Far North Queensland, Montane Tree Leaf Chemistry Data, 2019 

The record contains information on leaf chemistry studied on co-occurring tropical mountaintop restricted tree species from various mountaintop sites in Far North Queensland in 2019. Data on leaf stable carbon and nitrogen isotope concentrations, and elemental chemistry such as carbon, nitrogen, phosphorous, calcium, magnesium, potassium, sodium, copper, boron, sulfur, zinc and manganese are provided. 

We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
Funding for the field and analytical component of this data collection was provided by the Skyrail Rainforest Foundation and The Wet Tropics Management Authority to lead author, Arun Singh Ramesh. 

The data set was generated as part of the author's PhD project with the title, "Temperature and soil nutrient availability shape tree responses to elevation in the Australian Wet Tropics". The data is part of a study focusing on leaf traits of tropical mountaintop restricted tree species and is associated with a larger collaborative research project led by the Tropical Mountaintop Plant Science (TrOMPS) team, Australian Tropical Herbarium. 

Field sampling: Healthy sun-exposed branches of co-occurring mountaintop restricted tree species were targeted. Branches were excised using a sling-shot and or a pole pruner for accessible branches. Fresh leaves were transported to laboratory in storage bags, moistened with damp tissues. Leaves were weighed to obtain fresh mass and oven dried for a about 42-78 h at 60℃ and its oven-dried mass were calculated.

Chemical analysis: Total elemental analysis was conducted using microwave-assisted acid digestion of the oven dried samples, followed by ionization detection using the Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectrometer (ICP-AES) at the Advanced Analytical Centre (AAC), James Cook University - Townsville. Leaf Carbon (%C) and Nitrogen (%N) were measured using a Costech elemental analyser (EA) (Milan, Italy) fitted with a zero-blank auto-sampler at the AAC, JCU - Cairns. The stable carbon and nitrogen isotope ratio (expressed as δ¹³C and δ¹⁵N respectively) of the samples was measured using a ThermoFinnigan Deltaplus XL isotope ratio mass spectrometer (ThermoFinnigan GmbH, Bremen, FRG), linked to the EA via a ConFlo III interface. Stable isotope results are reported as per mil (‰) deviations from the Vienna PDB and AIR reference standard scale respectively.