Realm: Terrestrial
Climate: Temperate
Biome: Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas and shrublands
Central latitude: 32.616600
Central longitude: 106.750000
Duration: 71 years, from 1915 to 2016

19806 records

250 distinct species

Across the time series Bouteloua eriopoda is the most frequently occurring species

Methods

The data set covers a 101-year period (19152016) of quadrat-based plant sampling at the Jornada Experimental Range in southern New Mexico. At each sampling event, a pantograph was used to record the location and perimeter of living plants within permanent quadrats. Basal area was recorded for perennial grass species, canopy cover area was recorded for shrub species, and all other perennial species were recorded as point data. The data set includes 122 of 1 m2 of permanent quadrats, although not all quadrats were sampled in each year of the study and there is a gap in monitoring from 19801995. Sometimes quadrats were organized in linear series at the time of establishment (e.g. A1, A2, A3, etc.), with members of a series placed at 1?2 or 1-mile intervals radiating out from a livestock watering point (Nelson, 1934). Quadrats were mapped annually from 19151947. From 19471979 a subset of the quadrats was sampled at irregular intervals. In 1995, quadrats were relocated and sampling resumed at 5- or 6-year intervals. Ongoing sampling (1995present) occurs between September and March. Historical sampling (pre-1995) was typically conducted SeptemberMarch as well, although there are exceptions. To account for the fact that a single sampling event often spanned several months, we include in the data table a column for project_year” as well as actual month and year of the sample, so that data can be grouped appropriately. For example, the 1937 sampling event data was collected from October 1937 to March 1938, and so these data are labeled with project_year = 1937. In a small number of instances during the early years of the project, quadrats were sampled twice within a year. This was done in order to capture differences in vegetation at different points during the growing season, or to investigate the effect of an extreme event (e.g. extra sampling was performed in 1935 associated with an extreme drought). Information on dates each quadrat was sampled is contained in Jornada_quadrat_sampling_dates.csv. Soil sampling was performed only once for each quadrat. Most soil samples were taken and depth measurements made in October 2001. In February 2020 samples were taken to fill data gaps in the 2001 data. The data points added in 2020 are: particle size analysis for quadrats AR2, H3, L3, L4, and Y7; depth to petrocalcic measurement for quadrats L3, L4, V1, Y7.

Citation(s)

@Article{BioTIME_cit400, Study_id = {655}, Citation_id = {400}, Author = {Christensen, E. and James, D. and Maxwell, C. J. and Slaughter, A. and Adler, P. B. and Havstad, K. and Bestelmeyer, B}, Journal = {Ecology}, Pages = {e03530}, Title = {Quadrat-based monitoring of desert grassland vegetation at the Jornada Experimental Range, New Mexico, 1915–2016}, Volume = {102}, Year = {2021}, Doi = {10.1002/ecy.3530}, Language = {English} }