Plant community, ecosystem, and abiotic data from a global change experiment in mountain grasslands in Norway

Abstract Multiple global change drivers including land-use and climate change, and pollution threaten alpine biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Experimental approaches can be used to disentangle the single and interactive effects of these drivers. Across three sites along an elevational gradient (469–1290 m a.s.l.) in south-western Norway, we exposed plant communities to warmer climate, nitrogen fertilization, and grazing, as well as simulated grazing by clipping, in a split-plot design. After three years of treatment, we recorded data on vegetation, ecosystem functioning, and microclimate in 160 experimental and control plots. This database consists of records of the following datasets: aboveground standing biomass (3,417 records), aboveground plant productivity (2,071), reflectance (1,769), vascular plant community composition (8,954 records covering 95 taxa), belowground productivity and traits (796), soil characteristics (193), soil nutrient (1,132), ecosystem CO 2 fluxes (2447), soil ecosystem CO 2 respiration (64), and microclimate (30,751,264). The data can be combined with long-term climate and plant functional traits collected within the study region.