average petiole length and petiole dry mass, and petiole water content. Traits have been measured at plots spanning a wide range of latitude, longitude, elevation, and forest types. A simple table containing these plot descriptions have been included. Leaf physiological and optical traits have been measured concurrently on many of these samples and published separately.