Functional diversity and trait composition of vascular plant and Sphagnum moss communities during peatland succession across land uplift regions

• Main Authors: Laine-Petäjäkangas, Anna Maria, Lindholm, Tapio, Nilsson, Mats, Kutznetsov, Oleg, Jassey, Vincent E J, Tuittila, Eeva-Stiina
• Format: Dataset
• Language: English
• Published: PANGAEA 2021
• Subjects: bog; fen; functional plant trait; Mire; mire succession; Peatland; White Sea; Virma
• Online Access: https://doi.pangaea.de/10.1594/PANGAEA.926827; https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.926827

We estimated plant community composition as the projection cover of each vascular plant and moss species. We measured the following vascular plant functional traits: plant height, leaf size (LS), specific leaf area (SLA) and leaf carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) contents from the most common species in each site. We measured the following Sphagnum traits: stand density (number of shoots cm-2), capitulum width (cap_width, mm) and dry weight (cap_dw, mg), fascicle density (number cm-1), capitulum dry matter content (CDMC, mg g-1), capitulum water content (cap_wc, g g-1) and capitulum C and N contents and C:N ratio. The data was collected from 47 northern peatlands located in land uplift regions in Finland, Sweden and Russia: Sävar on the west coast of Bothnian Bay (63o50'N, 20o40'E, Sweden), Siikajoki (64°45' N, 24°43', Finland) and Hailuoto island (65°07' N, 24°71' E, Finland) on the east coast of Bothnian Bay, and Belomorsk-Virma (63°90' N, 36°50' E, Russia) on the coast of the White Sea. The data was collected from the different areas as follows: Siikajoki sites were sampled in August 2016, Sävar sites at the end of June 2017, Hailuoto sites during July 2017 and Belomorsk sites at the end of August 2017. We determined the plant community composition by visually estimating the projection cover of each species separately for field (vascular plants) and moss layer using the scale 0.1%, 0.25%, 0.5%, 1%, 2%, 3%, etc. There were fifteen 50 x 50 cm plots in each peatland at Siikajoki and Belomorsk-Virma, and 10 at Sävar and Hailuoto. The sample plots were located five meters apart along a transect starting from the generally treeless peatland margin and heading towards the peatland center. Plant traits were measured as follows: To measure SLA (i.e., the one-sided area of a fresh leaf divided by its oven-dry mass, cm2 g-1), the freshly picked leaf or a sample of 3 leaves in case of shrubs with small leaves was pressed flat between a board and a glass and a standardized photo was taken. The leaf size (LS, cm2) was analysed ...