Shapefile
Tags
beavers, beaver meadows, succession, Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota
Investigation of the ecology of beaver meadows with emphasis on plant succession.
For a more readable overview of this dataset, see index.html bundled with this file. This file's primary purpose is to describe the columns of the CSV files in this archive.
This is an archival dataset. This metadata file describes all the sub-datasets:
• lines.shp - line features in the meadows, and the basis for the spatial reference information in this metadata file
• atmdepdata.csv - atmospheric deposition data
• chemdata.csv - water and resin chemistry data
• depthdata.csv - well depth data for ground water monitoring
• edgedata.csv - volumes collected in flow traps at the edge of meadows
• etdata.csv - evapotranspiration measurements
• gaugedata.csv - staff gauge water level measurements
• iscodata.csv - pond water chemistry samples
• lightdata.csv - light (PAR) penetration measurements
• metdata.csv - meteorological observations
• soildata.csv - soil parameters (conductivity etc.) for locations in two meadows, circa 1998,
• suppdata.csv - supplemental data (coordinates, missing values, etc.) about all other datasets
• vegdata.csv - vegetation community and abundance data
The data collected here integrates observations from several studies. For an overview of the layout of study points in Blue Fin and Found meadows, see the maps in the maps folder. The Upper and Lower Shoepack meadows were less intensively studied.
In the early 1990s fertilizer amendment trials were started:
Fertilizer plot refers to a plot that was amended with nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P). The circular plots were 3 m in diameter and bordered with roofing rubber from about 10 cm below ground to 20 cm above ground. Deer exclosure fences also surrounded each plot.
There where six treatment levels plus a control, each replicated twice within each of five meadows (Upper Shoepack, Lower Shoepack, Upper Blue Fin, Lower Blue Fin and Found Pond) for a total of 7 * 2 * 5 = 70 plots. N and P treatment levels were as follows:
(g / m2 / year)
Trt# N P N:P
1 18 6 3:1
2 2 2 1:1
3 6 0.667 9:1
4 6 2 3:1
5 6 6 1:1
6 18 2 9:1
C 0 0 N/A
Applications were made with backpack sprayers using NH4Cl and a 45% to 55% mixture of monosodium and disodium phosphate, to balance pH to near 7. Application rates are as PO4-P. Applications were made in spring from 1991 to 1997. The application rate for 1991 was 1.5 times that shown above, reduced because of chemical burn issues.
Stand pipes, the HS series stand pipes, were associated with each of these fertilizer plots. More standpipes (GS series) were added to Blue Fin and Found meadows in 1995-1997, in a grid layout intended to map water table levels.
Resin bags, small bags of ion exchange resin made of pantyhose mesh cinched with cable ties, were buried in the top soil in the fertilizer plots and adjacent to the GS stand pipes.
resin methods papers: Binkley and Matson, Soil Science Society of America Journal, vol. 47 pp. 1050..1052, Hart and Firestone, Can. J of Forest Research, vol 19 pp185..191
resin suppliers: Fisher Scientific Rexyn I-300 , the bags are made with 3 inch cable ties, filled with 5 to 10g +/- 0.1g resin, closed with nylon string tied securely.
Vegetation community structure was characterized annually within the fertilizer plots, and in quadrats adjacent to the GS stand pipes.
Meteorological stations were set up in both Blue Fin and Found meadows. These meadows also had automated ISCO water samplers in their ponds in deep water adjacent to the dam. ISCO samples were stabilized by placing a few milliliters of concentrated sulfuric acid in the bottom of the empty sample bottles.
The following papers give additional information about these datasets:
Allison, D. W., H. D. Mooers, C. A. Johnston, J. Pastor, and T. Brown. 1999. Use of a Hemispherical Chamber for Measurement of Evapotranspiration in a Boreal Forest Wetland Ecosystem (poster). Geological Society of America Annual Meeting, Denver, CO.
Aronson, J. J., and H. D. Mooers. 1998. Construction and monitoring of weirs in remote locations (poster). Page 95 inMinnesota Water '98, Collection of Abstracts. Minnesota Water Resources Center, Minneapolis, MN.
Brown, T. N., M. Bourdaghs, B. W. Dewey, C. A. Johnston, and J. Pastor. 2000a. Vertical N distribution and light interception as a mechanism for direct competition between sedges and grasses. Page 63 inAbstracts, 85th Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America, Snowbird, UT.
Brown, T. N., C. A. Johnston, and K. R. Cahow. 2003. Lateral flow routing into a wetland: field and model perspectives. Geomorphology 53:11-23.
Cahow, K. R., and H. D. Mooers. 1998. Hydrology of a beaver meadow on the Kabetogama Peninsula, Voyageurs National Park, USA. Page 102 inMinnesota Water '98, Collection of Abstracts. Minnesota Water Resources Center, Minneapolis, MN.
Dewey, B., J. Pastor, C. A. Johnston, and H. Erickson. 1995. Biomass canopy allocation under different N, P, and moisture levels for selected wetland graminoid species. Bulletin of the Ecological Society of America, Program and Abstracts 80th Annual ESA Meeting 76:63.
Erickson, H. E. 1994. Nitrogen and phosphorus availability, ecosystem processes, and plant community dynamics in boreal wetland meadows. Ph.D. thesis. University of Washington, Seattle, WA.
Pastor, J., A. Downing, and H. E. Erickson. 1996a. Species-area curves and diversity-productivity relationships in beaver meadows of Voyageurs National Park, Minnesota, USA. Oikos 77:399-406.
Peterson, R. P., and H. D. Mooers. 1998. Spatial and temporal variability of evapotranspiration in boreal ecosystem beaver meadows (poster). Page 96 inMinnesota Water '98, Collection of Abstracts. Minnesota Water Resources Center, Minneapolis, MN.
Stannard, D. I. 1988. Use of a hemispherical chamber for measurement of evapotranspiration. U.S. Geological Survey Open-File Report 88-452, Denver, CO.
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Extent
| West | -92.942614 | East | -92.880920 |
| North | 48.468350 | South | 48.465502 |
| Maximum (zoomed in) | 1:5,000 |
| Minimum (zoomed out) | 1:625,000 |
These data was collected between 1990 and 2000, with the data collected between 1997 and 2000 being managed with an internal data management system. In 2016 they were reformatted with custom Python scripts to the .csv format provided here.
Shapefile containing meadow and pond perimeter and stream centerlines for Blue Fin and Found meadows. Also provides projection information for coordinates in suppdata.csv
Internal feature number.
Esri
Sequential unique whole numbers that are automatically generated.
Feature geometry.
Esri
Coordinates defining the features.
Descriptive name of the line feature
Supplementary data about the variables in other .csv files. Coordinates are in NAD83 UTM 15N, same as lines.shp.
UTM Zone 15 NAD83 Easting
UTM Zone 15 NAD83 Northing
Relative elevation, incomplete, ignore
"Tracy ID", for reference to earlier field notes
The units for the variable
Name (short description) of variable
Missing value for variable
Interval of observations, usually "IRREGULAR"
Fertilizer treatment, number, or C for control (no treatment)
The dstream ID of the spatial anchor for this data, COORD_REF groups all spatially coincident observations together
The name of the file storing the data as collected
Short name of the variable
Description of variable (or data stream)
Distance from ground surface to bottom of stand pipe
Ground surface elevation of the point associated with the variable
Distance from ground surface to top of stand pipe
Evapotranspiration measures for different plant community types
Evapotranspiration
Time of measurement as proportion of day
Date of observation
study group name
Veg. zone: Dry Calamagrostis, Med Calamagrostis, Salix, Solidago, Wet Calamagrostis
Light (Photosynthetically Active Radiation) by depth within different plant community types
Heigh above ground
Light level in 400-700 nm PAR range
Time at which series of measurements stopped
Time at which series of measurements started
species and plot id
Species assemblage: CALACANA CARELACU CARYX FORB SCIRPUS WILLOW C.CANA+C.LACU
West Middle East or North Middle South
The date of the observation, YYYYMMDDHHMMSS with the right most fields being optional
Plant species abundance in fertilizer plots and plots associated with stand pipes
estimated percent cover, mean among observers
USDA plant code (from 2016)
Meadow containing point, FP: found pond, UB: Upper Blue Fin, LB: Lower Blue Fin, BF: Blue Fin, US: Upper Shoepack, LS: Lower Shorepack
Number of the standpipe or other data collection point
The variable (or data stream) ID, links to ID in suppdata.csv
CV: fertilizer plot, GP: grid-standpipe plot
Is the measurement a regular number (True) or an annotated value (False, like s/w:14 for standing water)
The date of the observation, YYYYMMDDHHMMSS with the right most fields being optional
Depth to water table in standpipes
Depth *from top of well* to water level in well, or "dry", or s/w:x where x is the depth of standing water above the ground surface adjacent to the well.
Meadow containing point, FP: found pond, UB: Upper Blue Fin, LB: Lower Blue Fin, BF: Blue Fin, US: Upper Shoepack, LS: Lower Shorepack
Number of the standpipe or other data collection point
The variable (or data stream) ID, links to ID in suppdata.csv
Is the measurement a regular number (True) or an annotated value (False, like s/w:14 for standing water)
The date of the observation, YYYYMMDDHHMMSS with the right most fields being optional
Stream gauge (flow) data
The value of the observation, usually a number, but sometimes an annotation, like "dry"
Meadow containing point, FP: found pond, UB: Upper Blue Fin, LB: Lower Blue Fin, BF: Blue Fin, US: Upper Shoepack, LS: Lower Shorepack
Number of the standpipe or other data collection point
The variable (or data stream) ID, links to ID in suppdata.csv
Is the measurement a regular number (True) or an annotated value (False, like s/w:14 for standing water)
The date of the observation, YYYYMMDDHHMMSS with the right most fields being optional
Meteorological data from data loggers in Found and Blue Fin
The value of the observation, usually a number, but sometimes an annotation, like "dry"
Met. data location, meadow or International Falls, Duluth, or Voyageurs National Park
The variable (or data stream) ID, links to ID in suppdata.csv
at: air temp C, ba: barometer kPa, et: evaotranspiration cm, it: min temp F (IFalls), lw: lower weir FP, pl: pond level cm, ra: solar radiation, rh: relative humidity percent, rn: rain mm (BF+FP) inch (IFalls), sh: soil temp max C, sl: soil temp. min C, sn: snow inches, st: soil temp C, uw: upper weir blue fin cm, vd: vapor pressure deficit kPa?, vo: battery voltage V, vp: vapor pressure kPa?, wd: mean wind direction degrees, ws: wind speed, wt: water temp C, xt: max temp IFalls F
Is the measurement a regular number (True) or an annotated value (False, like s/w:14 for standing water)
The date of the observation, YYYYMMDDHHMMSS with the right most fields being optional
Chemical (nutrient, N, P) data in soil (resin bag) and well water
The value of the observation, usually a number, but sometimes an annotation, like "dry"
no3 / nh4 / po4
Meadow containing point, FP: found pond, UB: Upper Blue Fin, LB: Lower Blue Fin, BF: Blue Fin, US: Upper Shoepack, LS: Lower Shorepack
Number of the standpipe or other data collection point
The variable (or data stream) ID, links to ID in suppdata.csv
fert-plot-resin or grid-plot-resin or stand-pipe
Is the measurement a regular number (True) or an annotated value (False, like s/w:14 for standing water)
The date of the observation, YYYYMMDDHHMMSS with the right most fields being optional
Atmospheric deposition data from regional source (non-project data)
The value of the observation, usually a number, but sometimes an annotation, like "dry"
The variable (or data stream) ID, links to ID in suppdata.csv
no2, no3, p, s, so2
The date of the observation, YYYYMMDDHHMMSS with the right most fields being optional
Volumes in edge collectors, see Lateral flow routing into a wetland: field and model perspectives T.N. Brown, C.A. Johnston, K.R. Cahow. Geomorphology 53 (2003) 11-23. cm: measurements can be converted to ml by multiplying by 583.
The value of the observation, usually a number, but sometimes an annotation, like "dry". Convert cm: values to ml by multiplying by 583
Meadow containing point, FP: found pond, UB: Upper Blue Fin, LB: Lower Blue Fin, BF: Blue Fin, US: Upper Shoepack, LS: Lower Shorepack
Number of the standpipe or other data collection point
The variable (or data stream) ID, links to ID in suppdata.csv
Is the measurement a regular number (True) or an annotated value (False, like s/w:14 for standing water)
The date of the observation, YYYYMMDDHHMMSS with the right most fields being optional
Chemical (nutrient, N, P) data in stream water, ISCO automated sampler
Concentration
Date of observation
Year of observation
Julian day of observation
nh4 or no3
Meadow containing point, FP: found pond, UB: Upper Blue Fin, LB: Lower Blue Fin, BF: Blue Fin, US: Upper Shoepack, LS: Lower Shorepack
Soil parameter characteristics (permeability, density, silt/sand/clay etc.) See accompanying HydraulicConductivityUsinginsituWellPumpTests.pdf and GRADISTAT: A GRAIN SIZE DISTRIBUTION AND STATISTICS PACKAGE FOR THE ANALYSIS OF UNCONSOLIDATED SEDIMENTS, SIMON J. BLOTT AND KENNETH PYE, Earth Surface Processes and Landforms Earth Surf. Process. Landforms 26, 1237-1248 (2001) DOI: 10.1002/esp.261
Meadow containing point, FP: found pond, UB: Upper Blue Fin, LB: Lower Blue Fin, BF: Blue Fin, US: Upper Shoepack, LS: Lower Shorepack
Some data was reported for a depth range, some for a single depth. depth_min/max record either the range or the single depth, repeated in the latter case
Some data was reported for a depth range, some for a single depth. depth_min/max record either the range or the single depth, repeated in the latter case
Number of the standpipe
Mixed, corresponding soil parameter
For Phi measures, mm equivalent
Name of soil parameter