Alpine grassland vegetation supports globally important biodiversity and ecosystems that are increasingly threatened by climate warming and other environmental changes. Trait-based approaches can support understanding of vegetation responses to global change drivers and consequences for ecosystem functioning. In six sites along a 1314 m elevational gradient in Puna grasslands in the Peruvian Andes, we collected datasets on vascular plant composition, plant functional traits, biomass, ecosystem fluxes, and climate data over three years. The data were collected in the wet and dry season and from plots with different fire histories. We selected traits associated with plant resource use, growth, and life history strategies (leaf area, leaf dry/wet mass, leaf thickness, specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content, leaf C, N, P content, C and N isotopes). The trait dataset contains 3,665 plant records from 145 taxa, 54,036 trait measurements (increasing the trait data coverage of the regional flora by 420%) covering 14 traits and 121 plant taxa (ca. 40% of which have no previous publicly available trait data) across 33 families.

AMAP Université de Montpellier Montpellier France

Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research University of Bergen Bergen Norway

Departamento de Ecología Facultad de Ciencias Biológicas Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile Santiago Chile

Departamento de Ecología y Gestión Ambiental Universidad de la República Maldonado Uruguay

Departamento de Ecología y Recursos Naturales Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México Mexico City Mexico

Département de sciences biologiques Université de Montréal Montréal Canada

Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences University of Gothenburg Gothenburg Sweden

Department of Biological Sciences University of Bergen Bergen Norway

Department of Biology Aarhus University Aarhus Denmark

Department of Biology and Sabin Center for Environment and Sustainability Wake Forest University Winston Salem NC USA

Department of Biology University of Copenhagen Copenhagen Denmark

Department of Biology University of Oxford Oxford United Kingdom

Department of Biosciences University of Oslo Oslo Norway

Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research Centre The University of British Columbia Vancouver Canada

Department of Botany Charles University Prague Praha Czech Republic

Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Leuven Belgium

Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology University of Arizona Tucson AZ USA

Department of Environmental Science Policy and Management University of California Berkeley CA USA

Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship Colorado State University Fort Collins CO USA

Department of Forest and Rangeland Stewardship Fort Collins CO USA

Department of Forestry and Natural Resources Purdue University West Lafayette IN USA

Department of Geography and Environmental Management University of Waterloo Waterloo Ontario Canada

Department of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany University of Zurich Zurich Switzerland

Faculty of Environmental Sciences and Natural Resource Management Norwegian University of Life Sciences Ås Norway

Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research University of Colorado Boulder Boulder CO USA

Instituto Argentino de Nivología y Glaciología y Ciencias Ambientales CONICET y Universidad Nacional de Cuyo Mendoza Argentina

Instituto de Pesquisas Jardim Botânico do Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro Brazil

Newcastle University Newcastle United Kingdom

Norwegian Institute for Nature Research Oslo Norway

Pontificia Universidad Católica del Peru Lima Perú

Programa de Doctorado en Ciencias mención Ecología y Evolución Universidad Austral de Chile Santiago Chile

School of Biological Sciences University of Queensland Queensland Australia

School of Geography and the Environment University of Oxford Oxford United Kingdom

School of Geography Development and Environment University of Arizona Tucson AZ USA

School of Geography Planning and Spatial Sciences University of Tasmania Hobart Tasmania Australia

School of Geosciences University of Edinburgh Edinburgh Scotland

Science Division New York Botanical Garden Bronx NY USA

Tropical Diversity Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh Edinburgh UK

Universidad Nacional de San Antonio Abad del Cusco Cusco Perú

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