Community and trait data of two alpine glacier foreland chronosequences

The data was collected in conjunction with the HILLSCAPE project (see hillscape.ch for details). The project made use of two proglacial chronosequences located at Klausen Pass (Griess Glacier) and Susten Pass (Stein Glacier) in central Switzerland. Each of the chronosequences consisted of four moraines. The moraines of the Stein Glacier foreland had estimated terrain ages of 30a (a = years), 160a, 3ka (ka = thousands of years), and 10ka. The moraines of the Griess Glacier foreland had estimated terrain ages of 110a, 160a, 4.9ka, and 13.5ka. We conducted vegetation surveys on 10 plots per moraine and measured the coverage of every occurring species by visual estimation. In addition, we measured plant functional traits (SLA = specific leaf area, LDMC = leaf dry matter content) from individuals of the same plots. Further trait data on canopy height, seed mass, seed dispersal type, and woodiness were obtained from online plant trait databases. The stored dataset includes two files, one containing the species and the coverages per plot and one containing the species and their functional plant traits.