Testing the biogeochemical niche hypothesis using leaves, stems and roots of 62 Artemisia species across China

The biogeochemical niche (BN) hypothesis is based on the concentrations of the predominant elements of a given organism to be stoichiometrically matched in order for it to function adequately. However, it is unknown how BN is represented by different plant organs and to what extent environment or evolution affects BN. We measured C, N, P, K, Ca and Mg concentrations in leaves, stems and roots of 1,022 individuals of 62 Artemisia species collected across China to quantify BNs of the three organs. The BN of leaves was offset from and smaller in volume than that of stems and roots. BNs of the three organs differed in their sensitivities to environmental gradients, and leaves were less responsive to environmental variation than stems and roots in both BN volumes and positions. Environmental gradients had larger effects on BN positions than on BN volumes of all three organs. The BN volumes and positions of leaves and roots had no phylogenetic signal, while stem BN had a weak signal, i.e. rep..., We sampled Artemisia from of natural communities in 81 sites across China in 2018. At each site, we identified all Artemisia species and collected mature individuals of each species but excluding those with damage or herbivore attack. The depth of the holes dug around the base of the plants was based on the plant size and was sufficiently deep to excavate the whole root system. In total, 1,022 individuals of 62 Artemisia species were sampled. 
Each plant sample was separated into leaf, stem and root, and oven-dried at 65 °C for a minimum of 48 h. The root systems were cleaned with running water on a fine mesh sieve to remove sand, clay, litter and other matter before drying the samples. For element analysis (C, N, P, K, Ca and Mg, units are all mg/g), all leaves, whole stems, and whole roots were ground into fine powders. Total C and N concentrations were determined with an elemental analyzer (Vario Max CN Elemental Analyzer, Elementar, Hanau, Germany). For determination of the concentr..., , # Testing the biogeochemical niche hypothesis using leaves, stems and roots of 62 Artemisia species across China

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.np5hqc045](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.np5hqc045)

## Description of the data and file structure

Elemental concentrations in leaves, stems, and roots of 62 *Artemisia* species across China

### Files and variables

#### File: elemental\_concentrations.csv

**Description:** 

##### Variables

* Organ: plant organs
* Site:  site number
* Species: species name
* NO: replicate of each species
* C: carbon concentration
* N: nitrogen concentration
* Ca: calcium concentration
* K: potassium concentration
* Mg: magnesium concentration
* P: phosphorus concentration