Leaf mass area, leaf carbon and nitrogen content of 18 plant species, Seward Peninsula, Alaska, 2023

Leaf mass per area (LMA), and leaf carbon and nitrogen content of Arctic vegetation species from three sites on the Seward Peninsula, Alaska. The plants were sampled in July 2023 from the Kougarok Mile 64, Teller Mile 27 and Council sites as part of an ongoing project to improve the understanding of stomatal conductance and photosynthetic parameterization of Arctic plant functional types (PFTs). Species sampled included deciduous tall and dwarf shrubs, forbs, and graminoids, for a total of 18 species. All sampled leaves were used for gas exchange measurements prior to analysis of LMA and leaf carbon and nitrogen content. The data and metadata files included in this data package are in .csv format. See related dataset NGA509 for leaf-level gas exchange measurements and shrub traits (size, thaw depth, soil moisture).The Next-Generation Ecosystem Experiments: Arctic (NGEE Arctic), was a 15-year research effort (2012-2027) to reduce uncertainty in Earth System Models by developing a predictive understanding of carbon-rich Arctic ecosystems and feedbacks to climate. NGEE Arctic was supported by the Department of Energy's Office of Biological and Environmental Research.The NGEE Arctic project had two field research sites: 1) located within the Arctic polygonal tundra coastal region on the Barrow Environmental Observatory (BEO) and the North Slope near Utqiagvik (Barrow), Alaska and 2) multiple areas on the discontinuous permafrost region of the Seward Peninsula north of Nome, Alaska.Through observations, experiments, and synthesis with existing datasets, NGEE Arctic provided an enhanced knowledge base for multi-scale modeling and contributed to improved process representation at global pan-Arctic scales within the Department of Energy's Earth system Model (the Energy Exascale Earth System Model, or E3SM), and specifically within the E3SM Land Model component (ELM).