SGS-LTER Long-Term Montioring Project: Arthropod Pitfall Trapping on Small Mammal Trapping Webs on the Central Plains Experimental Range, Nunn, Colorado, USA 1998-2006, ARS Study Number 118 (Reformatted to the ecocomDP Design Pattern)

This data package is formatted as an ecocomDP (Ecological Community Data Pattern). For more information on ecocomDP see https://github.com/EDIorg/ecocomDP. This Level 1 data package was derived from the Level 0 data package found here: https://pasta.lternet.edu/package/metadata/eml/knb-lter-sgs/134/17. The abstract below was extracted from the Level 0 data package and is included for context: This data package was produced by researchers working on the Shortgrass Steppe Long Term Ecological Research (SGS-LTER) Project, administered at Colorado State University. Long-term datasets and background information (proposals, reports, photographs, etc.) on the SGS-LTER project are contained in a comprehensive project collection within the Digital Collections of Colorado (http://digitool.library.colostate.edu/R/?func=collections&collection_id=3429). The data table and associated metadata document, which is generated in Ecological Metadata Language, may be available through other repositories serving the ecological research community and represent components of the larger SGS-LTER project collection. Additional information and referenced materials can be found: http://hdl.handle.net/10217/83450. With the exception of heteromyids, eg kangaroo rats and pocket mice, most small rodents in shortgrass steppe are omnivorous. Depending on season, arthropods (insects and arachnids) make up 40-85% of the diet of grasshopper mice and thirteen-lined ground squirrels, the most widespread rodents in northern shortgrass steppe. Small mammals are among the most important predators of ground-dwelling macroarthropods and herbivorous insects provide a direct resource link between weather and plant production. Understanding temporal variability in the abundance of arthropods is central to determining the mechanisms that drive small rodent populations. At present, there are no long-term studies of arthropods in shortgrass steppe, despite the important role that these taxa play in grassland food w