Plant leaf and plant available soil nutrient concentrations of the extensively used meadows and pastures in the Global Change Experimental Facility (GCEF), May 2022

These datasets supplement a study that will soon be published in the journal Ecology and Evolution: Herion, Y., Philipp, L., Detjen, N., Hoffmann, P., Harpole, W. S., Macholdt, J., Reitz, T., Roscher, C. (2025). Grassland management affects plant leaf nutrients under ambient and future climate. Contact persons: Yva Herion, Christiane Roscher, Helmholtz-Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), Department of Physiological Diversity, Permoserstraße 15, 04318 Leipzig, Germany, [e-mail], [e-mail] The Global Change Experimental Facility (GCEF, Central Germany, 51°23'33"N 11°52'59"E, 118 m a.s.l, since 2014) combines climate and land-use treatments including species-rich extensively used meadows (EM, mown two times per year) and pastures (EP, grazed three times per year). In the future climate treatment, daily mean air temperatures are increased by about 0.55 °C at 5 cm height and precipitation amounts are increased by 10 % in spring and fall but decreased by 20 % in summer compared to ambient climate (for more details see Schädler et al. 2019). In spring 2022, youngest but fully expanded leaves of 15 plant species representing three functional groups (grass, legume, non-legume forb) were harvested, dried at 70 °C for 48 hours and milled (MM200, Retsch, Germany). Leaf N concentrations were determined with an elemental analyzer (Vario EL Cube, Elementar Analysensysteme GmbH, Germany) and leaf P, K, Ca, Mg and S concentrations were measured using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (iCAP™ 7400 ICP-OES Analyzer Duo, Thermo Fisher Scientific, USA) after digestion with 65 % nitric acid and 30 % hydrogen peroxide in a microwave (Mars 6, CEM GmbH, Germany). In addition, topsoil samples (0 – 15 cm depth) were taken and sieved to 2 mm. Soil pH values were determined in a calcium chloride solution (0.01 M) and soil mineral N concentrations were measured with a flow injection analyzer (FIAstar 5000, Foss GmbH, Germany) following extraction in a potassium chloride solution (1 M). Plant available soil P and K were extracted with a calcium lactate solution (pH 3.6) and P concentrations were determined with a photometer (Infinite 200 PRO, Tecan Group Ltd., Switzerland) after staining molybdenum blue, while K concentrations were measured using an ion-selective electrode (SevenExcellence pH/Ion meter, Mettler-Toledo GmbH, Germany). Moreover, plant available soil K, Ca and Mg were extracted with an ammonium acetate solution (1 M) and their concentrations were measured using inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (see above).