Lasting signature of planting year weather on restored grasslands
Description
Ecological restoration — the rebuilding of damaged or destroyed ecosystems — is a critical component of conservation efforts, but is hindered by inconsistent, unpredictable outcomes. We investigated a source of this variation that is anecdotally suggested by practitioners, but for which empirical evidence is rare: the weather conditions during the first growing season after planting. The idea of whether natural communities face long-term consequences from conditions even many years in the past, called historical contingency, is a debated idea in ecological research. Using a large dataset (83 sites) across a wide geographic distribution (three states), we find evidence that precipitation and temperatures in the planting year (2-19 years before present) affected the relative dominance of the sown (native target species) and non-sown (mostly non-native) species. We find strong support for lasting planting year weather effects in restored tallgrass prairies, thereby supporting the historically contingent model of community assembly in a real-world setting.
Notes
Also included in this upload are:
"Groves-Bauer-Brudvig-2020-Seeds-Density.csv", which includes the seed mix data for the sites, that we collected from pracitioners, and our R script, "R.SCRIPT-Groves-Bauer-Brudvig-2020.R" used for data analyses and to produce figures for the paper.
The variables included in the "MASTER-DATA" dataset, and any additional notes about their origins, are as follows:
Site: A unique descriptor for each restored prairie site.
Landscape: Refers to whether the site was part of our Illinois (McHenry County Conservation District), Indiana (The Nature Conservancy's Kankakee Sands), or Michigan (private prairies restored by Native Connections, Three Rivers, MI); labeled as "MCCD", "KSands", or "MI", respectively.
First_Growing_Season: The first growing season after the prairie was planted.
Age_2016: The number of growing seasons that had passed since planting, as of 2016 when plant surveys were conducted.
Biomass: Total (dried) biomass collected from 5 1x1m plots. Plots with missing values ("NA") were mowed after plant community surveys but before biomass collection was able to take place.
Last.Burn: The number of years since the prairie last had a prescribed fire. If a site had never burned, was set to equal "Age_2016".
Rolling planting-year weather metrics, based on either degree day accumulation, or precipitation accumulation, starting March 1: Apr1.dd.accum, Apr1.precip.accum, May1.dd.accum, May1.precip.accum, Jun1.dd.accum, Jun1.precip.accum, Jul1.dd.accum, Jul1.precip.accum, Aug1.dd.accum, Aug1.precip.accum, Sep1.dd.accum, Sep1.precip.accum, summer.dd.accum, summer.precip.accum, Oct1.dd.accum, Oct1.precip.accum: For example, Apr1.dd.accum is the number of planting degree days by April 1 of the first growing season. "summer.dd.accum" is Jul 1 - Oct 1.
Additional metrics include: max.month.dd.accum, max.mean.month.precip, max.tot.month.precip, min.month.precip, high.temp, avg.high.temp, low.temp, avg.low.temp, avg.mon.rain.days, max.days.no.precip, avg.temp, spring.temp, summer.temp
Mix.Richness: The species richness of the seed mix sown to restore the site.
Based on the plant community surveys, we tallied the species richness (of all species, sown species only, and non-sown species only) for both the 1x1 m plots ("Richness.Plots") as well as for the larger site walkthrough ("Richness.Walkthru"). These two added together (without repeating species) is "Richness.Total.": Site.Richness.Walkthru, Site.Richness.Plots, Site.Richness.Total, Sown.Richness.Plots, Sown.Richness.Total, Nonsown.Richness.Plots, Nonsown.Richness.Total
Percent.of.Mix.Sp.Present: Percentage of species in the seed mix (Mix.Richness) present at the site.
Mean.Plot.Richness: Instead of total plot richness, the average across all plots.
Num.Plots: The number of plots surveyed at each site, should be 10 for Michigan and 5 for Illinois and Indiana sites.
Mean.Sown.Cover, Mean.Nonsown.Cover: Percent cover of sown and non-sown species at the 1x1m plot level. Can equal >100% because of overlapping plants.
Mix-Veg.BCdissim: Bray-Curtis dissimilarity between the composition of the seed mix and the standing plant community.
Mean.ANDGER.Cover, Mean.SOLCAN.Cover, Mean.SCHSCO.Cover, Mean.SORNUT.Cover, Mean.POAPRA.Cover, Mean.Rubus.Cover, Mean.RATPIN.Cover, Mean.DESCAN.Cover, Mean.ELYCAN.Cover, Mean.MONFIS.Cover: Percent cover of the most common sown and non-sown species, Andropogon gerardii, Solidago canadensis, Schizachyrium scoparium, Sorghastrum nutans, Poa pratensis, Rubus sp. Ratibida pinnata, Desmodium canadense, Elymus canadensis, and Mondarda fistulosa.
pH, Organic.Matter.percent, S.ppm, P.mg.per.kg, Ca.mg.per.kg, Mg.mg.per.kg, K.mg.per.kg, Na.mg.per.kg, B.half.detection, Fe.mg.per.kg, Mn.mg.per.kg, Cu.half.detection, Zn.mg.per.kg, Al.mg.kg, Clay.percent, Silt.percent, Sand.percent, Water.Holding.Capacity: Soils data.
Funding provided by: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000199
Award Number: 2016-67012-24680
Funding provided by: National Science Foundation
Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000001
Award Number: DEB-1552197
Funding provided by: National Science Foundation
Crossref Funder Registry ID: http://dx.doi.org/10.13039/100000001
Award Number: DGE-1424871
Files
Groves-Bauer-Brudvig-2020-MASTER-DATA.csv
Additional details
Related works
- Is cited by
- 10.1111/1365-2745.13250 (DOI)