Data Release: Long-term production trends in Taxodium distichum swamps at the northern range extreme in the Mississippi River Alluvial Valley, litter, 2002-2022

An ability to discern shifts in plant production may be vital to suggest management in support of vegetation stressed by climate or land-use change. This work asked if the production of mixed baldcypress swamps (Taxodium distichum (L.) Rich.) changed over decades of study with one study conducted during the 1990s and the other from 2002-2022. In the current study from 2002 to 2022, litter and root production levels were measured in seven swamps along the Cache River Illinois, which are at their northern extreme in the Mississippi River Alluvial Valley. The most important driver of production over the three decades of study was water regime. Swamps with wetter water regimes had higher leaf and reproductive tissue production. Over the last decade, root production increased by 2.5 times mostly in the upper soil layers (0-10 cm) but only in swamps in the drier and middle parts of the water gradient.