Mycorrhizal root enzyme activity, fungal community, and soil chemistry in a long-term warming and fertilization experiment in Arctic tundra at Toolik Lake, Alaska (July 2017)

Arctic nutrient cycling is heavily influenced by mycorrhizal processes. With warming, deciduous ectomycorrhizal (EcM) shrubs are expanding across the tundra, potentially increasing the prevalence of ectomycorrhizae while decreasing other dominant mycorrhizal types. Because carbon (C) and nutrient cycling in Arctic tundra are tightly coupled, changes in nutrient cycling induced by these shifts in mycorrhizal regime and function could impact the large stocks of soil carbon. This project characterized the responses of EcM nutrient cycling to long-term warming and nutrient addition. All data was collected from the Arctic Long Term Ecological Research Network (LTER) warming and fertilization experiment established in 1989. We paired measurements of EcM root function with EcM fungal identity. This dataset consists of potential activities of 5 enzymes (leucine aminopeptidase, N-acetyl glucosaminidase, acid phosphatase, laccase, and peroxidase) measured on Betula nana root tips colonized by EcM; EcM root tip abundance and fungal identity; and soil chemistry. Fungal internal transcribed spacer region (ITS) sequences used for taxonomic identification are archived in GenBank under the accession numbers MT278352-MT278808.