Climate and plant traits drive a cross-continental imbalance in atmospheric Hg uptake

This dataset provides the source data and geospatial products supporting the main and supplementary figures in the associated manuscript “ Climate and plant traits drive a cross-continental imbalance in atmospheric Hg uptake”. The files include global gridded spatial layers used to visualize and quantify forest foliar mercury accumulation rate, global foliar mercury sink, leaf lifespan, leaf biomass, leaf-to-aboveground biomass ratio, foliar and woody mercury uptake, model uncertainty, and projected relative changes in climate- and vegetation-related variables. The dataset includes source files for main figures such as Fig. 3a, showing the global distribution of foliar Hg accumulation rate, and Fig. 3c, showing the global foliar Hg sink. It also includes supplementary geospatial layers for spatial patterns of leaf lifespan across forest functional types, global leaf biomass, foliar and woody Hg uptake, differences between global foliar NPP and modeled foliar biomass, ensemble-model estimates, uncertainty layers, and relative changes in precipitation, temperature, leaf lifespan, leaf biomass, and foliar Hg uptake. These data were generated by integrating observed foliar Hg concentrations, plant functional traits, climate variables, forest distribution, leaf biomass, and leaf lifespan within a machine-learning-based modelling framework. The geospatial files are intended to support figure reproduction, spatial analysis, and further evaluation of the role of climate and plant traits in regulating atmospheric mercury uptake by global forest canopies.