Nutrient Network Subset for: Climate influences how belowground traits regulate grassland biomass

This dataset contains plot-level observations of aboveground biomass, community-weighted mean (CWM) plant traits, trait coverage metrics, and environmental variables across grassland sites compiled from the Nutrient Network (NutNet). Data collection followed the standardized Nutrient Network protocols described in Borer et al. (2014). This dataset contains only data from the unmanipulated control plots (1m-2) within the Nutrient Network. For each site, we selected the year of pre-treatment data, that is, the year before the experimental treatment was started in adjacent experimental Treatment plots. All community-level belowground trait data was calculated based on community-level vegetation composition (quantified in % species coverage per plot) derived from the respective databases. All trait data derived from the UNDERPLOT database. Each row represents one plot in one year.  The subset containing data from the Nutrient Network (NutNet) used in this study is published separately from the main dataset (see related works below) due to network data sharing policies. Project Personnel of the Nutrient Network (NutNet): Elizabeth Borer and Eric Seabloom; NutNet raw data used: "full-cover_2025-01-31.csv", "comb-by-plot_2025-01-31.csv" This work was generated using data from the Nutrient Network experiment, funded at the site-scale by individual researchers. Coordination and data management have been supported by funding to E. Borer and E. Seabloom from the National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network (NSF-DEB-1042132) and Long Term Ecological Research (NSF-DEB-1831944 and NSF-DEB-2425352) programs, and the Institute on the Environment (DG-0001-13). We also thank the University of Minnesota College of Biological Sciences and the Minnesota Supercomputer Institute for hosting project data and the Institute on the Environment for hosting Network meetings. This dataset contains plot-level observations of aboveground biomass, community-weighted mean (CWM) plant traits, trait coverage metrics, and environmental variables across grassland sites compiled from the Nutrient Network (NutNet). Data collection followed the standardized Nutrient Network protocols described in Borer et al. (2014). This dataset contains only data from the unmanipulated control plots (1m-2) within the Nutrient Network. For each site, we selected the year of pre-treatment data, that is, the year before the experimental treatment was started in adjacent experimental Treatment plots. All community-level belowground trait data was calculated based on community-level Vegetation composition (quantified in % species Coverage per plot) derived from the respective databases. All trait data derived from the UNDERPLOT database. Each row represents one plot in one year. The subset containing data from the Nutrient Network (NutNet) used in this study is published separately from the main dataset (see related works below) due to network data sharing policies. This data is used to explore the relationships between plant functional traits and aboveground biomass and how this is modified by climate in grassland ecosystems.  This dataset includes data on aboveground biomass (g dry weight per m2) and derived community weighted mean trait data from observational treatment plots from global grassland ecosystems as part of the Nutrient Network. All data collection was standardized and is described here: E. T. Borer, W. S. Harpole, P. B. Adler, E. M. Lind, J. L. Orrock, E. W. Seabloom, M. D. Smith, Finding generality in ecology: a model for globally distributed experiments. Methods Ecol Evol. 5, 65–73 (2014), doi:10.1111/2041-210X.12125. For each site, we selected the year of pre-treatment data, that is, the year before the experimental treatment was started in adjacent experimental Treatment plots.  For detailed meta data on all variables included in this subset, see ReadMe attached to this repository: Andraczek_et_al_Belowground_traits_and_aboveground_biomass_NutNet_subset_metadata.txt