Data from: Carbon cycling through plant and fungal herbarium specimens tracks the Suess effect over more than a century of environmental change

Although the anthropogenic decline in atmospheric carbon stable isotope ratios (d13C) over the last 150 years (termed the Suess effect) is well-studied, how different terrestrial trophic levels and modes reflect this decline remains unresolved. To evaluate the Suess effect as an opportunistic tracer of terrestrial forest carbon cycling, this study analyzed the d13C in herbarium specimens collected in Minnesota, USA from 1877-2019. Our results suggest that both broadleaf trees and ectomycorrhizal fungi relied on recent photosynthate to produce leaves and sporocarps, while saprotrophic fungi used carbon fixed from the atmosphere 32-55 years ago for sporocarp construction. The d13C values of saprotrophic fungal collections were also sensitive to the age of their plant C substrate, with sporocarps of twig specialists tracking changes in atmospheric d13C more closely than saprotrophs growing on wood. Collectively, this study indicated that natural history collections can quantitatively track carbon cycling among plants and fungi over time.