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Harvard Forest Data Archive

HF136

Herbaceous Species in CRUI Land Use Project at Harvard Forest 1996

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Data

Overview

  • Lead: Timothy Sipe, Richard Bowden, Charles McClaugherty
  • Investigators: Dax Bennett, Rachel Clark, Jessica Rigelman
  • Contact: Information Manager
  • Start date: 1996
  • End date: 1996
  • Status: complete
  • Location: Prospect Hill Tract (Harvard Forest)
  • Latitude: +42.53 to +42.55 degrees
  • Longitude: -72.20 to -72.17 degrees
  • Elevation: 335 to 357 meter
  • Datum: WGS84
  • Taxa: Aralia nudicaulis (wild sarsaparilla), Aster acuminatus (whorled wood aster), Clintonia borealis (blue-bead lily), Cornus canadensis (bunch berry), Epigaea repens (trailing arbutus), Gaultheria procumbens (wintergreen), Medeola virginiana (indian cucumber-root), Mitchella repens (partridgeberry), Smilacina racemosa (false solomon’s seal), Trientalis borealis (starflower)
  • Release date: 2023
  • Language: English
  • EML file: knb-lter-hfr.136.11
  • DOI: digital object identifier
  • EDI: data package
  • DataONE: data package
  • Related links:
  • Study type: short-term measurement
  • Research topic: historical and retrospective studies; large experiments and permanent plot studies; physiological ecology, population dynamics and species interactions
  • LTER core area: population studies, disturbance patterns, land use and land cover change, human-environment interactions
  • Keywords: community composition, herbs, land use, species diversity, species richness
  • Abstract:

    Forests recovering from agricultural legacies differ in many ways that influence the landscape distribution, local abundance, and dispersion of herbaceous populations, as well as patterns of species associations within the herbaceous stratum. We recorded the presence/absence of 10 herbaceous species on a 1 x 1 m resolution in a 30 x 50 m permanent plot grid in six land use legacy sites (2 plowed, 2 pastured, 2 permanent woodlot) in summer 1996 to test predictions about herbaceous species abundance, richness, dispersion patterns, patterns of association, and their relationships to forest structure, microclimates, and soil resources. The 10 species chosen differed in several ways (evergreen vs. deciduous, stature, clonal architecture, affinity for disturbed vs. undisturbed forests) that allowed us to probe the impacts of prior disturbance and current resource patterns (light, water, nutrients) on the spatial patterns of individual species and species associations.

  • Methods:

    Plot locations: Plow #1 Site: Prospect Hill Tract, Compartment # III, southern end. Plow #2 Site: Prospect Hill Tract, Compartment # III, southern end. Pasture #1 Site: Prospect Hill Tract, Compartment # I, southeastern edge. Pasture #2 Site: Prospect Hill Tract, Compartment # VIII, central edge. Woodlot #1 Site: Prospect Hill Tract, Compartment # VIII, northeastern edge. Woodlot #2 Site: Prospect Hill Tract, Compartment # VII, central.

  • Organization: Harvard Forest. 324 North Main Street, Petersham, MA 01366, USA. Phone (978) 724-3302. Fax (978) 724-3595.

  • Project: The Harvard Forest Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) program examines ecological dynamics in the New England region resulting from natural disturbances, environmental change, and human impacts. (ROR).

  • Funding: National Science Foundation LTER grants: DEB-8811764, DEB-9411975, DEB-0080592, DEB-0620443, DEB-1237491, DEB-1832210.

  • Use: This dataset is released to the public under Creative Commons CC0 1.0 (No Rights Reserved). Please keep the dataset creators informed of any plans to use the dataset. Consultation with the original investigators is strongly encouraged. Publications and data products that make use of the dataset should include proper acknowledgement.

  • License: Creative Commons Zero v1.0 Universal (CC0-1.0)

  • Citation: Sipe T, Bowden R, McClaugherty C. 2023. Herbaceous Species in CRUI Land Use Project at Harvard Forest 1996. Harvard Forest Data Archive: HF136 (v.11). Environmental Data Initiative: https://doi.org/10.6073/pasta/1add06e162f38dbe00278ea14267e535.

Detailed Metadata

hf136-01: herbaceous species

  1. site: site
    • P1: plow 1
    • P2: plow 2
    • S1: pasture 1
    • S2: pasture 2
    • W1: woodlot 1
    • W2: woodlot 2
  2. plot: plot number. Each permanent 30 x 50 m grid has 60 5 x 5 m plots. They are numbered from left to right and top to bottom across the grid. The upper left corner plot is 1 and the lower right corner plots is 60.
  3. cell: cell number. There are 25 1 x 1 m cells within each plot, also numbered left to right and top to bottom. The entire grid has 1500 1 x 1 m cells. All six sites are included in this archived file, for a total of 9000 records.
  4. number: number. Each cell has a unique number (1 through 1500) for use in digitized mapping of herb patterns. The cell numbers are assigned by grid row, with numbers 1-30 across the top row of the entire grid, cells 31-60 across the second row, etc.
  5. x: cell center X coordinate for digital mapping of herbs across the grid (unit: meter / missing value: NA)
  6. y: cell center Y coordinate for digital mapping of herbs across the grid (unit: meter / missing value: NA)
  7. aralia: presence or absence of Aralia in each 1 x 1 m cell
    • 1: present
    • 0: absent
  8. aster: presence or absence of Aster in each 1 x 1 m cell
    • 1: present
    • 0: absent
  9. clintonia: presence or absence of Clintonia in each 1 x 1 m cell
    • 1: present
    • 0: absent
  10. cornus: presence or absence of Cornus in each 1 x 1 m cell
    • 1: present
    • 0: absent
  11. epigaea: presence or absence of Epigaea in each 1 x 1 m cell
    • 1: present
    • 0: absent
  12. gaultheria: presence or absence of Gaultheria in each 1 x 1 m cell
    • 1: present
    • 0: absent
  13. medeola: presence or absence of Medeola in each 1 x 1 m cell
    • 1: present
    • 0: absent
  14. mitchella: presence or absence of Mitchella in each 1 x 1 m cell
    • 1: present
    • 0: absent
  15. smilacina: presence or absence of Smilacina in each 1 x 1 m cell
    • 1: present
    • 0: absent
  16. trientalis: presence or absence of Trientalis in each 1 x 1 m cell
    • 1: present
    • 0: absent