Aboveground plant traits along elevation gradients on disturbed and undisturbed sites in three valleys of the Central European Alps

As the European Alps are highly affected by climate change which leads to higher number of heavy rainfall events and degradation of permafrost. These changes can lead to disturbance by geomorphic processes, which can affect vegetation development. The objective of the study of Kinzner et al. (2026) was to analyse the effects of disturbance on vegetation cover and species richness and to assess the response of individual species and plant groups. We sampled, when possible, plants in plot pairs with similar topographic conditions with low distance. There we collected the five most abundant species per undisturbed and disturbed plot to measure the interspecific variability in traits as well as the three most abundant species occurring both in the undisturbed and the disturbed plot to account for the intraspecific variability. The sampled plant individuals were wrapped on site in wet paper towels and kept sealed in plastic bags. Until measurements in the laboratory they were stored in the freezer. We measured plant height, leaf dry weight, leaf area, and the SLA (specific leaf area) as they are correlated to functional strategies under geomorphic stress. The traits were measured according to Pérez-Harguindeguy et al. 2013: Plant height (cm) was measured for rosette plants as the maximum height of the rosette leaves, and for herbaceous plants as the length from the root base to the upper boundary of the photosynthetic tissue. For measuring the leaf area (mm²) three to five representative leaves from each individuum were scanned and their area was measured using the image analysis software 'ImageJ' version 1.8.0 (Schneider et al., 2012). The scanned leaves were dried at 80 °C for a minimum of 72 hours and stored at 60 °C until weighing. For weighing we used an analytical balance (Sartorius 124-1S) or in case of very low leaf weights a precision balance (Kern EG 220-3NM). Very low weighted leaves were measured five to 10 leaves together, and the mean weight was calculated afterwards. The SLA (mm²mg-1) was calculated as the ratio of leaf area and leaf dry weight.