NEON Biorepository Terrestrial Plant Collection (Canopy Foliage)

Canopy foliage collected from NEON terrestrial sites and archived as oven-dried material. Sampling Once every five years Coordinated with AOP remote-sensing flights Subset of Distributed and Tower Base Plots sampled Methods Sunlit canopy vegetation targeted Woody systems: at least one sunlit individual per canopy species; replicates for common species across site gradients (e.g., topography, aspect, stand age); rare species where feasible Herbaceous systems: bulk herbaceous biomass collected using randomly positioned clip strips within assigned plots (not sorted to species) Site sample count proportional to canopy diversity Preservation Foliage cleaned, measured for leaf mass per area (LMA), oven-dried and weighed < 2.7 g chemically analyzed only; ≥2.7 g chemically analyzed; excess material ground and archived Stored at room temperature in 20 mL HDPE scintillation vials