Abstract. Functional trait databases are emerging as a crucial tool
for a wide range of ecological studies, including next-generation vegetation modelling across the world. However, few large-scale studies have
been reported on plant traits in the Tibetan Plateau (TP), the cradle of
East Asian flora and fauna with specific alpine ecosystems, and no report on plant trait databases could be found. In this work, an extensive dataset of
11 leaf functional traits (TiP-Leaf), mainly for herbs and shrubs and a few trees on the TP, was compiled through field surveys. The TiP-Leaf dataset,
which was compiled from 336 sites distributed mainly on the plateau surface and the northern margin of the TP across alpine and temperate vegetation
regions and sampled from 2018 to 2021, contained 1692 morphological trait
measurements of leaf thickness, leaf fresh weight, leaf dry weight, leaf
dry-matter content, leaf water content, leaf area, specific leaf area and
leaf mass per area and 1645 chemical element trait measurements of leaf
carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus contents. Thus, 468 species that belong to
184 genera and 51 families were obtained and measured. In addition to leaf
trait measurements, the geographic coordinates, bioclimate variables,
disturbance intensities and vegetation types of each site were also recorded. The dataset could provide solid data support to effectively quantify the
modern ecological features of alpine ecosystems, thereby further evaluating
the response of alpine ecosystems to climate change and human disturbances and improving the next-generation vegetation model. The dataset, which is
available from the National Tibetan Plateau Data Center (TPDC; Jin et al.,
2022a; https://doi.org/10.11888/Terre.tpdc.272516), can make a great
contribution to the regional and global plant trait databases.
