Plant wax n-alkanoic acid and n-alkane carbon chain-length distributions and stable carbon and hydrogen isotope ratio data from terrestrial Arctic vegetation (2003-2021)

This dataset accompanies a manuscript submitted to Biogeosciences (https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3849).
Terrestrially-derived plant waxes and their compound-specific stable carbon (δ13C) and hydrogen (δ2H) isotope ratios are valuable tools for inferring past changes in vegetation and hydrology in sedimentary archives. Such inferences require knowing the ecological (i.e. plant growth form) and environmental (i.e. temperature, precipitation, relative humidity, elevation) mechanisms that govern the production of different plant wax carbon chain-lengths and the fractionation of stable isotopes. These mechanisms, however, are uncertain in the Arctic, limiting our ability to infer past vegetation and hydrology changes. This dataset contains plant wax n-alkanoic acid and n-alkane carbon chain-length abundance, stable carbon isotope ratio, and stable hydrogen isotope ratio data produced from terrestrial vegetation in the Eastern Canadian Arctic and compiled from other published datasets of plants across the Arctic.

本数据集配套一篇提交至《生物地球科学（Biogeosciences）》的手稿，其关联DOI为https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-3849。陆地来源的植物蜡及其化合物特异性稳定碳（δ¹³C）与氢（δ²H）同位素比值，是反演沉积记录中过去植被与水文变化的重要研究工具。此类反演工作需要明确调控不同植物蜡碳链长度生成与稳定同位素分馏的生态机制（即植物生长型）与环境机制（包括温度、降水、相对湿度与海拔）。然而，北极地区的此类机制仍存在不确定性，这限制了我们对过去植被与水文变化的反演能力。本数据集包含加拿大北极东部地区陆地植被来源的植物蜡正构烷酸（n-alkanoic acid）与正构烷烃（n-alkane）的碳链长度丰度、稳定碳同位素比值及稳定氢同位素比值数据，并整合了北极地区其他已发表的植物相关数据集。