Dataset for the manuscript entitled "Nickel hyperaccumulation is independent of the leaf economics spectrum, although it may be linked to plant water balance in an ultramafic plant community from Sabah (Malaysia)"

Dataset of a field study on the leaf functional traits of nickel hyperaccumulators growing on ultramafic soils from Sabah (Malaysia).

Four files are included:

"readme.txt" is a file where we explain the meaning of each column (and in which units is expressed) in each of the other four files.

"species_list.csv" is a table with the scientific names, the codes and the type (hyperaccumulator or non-hyperaccumulator) of the 15 used species.

"plant_dataset.csv" is a table providing the data on different leaf functional traits (LDMC, SLA, carbon isotope discrimination and concentrations of C, N, Ca, K, Mg, Ni and P).

"soil_dataset.csv" is a table with the pH, water availability parameters, cation exchange capacity and concentrations (pseudototal, exchangeable or DTPA-extractable) of different chemical elements in the soil samples.