Sagebrush vegetation response to experimental drought
Data files
Feb 07, 2025 version files 1.93 MB
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ORIDE_ANPP_2016-2020.csv
3.90 KB
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ORIDE_BNPP_2017_2020.csv
3.27 KB
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ORIDE_ForbCounts_2016-2020.csv
28.56 KB
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ORIDE_site_data.xlsx
9.29 KB
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ORIDE_soilwater_AA_2016-2020.csv
698.85 KB
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ORIDE_soilwater_AC_2016-2020.csv
658.91 KB
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ORIDE_soilwater_AC_deep_2016-2020.csv
408.24 KB
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ORIDE_SpeciesComp_2016_2020.csv
111.15 KB
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README.md
8.63 KB
Abstract
These data are from the research project Drought and Sagebrush: Management Implications, conducted by Kerry Byrne and Kristen Kaczynski from 2016 - 2020. The dataset contains research results related to species composition, forb density, and above and belowground net primary production in response to four years of experimental drought using rainout shelters and control plots. We used rainfall shelters to create a 1-in-100-year drought at each site to understand how chronic (4 year) drought will impact common, but understudied sagebrush steppe plant communities. We conducted our study at two sites approximately 60 m apart within a grazing exclosure established in 1993 in Klamath County, Oregon, USA (42.301111, -121.018056). The two study sites have unique edaphic features that lead to differences in the ecological structure and function of the plant communities. One site (AA site) is dominated by Artemisia arbuscula (low sagebrush) while the other site (AC site) is dominated by A. cana (silver sagebrush). We found that above- and belowground net primary production at both sites were remarkably resistant to drought. Litter increased over time in drought plots at the more productive AC site, and we hypothesize that hydraulic lift and litter interacted to increase shallow soil water content under drought at that site. The AA site, with harsher edaphic features and a soil duripan, experienced fewer changes in plant community composition than the more productive AC site, potentially due to the presence of specialized plant species at the harsher site. Non-native plant cover increased (primarily from Ventenata dubia, an invasive annual grass) and native forb cover and density decreased over time. This suggests that management may be needed to conserve native forb diversity and limit species invasion, especially as climate and fire regimes change.
https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.0zpc8677v
Description of the data and file structure
# Data from: Sagebrush vegetation response to experimental drought
## Dataset: ORIDE_site_data
Provides site-level data for the 2 sites
##Dataset: ORIDE_ANPP_2016_2020
Provides data on aboveground net primary production between 2016 – 2020
Site: Unique ID for each site
Treatment: Two level factor (drought or control)
Year: 5 level factor (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020)
Time: 5 level factor (Pretreatment, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4)
ANPP: estimated aboveground net primary production (g m^-2)
##Dataset: ORIDE_BNPP_2017_2020
Provides data on belowground net primary production between 2017-2020
Site: Unique ID for each site
Treatment: Two level factor (drought or control)
Year: 4 level factor (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020)
Time: 4 level factor (Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4)
PLOT: 10 levels (5 for each treatment), represents replicate
ID: matches PLOT, except in cases where there was more than one sample collected per plot. For example, if there were 3 samples collected in plot 2 in 2017, ID would be 2.1, 2.2, 2.3.
Root mass_m2: estimated belowground net primary production (g m^-2)
Notes: provides any notes on the sample. Blank cells indicate no notes provided.
##Dataset: ORIDE_ForbCounts_2016_2020
Provides data on the density of 10 forb species in the experiment between 2016-2020
Site: Unique ID for each site
Treatment: Two level factor (drought or control)
PLOT: 10 levels (5 for each treatment), represents replicate
Species: Genus and species of the 10 species for which we collected annual density data
Lifespan: 2 level factor (Annual or Perennial). Blank cells represent unknown lifespan
Family: plant family of each species
Forbcounts: species density (m^-2)
Year: 5 level factor (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020)
Time: 5 level factor (Pretreatment, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4)
##Dataset: ORIDE_soilwater_AA_2016_2020
Excel file for the AA site with raw (uncalibrated) and mean soil moisture values (Decagon EC-5 VWC, Pullman, Washington, USA), at a temporal resolution of 4h. Soil moisture integrated over 0-10 cm soil depth. Missing values are blank.
##Dataset: ORIDE_soilwater_AC_2016_2020
Excel file for the AC site with raw (uncalibrated) and mean soil moisture values (Decagon EC-5 VWC, Pullman, Washington, USA), at a temporal resolution of 4h. Soil moisture integrated over 5-15 cm soil depth. Missing values are blank.
##Dataset: ORIDE_soilwater_AC_deep_2016_2020
Excel file for the AC site with raw (uncalibrated) soil moisture values (Decagon EC-5 VWC, Pullman, Washington, USA), at a temporal resolution of 4h. Soil moisture integrated over 20-30 cm soil depth. Missing values are blank.
##Dataset: ORIDE_SpeciesComp_2016_2020
Provides data on the species composition within one permanent 1.0 m^2 subplot of each treatment plot between 2016 – 2020
Site: Unique ID for each site
Treatment: Two level factor (drought or control)
PLOT: 10 levels (5 for each treatment), represents replicate
Year: 5 level factor (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020)
Time: 5 level factor (Pretreatment, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4)
Lifespan: 2 level factor (Annual or Perennial). Blank cells represent unknown lifespan
Lifeform: 4 level factor (Forb, Grass, Shrub, Nfixer; where N fixer means Nitrogen fixing forb)
Origin: 2 level factor (Native or Introduced). Blank cells represent unknown origin
FG: Plant Functional Group, a combination of Lifespan, Lifeform, and Origin
Species: Genus and Species of each species identified in the plots. If species epithet was unknown, the _sp is provided.
Cover: Absolute cover (%) of each species in a plot
Files and variables
File: ORIDE_ANPP_2016-2020.csv
Description: Provides data on aboveground net primary production between 2016 – 2020
Variables
- Site: Unique ID for each site
- Plot: 10 levels (5 for each treatment), represents replicate
- Treatment: Two level factor (drought or control)
- Year: 5 level factor (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020)
- Time: 5 level factor (Pretreatment, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4)
- ANPP: estimated aboveground net primary production (g m^-2)
File: ORIDE_ForbCounts_2016-2020.csv
Description: Provides data on the density of 10 forb species in the experiment between 2016-2020
Variables
- Site: Unique ID for each site
- Plot: 10 levels (5 for each treatment), represents replicate
- Treatment: Two level factor (drought or control)
- Species: Genus and species of the 10 species for which we collected annual density data
- Lifespan: : 2 level factor (Annual or Perennial). Blank cells represent unknown lifespan
- Family: plant family of each species
- ForbCounts: species density (m^-2)
- Time: 5 level factor (Pretreatment, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4)
- Year: 5 level factor (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020)
File: ORIDE_soilwater_AA_2016-2020.csv
Description: Excel file for the AA site with raw (uncalibrated) and mean soil moisture values (Decagon EC-5 VWC, Pullman, Washington, USA), at a temporal resolution of 4h. Soil moisture integrated over 0-10 cm soil depth. Missing values are blank.
Variables
- Date: Day and Year
- Time: Time of Day
- AA1_Control: AA Control replicate 1 (%)
- AA1_Drought: AA Drought replicate 1 (%)
- AA2_Control: AA Control replicate 2 (%)
- AA2_Drought: AA Drought replicate 2 (%)
- Control_mean: mean AA Control soil water (%)
- Drought_mean: mean AA Drought soil water (%)
File: ORIDE_SpeciesComp_2016_2020.csv
Description: Provides data on the species composition within one permanent 1.0 m^2 subplot of each treatment plot between 2016 – 2020
Variables
- Site: Unique ID for each site
- Plot: 10 levels (5 for each treatment), represents replicate
- Species: Genus and Species of each species identified in the plots. If species epithet was unknown, the _sp is provided
- Cover: Absolute cover (%) of each species in a plot. Data are the midpoint of canopy cover ranges.
- Year: 5 level factor (2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020)
- Time: 5 level factor (Pretreatment, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4)
- Treatment: Two level factor (drought or control)
- Lifespan: 2 level factor (Annual or Perennial). Blank cells represent unknown lifespan
- Lifeform: 3 level factor (Forb, Grass, or Shrub)
- Origin: 2 level factor (Native or Introduced). Blank cells represent unknown origin
- FG: Plant Functional Group, a combination of Lifespan, Lifeform, and Origin
File: ORIDE_soilwater_AC_2016-2020.csv
Description: Excel file for the AC site with raw (uncalibrated) and mean soil moisture values (Decagon EC-5 VWC, Pullman, Washington, USA), at a temporal resolution of 4h. Soil moisture integrated over 5-15 cm soil depth. Missing values are blank.
Variables
- Date: Day and Year
- Time: Time of Day
- AC1_Control: AC Control replicate 1 (%)
- AC1_Drought: AC Drought replicate 1 (%)
- AC2_Control: AC Control replicate 2 (%)
- AC2_D1: AC Drought replicate 2 (%)
- Control: Mean AC control soil water (%)
- Drought: Mean AC drought soil water (%)
File: ORIDE_soilwater_AC_deep_2016-2020.csv
Description: Excel file for the AC site with raw (uncalibrated) soil moisture values (Decagon EC-5 VWC, Pullman, Washington, USA), at a temporal resolution of 4h. Soil moisture integrated over 20-30 cm soil depth. Missing values are blank.
Variables
- Date: Day and Year
- Time: Time of Day
- AC2_Control: AC Control soil water (only 1 replicate; %)
- AC2_Drought: AC Drought soil water (only 1 replicate; %)
File: ORIDE_site_data.xlsx
Description: Provides site-level data for the 2 sites
File: ORIDE_BNPP_2017_2020.csv
Description: Provides data on belowground net primary production between 2017-2020
Variables
- Year: 4 level factor (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020)
- Time: : 4 level factor (Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4)
- Site: Unique ID for each site
- ID: matches PLOT, except in cases where there was more than one sample collected per plot. For example, if there were 3 samples collected in plot 2 in 2017, ID would be 2.1, 2.2, 2.3.
- Plot: 10 levels (5 for each treatment), represents replicate
- Treatment: Two level factor (drought or control)
- Rootmass_m2: estimated belowground net primary production (g m^-2)
- Notes: provides any notes on the sample. Blank cells indicate no notes provided.
Code/software
N/A
At each site (AA - Artemisia arbuscula and AC- Artemisia cana) in early to mid July of each year (2016 - 2020), we non-destructively estimated aboveground net primary production within drought (n=5) and control (n=5) plots, estimated the absolute cover of each species within the plots, and counted the seedling density of common forb species and the two focal Artemisia species. In Oct of each year, we excavated one or two root ingrowth cores and filled them each with sieved root-free soil from the sites. Each following Oct, we removed the ingrowth cores and dried and weighed the roots to estimate belowground net primary production in each plot (data for 2017 - 2020). We monitored soil water content at shallow depths in each treatment (0 – 10 cm at AA site, n =3; 5 – 15 cm at AC site, n = 2) every 4 h to evaluate the effectiveness of the drought treatment. We monitored deeper (20 - 30 cm) soil water in one plot for each treatment at the AC site, but not the AA site.