Wetland plant functional trait responses to experimental warming and flooding, Yukon-Kuskokwim Delta (Western Alaska, USA) (2022-2023)

This dataset was created to understand plant trait responses to warming and flooding in the Yukon-Kuskokwim (Y-K) Delta (western Alaska, USA). We conducted a two-year field experiment in which we passively increased temperatures, simulated periodic tidal flooding at two intensity levels (low and high) during the 2022 and 2023 summer growing season. Our treatments reflect changes expected in the Y-K Delta in the next 10-20 years. We conducted the experiment in a wet sedge-shrub meadow and only sampled the dominant species in this community. At the end of the 2023 season, we measured economics traits (specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content, specific stem density) and size-related traits (height, leaf area, leaf thickness) in four focal species: the dominant sedge Carex rariflora, the dominant deciduous dwarf-shrub Salix fuscescens, the most abundant grass, Calamagrostis canadensis, and the most abundant forb, Potentilla palustris. We also measured additional traits related to seasonal growth, reproduction, and reproductive phenology to capture species temporal responses to warming and flooding in the two most dominant species. These included vegetative height over time, number of reproductive structures, reproductive structure length, reproductive shoot height (Carex only), and reproductive phenological stages (Salix only).