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1,116 results for “Plant communities”
Cover and frequency of biological soil crust community types, moss species, vascular plants, and abiotic land surface features, on gypsum & non-gypsum soils from the Chihuahuan and Mojave Deserts in 2023
This dataset contains raw and calculated percent cover and frequency data for biological soil crust (hereafter biocrust) functional groups, vascular plant functional groups, and abiotic land surface features on and off gypsum soils in the northern Chihuahuan and eastern Mojave Deserts. Abundance data were obtained from 20 study sites total, 10 located on soils derived from gypsum parent material and 10 located on soils derived from non-gypsum parent materials. Sites were grouped into 10 pairs, in which every gypsum site was partnered with a non-gypsum site located in the same region. Apart from soil type, partnered-site characteristics (topography, climate, elevation, slope, aspect, and presence of biocrusts) were held relatively constant. At each site, cover and frequency assessments were made using the line-point intercept method (LPI) and frequency quadrats (1.0 m^2), respectively. Biocrust functional groups included the following crusts: lichen, moss, incipient algal, light algal, dark algal, unknown photosynthetic crust, and vagrant cyanobacteria. Vascular plant categories included: perennial forbs, perennial graminoids, annual forbs, annual graminoids, subshrub, shrub, Yucca, and cacti. Abiotic land surface features included: woody litter, herbaceous litter, bare soil, rock, bedrock, and animal feces. Moss crusts identified within cover and frequency analyses were sampled, and classified to species level via microscopy. The resulting percent cover and frequency data was used to understand differences in biocrust and moss species abundance and diversity on and off gypsum soils; furthermore, how biocrust and moss species abundance was associated with the measured environmental variables. Soil physical and chemical data from this study can be accessed at knb-lter-jrn.210616002. This study and dataset are complete.
warmXtrophic: plant community responses to the individual and interactive effects of climate warming and herbivory across multiple years at Kellogg Biological Station Long-Term Ecological Research Sites (KBS LTER), Michigan, USA, and University of Michigan Biological Station (UMBS), Michigan, USA.
Climate change has both direct and indirect effects on ecological communities. Whereas most climate change ecology experiments manipulate abiotic drivers to measure direct effects of climate on species or communities, fewer quantify the indirect effects through biotic interactions, especially over multiple sites and years. In this factorial experiment we manipulate temperature through open-top chambers, and the level of insect herbivory through insecticide. At two early successional field sites separated by 3 degrees of latitude and 3°C of mean annual temperature (University of Michigan Biological Station, Pellston, MI and Kellogg Biological Station, Hickory Corners, MI), 6 replicate 1-m2 plots per treatment were installed in May 2015. 12 plots per site are at ambient temperature, 12 are warmed with year-round non-UV filtering polycarbonate and wood frame construction OTCs for tall-stature plants (Welshofer et al. 2018 MEE). Insecticide reduces insect herbivory in half the plots (Welshofer et al. 2018 Oecologia). Over the course of the experiment, OTCs warmed the plant communities by 1.9°C-3.0°C on average over the growing season. Each year, through 2021, plant traits and community responses were measured at the species level: plant phenology (green-up, flowering, flowering duration, seed set); plant percent cover (aerial % cover of the 1m2 plot); plant traits (specific leaf area, C and N content), herbivory damage to leaves, and plant species biomass (only in 2021). Further methodological details are found within each response variable metadata. This experiment is ongoing and further data package updates are planned. L0 data is available upon request. R scripts can be found here: https://github.com/SpaCE-Lab-MSU/warmXtrophic. The biotic and abiotic community context and relative strengths of direct vs. indirect effects may yield ecological surprises under climate change unless addressed together. Large-scale experiments like this one can improve our ability to unde
Plant Community and Ecosystem Responses to Long-term Fertilization & Disturbance at the Kellogg Biological Station, Hickory Corners, MI (1989 to 2019)
Dataset AbstractThis work is part of the long-term sampling and monitoring of successional dynamics in abandoned fields – and responses to N-fertilization. Data from this research has been, and will continue to, contribute to LTER cross-site analysis of plant community dynamics, diversity-productivity, and responses to fertilization and disturbance.N-fertilized and tilled (disturbed) microplots are located in the NW corner of all treatment 7 (early successional communities) on the LTER main site. Experimental treatments are: 1) Nitrogen addition vs. no nitrogen addition and 2) Annual disturbance vs. undisturbedoriginal data source http://lter.kbs.msu.edu/datasets/60
NGE01 Chronic Addition of Nitrogen Gradient Experiment (ChANGE): Assessing threshold responses of plant community composition and ecosystem processes at Konza Prairie
Chronic nutrient additions can lead to drastic shifts in the plant community through time, both within tallgrass prairie in other grassland ecosystems worldwide. Nutrient addition experiments have answered many questions about patterns of diversity loss and community shifts; however, the level of nutrients which must be added to cause community shifts is unknown. To date, all nitrogen (N) addition experiments at Konza have added 10 g m-2 (e.g., NutNet Plots; Phosphorus (P) Plots; Belowground Plots), yet current rates of N deposition are one-tenth of that level. Even predicted rates of future N deposition in grasslands are not expected to exceed 5 g m-2 by the year 2050 and will likely be around 2 g m-2 for most of the US. This mismatch begs the question will 10 g/m2 affect grasslands the same way 2 or 5 g m-2 will? There are two main goals for this long-term experiment (1) to identify the nutrient threshold needed to drive plant community change with nutrient additions, and (2) to determine what factors underlie those threshold responses (build up of nutrients, mycorrhizal loss, invertebrate herbivory). Konza ChANGE is part of a multi-site experiment spanning grasslands on two different continents: North America – tallgrass prairie (KNZ) and shortgrass steppe (SGS), and China – three sites in Inner Mongolia. By including multiple grasslands, we expand our ability to make generalizations about how grasslands are affected by N additions, and whether thresholds, if they exist, vary with precipitation, natural nutrient availability, and species identity/composition. Research Questions: (1) Do ecosystems have N tolerance thresholds above which community composition will change, and does that differ between grassland types (i.e. mesic and xeric grasslands)? (2) Does adding a large amount of nutrients in one season result in an equivalent community change as adding a small amount over multiple years? (For example does 5 g m-2 for 6 years create the same community change as
One-hectare fine-scale dataset of a fynbos plant community in the Cape Floristic Region
<p>Cape fynbos, which forms part of the Cape Floristic Region (CFR) of South Africa, a global biodiversity hotspot, is renowned for its high levels of plant species endemism and diversity. This extraordinary ecosystem, characterised by nutrient-poor soils and fire-adapted vegetation, is a treasure trove of endemic flora. However, this fragile system faces increasing threats from habitat loss, climate change, and invasive species. Pristine fynbos, naturally high in plant diversity and which forms a large part of the CFR, presents an ideal opportunity to gather fine-scale data on community assembly patterns. Most fynbos vegetation surveys use a plot size of about 100 m2, with no spatial structures within plots to demarcate individual subplots. Here, a groundbreaking dataset is presented that fully covers 1-hectare of pristine fynbos, systematically gridded into 50 × 50 subplots, each measuring 2 × 2 m, arranged evenly within a square-shaped survey site. Each plot was assigned a unique Y–X coordinate combination. For each plot, all plant species present were recorded, along with their total percentage covers and maximum height values. Total percentage covers were also recorded for bare soil, rock, and termite mounds. This dataset provides a valuable contribution to the field of fynbos ecology, as well as plant community ecology in general, and establishes a benchmark for future one-hectare surveys of similar fynbos vegetation types, delineating the fine-scale composition and structure of fynbos in the CFR. The dataset will be useful for a wide audience, including community and spatial ecologists, plant and environmental scientists, and biodiversity informaticians and statistical ecologists, offering ideal data for testing new metrics of diversity and compositional turnover. Data in Brief, Volume 59, April 2025, 111334: <a title="Persistent link using digital object identifier" href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2025.111334" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer noopener"><span><span>https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2025.111334</span></span></a></p>
Morpho-anatomical traits explain the effects of bacterial-feeding nematodes on soil bacterial community composition and plant growth and nutrition
<p>Soil Bacterial populations</p> <p>V3-V4, of the 16S rRNA gene using the primers 341F CCTAYGGGRBGCASCAG and 806R GGACTACNNGGGTATCTAAT.</p>
The recovery of plant community composition following passive restoration across spatial scales, Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve, 1983-2016
1. Human impacts have led to dramatic biodiversity change which can be highly scale-dependent across space and time. A primary means to manage these changes is via passive (here, the removal of disturbance) or active (management interventions) ecological restoration. The recovery of biodiversity, following the removal of disturbance is often incomplete relative to some kind of reference target. The magnitude of recovery of ecological systems following disturbance depend on the landscape matrix, as well as the temporal and spatial scales at which biodiversity is measured. 2. We measured the recovery of biodiversity and species composition over 27 years in 17 temperate grasslands abandoned after agriculture at different points in time, collectively forming a chronosequence since abandonment from one to eighty years. We compare these abandoned sites with known agricultural land-use histories to never-disturbed sites as relative benchmarks. We specifically measured aspects of diversity at the local plot-scale (α-scale, 0.5m2) and site-scale (γ-scale, 10m2), as well as the within-site heterogeneity (β-diversity) and among-site variation in species composition (turnover and nestedness). 3. At our α-scale, sites recovering after agricultural abandonment only had 70% of the plant species richness (and ~30% of the evenness), compared to never-ploughed sites. Within-site β-diversity recovered following agricultural abandonment to around 90% after 80 years. This effect, however, was not enough to lead to recovery at our γ-scale. Richness in recovering sites was ~65% of that in remnant never-ploughed sites. The presence of species characteristic of the never disturbed sites increased in the recovering sites through time. Forb and legume cover declines in years since abandonment, relative to graminoid cover across sites. 4. Synthesis. We found that, during the 80 years after agricultural abandonment, old-fields did not recover to the level of biodiversity in remnant never-plough
Understory plant community data from repeated plot sampling (1978-2019) in old-growth northern hardwood forest, northern Michigan (Dukes RNA, Hiawatha National Forest)
This data-set includes long-term, permanent-plot-based data for understory plant communities in old-growth mixed northern hardwood-hemlock forest and forested peatland in the Upper Great Lakes region. Data for over 900 understory quadrats (all associated with long-term canopy data from larger permanent plots) included multiple (2-5) remeasurements over 23-40 years, with longest periods and most remeasurements for upland forest types. The Dukes Research Natural Area (RNA) (https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/nrs/rnas/locations/dukes) in the Hiawatha National Forest (Marquette Co., MI) includes ca. 100 ha of largely unlogged, original forest. Publications cited below include more detailed information about the site. About half of the RNA supports upland forests intergrading from hemlock (Tsuga candensis) dominance to mixtures of hemlock and northern hardwoods species. Sugar maple (Acer saccharum) is dominant over much of the upland area, with, locally, significant admixtures of beech (Fagus grandifolia), yellow birch (Betula alleghaniensis), and red maple (Acer rubrum). Topographic relief is very slight with total elevational change within the RNA only about 10 m. The stand is within a few km of the western limit of the continuous range of beech. In 1935, 248 continuing forest inventory (CFI) plots (circular, 0.2 acre) were established on a regular grid throughout the RNA, and these have been the subject of repeated sampling through 2018-2019 and support continuing long-term study addressing canopy tree communities (canopy data to be deposited in a separate project). Examples of resulting publications are cited elsewhere in metadata, and can provide more detailed information about the RNA. In 1978-80, U.S. Forest Service researchers, directed by Jan Schultz and Frederick Metzger, initiated studies of understory communities, including herbaceous species and woody seedlings. Data were derived from four sub-quadrats within each of the CFI plots. These quadrats were re-estab
Tree survey:Effects of Long Term Fertilization and Oak Canopy Cover on Plant Communities and Ecosystem Processes
In 1996 E142 was established in field D on top of the E004 macroplots. E004 was conducted in fields A, B, C and D by Dave Tilman. The purpose of E004 was to see what effect NH4NO3 addition has on large areas over a longer period of time with exposure to naturally-occurring levels of herbivory. The nutrient addition treatments in E004, E142 plots have been applied annually since 1982. These experiments, along with others at Cedar Creek, examine the community and ecosystem consequences of chronic nutrient loading.
Canopy litter biomass:Effects of Long Term Fertilization and Oak Canopy Cover on Plant Communities and Ecosystem Processes
In 1996 E142 was established in field D on top of the E004 macroplots. E004 was conducted in fields A, B, C and D by Dave Tilman. The purpose of E004 was to see what effect NH4NO3 addition has on large areas over a longer period of time with exposure to naturally-occurring levels of herbivory. The nutrient addition treatments in E004, E142 plots have been applied annually since 1982. These experiments, along with others at Cedar Creek, examine the community and ecosystem consequences of chronic nutrient loading.
Herbaceous Vegetation Survey:Effects of Long Term Fertilization and Oak Canopy Cover on Plant Communities and Ecosystem Processes
In 1996 E142 was established in field D on top of the E004 macroplots. E004 was conducted in fields A, B, C and D by Dave Tilman. The purpose of E004 was to see what effect NH4NO3 addition has on large areas over a longer period of time with exposure to naturally-occurring levels of herbivory. The nutrient addition treatments in E004, E142 plots have been applied annually since 1982. These experiments, along with others at Cedar Creek, examine the community and ecosystem consequences of chronic nutrient loading.
Plant community surveys along transects at multiple sites on Sapelo Island and St. Simons Island in Georgia during June and July 2005
I sampled 59 sites around Sapelo Island and St. Simons Island, Georgia, in June-July 2005. Sites were chosen to include a range of mainland, barrier island, and back-barrier hammock island locations. All sites were dominated by salt marsh plant species, primarily Spartina alterniflora. To provide a general indication of the salinity conditions prevailing at each site, I measured salinity of the nearest body of water with a refractometer on the date that the site was sampled. Plant richness was documented along a single 5.0m wide transect at each site. Each transect began at the lower elevational limit of vegetation and continued perpendicular to the water’s edge to the shrub community at the upper marsh border. Plant presence was noted in a series of nested subplots within a 1.0m x 5.0m plot at each meter along the transect. The results posted here are sites, position, salinity, and the composition of the plant community in 0.5 x 0.5 m quadrats located at 1 m intervals along the transect. This data set is a companion to PLT-GCET-0608, which provides pooled data for sites in Georgia.
Effects of fallen Spanish moss (Tillandsia usneoides) on understory plant, invertebrate, and fungi communities
For nearly two years, natural deposition of Spanish moss was excluded from 2m x 2m plots positioned in the understory of a single live oak at each of two field sites. After 29 months, we measured the effects of fallen Spanish moss, relative to unmanipulated control plots that intercepted natural levels of fallen Spanish moss, on understory grass, invertebrate, and fungi communities as well as on litter layer depth, and litter decomposition rates using litter bags. This research was conducted in two fields on Sapelo Island, GA: Long Tabby (LT) and King's Field (KF). Experimental exclusions were maintained by manually removing Spanish moss from experimental plots monthly over the duration of the experiment.
GCE-LTER Altamaha River Plant Community Monitoring Survey in October 2018
A quadrat survey was conducted in October 2018 to measure the species and size distribution of plants at 3 sampling sites on the creekbank of the Altamaha River. The sites were chosen to capture the transition from Spartina alterniflora to Spartina cynosuroides (site SCSA) and the transition from Spartina cynosuroides to Zizaniopsis miliacea (sites ZSC1 and ZSC2). The quadrats were established as permanent plots in October 2012 by placing PVC stakes along the creekbank at each site. Plots were evenly spaced, but were not randomly located because the goal was to start with mixtures of vegetation in most of the plots, and vegetation was distributed in patches along the creekbanks. Therefore, these plots provide useful measures of vegetation change, but are not a random sample of the vegetation at the site. Plots will be replaced each year as necessary to replace any lost to disturbance. The plots were visually surveyed and the species, shoot height, and flowering status was recorded individually for each shoot over 10 cm in height present in each plot. Observations from plots exhibiting signs of disturbance were noted in a separate data set. This survey will be repeated annually to assess changes in plant distribution and biomass in relation to environmental changes documented by other GCE LTER monitoring efforts.
GCE-LTER Altamaha River Plant Community Monitoring Survey in October 2019
A quadrat survey was conducted in October 2019 to measure the species and size distribution of plants at 3 sampling sites on the creekbank of the Altamaha River. The sites were chosen to capture the transition from Spartina alterniflora to Spartina cynosuroides (site SCSA) and the transition from Spartina cynosuroides to Zizaniopsis miliacea (sites ZSC1 and ZSC2). The quadrats were established as permanent plots in October 2012 by placing PVC stakes along the creekbank at each site. Plots were evenly spaced, but were not randomly located because the goal was to start with mixtures of vegetation in most of the plots, and vegetation was distributed in patches along the creekbanks. Therefore, these plots provide useful measures of vegetation change, but are not a random sample of the vegetation at the site. Plots will be replaced each year as necessary to replace any lost to disturbance. The plots were visually surveyed and the species, shoot height, and flowering status was recorded individually for each shoot over 10 cm in height present in each plot. Observations from plots exhibiting signs of disturbance were noted in a separate data set. This survey will be repeated annually to assess changes in plant distribution and biomass in relation to environmental changes documented by other GCE LTER monitoring efforts.
SMB01 Variation in soil respiration and bacterial community due to species-specific plant-soil history at konza prairie
We conducted a “home vs. away” plant-soil feedback greenhouse experiment using two C3 grass species (Bromus inermis and Pascopyrum smithii) grown in soil collected from Konza Prairie. We used a closed-circuit CO2 trapping method and isotopic analysis to differentiate between root-derived and SOM-derived CO2 production. We investigated how soil chemistry and soil bacterial communities differed in soils with a history of B. inermis vs soils with a history of P. smithii.
CMY01 Mycorrhizal colonization and plant community responses to long-term suppression of Mycorrhizal Fungi
Twenty replicate permanent 2x2 m plots were established in early 1991 along a randomly located transect, with a 2m space between each plot, on the following watersheds: 1B, 1D, annually burned HQB, 10B, 20D and infrequently burned HQB. Ten of the plots were randomly assigned as long-term mycorrhizal suppression plots. In each of these plots, AM fungi were suppressed by the application of the fungicide benomyl as a soil drench (7.5 liters per plot) at the rate of 1.25 g/m2 (active ingredient). The mycorrhizal suppression plots were treated biweekly throughout each growing season (April through October) beginning in 1991. The control plots each received no fungicide, but an equivalent volume of water (7.5 liters) was applied biweekly. To evaluate the effectiveness of the fungicide, three soil cores (2.5 cm diameter x 14 cm deep) were removed from both fungicide-treated and control plots each October throughout the study. Roots were extracted from the soil, washed free of soil, stained in trypan blue (Phillips and Hayman, 1970), and examined microscopically to assess percentage root colonization by mycorrhizal fungi using a Petri dish scored in 1-cm squares (Daniels et al.1981).
VIR01 Effects of invertebate and vertebrate herbivory on tallgrass prairie plant community composition and biomass, Konza Prairie LTER
The effects of herbivores and their interactions with nutrient availability on primary production and plant community composition in grassland systems is expected to vary with herbivore type. Although nutrient additions are known to affect plant species diversity and primary productivity, the role of herbivores in mediating the strength of these effects also remains unclear. Herbivores may alter plant responses to nutrient additions in several ways. First, herbivores can alter the plant community response to nutrient additions by either selectively feeding on particular groups of species (e.g. grasses versus forbs) or by generally opening up space, allowing for species turnover and immigration. Second, feeding by herbivores may reduce the production response to nutrient additions if the plants cannot compensate for tissue lost to herbivory. As the functional effects of vertebrate and invertebrate herbivores on plant community composition and production may vary, the interactive effects of vertebrate versus invertebrate herbivores with nutrient additions may also vary. Here we are experimentally assessing the independent and interactive effects of removing vertebrate and invertebrate herbivores on aboveground biomass and plant community composition in native tallgrass prairie. Further, we are examining whether the removal of vertebrate and invertebrate herbivores interacts with nutrient availability. By doing this, we address three related questions: 1) what is the relative strength of the effects of invertebrate versus vertebrate herbivory in a grassland system; 2) how does herbivory (invertebrate and/or vertebrate) affect the relative abundances of grasses and forbs, the two dominant plant functional types within the ecosystem; and 3) what are the consequences of these changes in composition for aboveground net primary productivity, an important ecosystem function?
Alpine soil islands plant and soil microbial community composition, 2024.
High alpine ecosystems are particularly sensitive to climate-driven change, with vegetation expansion increasingly observed in historically barren soils. In late August and early September 2024, we revisited 50 previously established vegetation plots in Green Lakes Valley (Niwot Ridge LTER) to evaluate patterns of plant colonization and community change over time. Using legacy vegetation data from 2008 and 2015, we assessed changes in plant cover and composition in relation to microtopography and prior plant occurrence. Concurrently, we collected soil samples for 16S and 18S rRNA gene sequencing to characterize bacterial, archaeal, and eukaryotic microbial communities associated with these plots. Vegetation was resampled using spatially referenced 1-meter radius surveys, estimating species incidence and cover and documenting moss, lichen, sedge, and grass diversity. Together, these above- and belowground data provide insight into how priority effects, fine-scale environmental variation, and plant–microbe interactions influence alpine community dynamics, and may inform predictive models of ecosystem responses to ongoing climatic shifts.
Data from: Consistent trait-environment relationships within and across tundra plant communities
<p>A fundamental assumption in trait-based ecology is that relationships between traits and environmental conditions are globally consistent. We use field-quantified microclimate and soil data to explore if trait-environment relationships are generalisable across plant communities and spatial scales. We collected data from 6720 plots and 217 species across four distinct tundra regions from both hemispheres. We combine this data with over 76000 database trait records to relate local plant community trait composition to broad gradients of key environmental drivers: soil moisture, soil temperature, soil pH, and potential solar radiation. Results revealed strong, consistent trait-environment relationships across Arctic and Antarctic regions. This indicates that the detected relationships are transferable between tundra plant communities also when fine-scale environmental heterogeneity is accounted for, and that variation in local conditions heavily influences both structural and leaf economic traits. Our results strengthen the biological and mechanistic basis for climate change impact predictions of vulnerable high-latitude ecosystems.</p> <p>Kemppinen, Niittynen, le Roux, Momberg, Happonen, Aalto, Rautakoski, Enquist, Vandvik, Halbritter, Maitner & Luoto (2021). Consistent trait-environment relationships within and across tundra plant communities. Nature Ecology and Evolution</p> <p>These are the data and codes from Kemppinen et al. (2021).</p>
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Annotated Behaviour and Observability Dataset (ABODe)
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