Shortgrass prairie (Colorado, USA) and northern mixedgrass prairie (Wyoming, USA) species traits

These data support Mueller et al. 2023, entitled "Coordination of leaf, root, and seed traits shows the importance of whole plant economics in two semiarid grasslands."

Uncertainty persists within trait-based ecology, partly because few studies assess multiple axes of functional variation and their effect on plant performance. For 55 species from two semiarid grasslands, we quantified: i) covariation between economic traits of leaves and absorptive roots, ii) covariation among economic traits, plant height, leaf size, and seed mass, and iii) relationships between these traits and species' abundance. Pairs of analogous leaf and root traits were at least weakly positively correlated (e.g., SLA and SRL). Two pairs of such traits, N content and DMC of leaves and roots, were at least moderately correlated (r>0.5) whether species were grouped by site, taxonomic group and growth form, or life history.  Root diameter was positively correlated with seed mass for all groups of species except annuals and monocots.  Species with higher LDMC tended to be more abundant (r=0.63). Annuals with larger seeds were more abundant (r=0.69). Compared to global-scale syntheses with many observations from mesic ecosystems, we observed stronger correlations between analogous leaf and root traits, weaker correlations between SLA and leaf N, and stronger correlations between SRL and root N.  In dry grasslands, plant persistence may require coordination of above- and belowground traits, and dense tissues may facilitate dominance.