Leaf nitrogen and digestibility for tall shrubs, dwarf shrubs, and sedges within ambient, deep, and shallow snow zones of the moist acidic tundra snow fence at Toolik Lake, Alaska, 2017-2018

• Main Authors: Joshua Leffler, A., Richert, Jessica, Welker, Jeffrey
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: NSF Arctic Data Center 2021
• Subjects: leaf nitrogen; digestibility; snow depth; caribou forage; Arctic; Betula nana; Carex bigelowii; Eriophorum; Tundra; Alaska
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.18739/a2ms3k28m; https://arcticdata.io/catalog/view/doi:10.18739/A2MS3K28M

This is a data set contribution from "Nutritional Landscapes of Arctic Caribou: Observations, Experiments, and Models Provide Process-Level Understanding of Forage Traits and Trajectories". These data are part of a long-term snow fence experiment that has created areas of deep snow and shallow snow relative to ambient snow depth nearby. Data were collected during the growing seasons of 2017 and 2018. Data contained within these files include weekly or bi-weekly samples from six species: Salix pulchra, Betula nana, Rhododendron tomentosum, Vaccinium vitis-idaea, Carex bigelowii and Eriophorum vaginatum. Samples of each of these six species from three snow zones (ambient, +snow, and -snow) were analyzed for leaf nitrogen (N) and all components of dry matter digestibility. Samples of Salix pulchra and Betula nana were also analyzed for protein precipitation capacity as a measure of digestibility reducing secondary compounds.