Cooperatively Improving Tallgrass Prairie with Adaptive Management
Description
These data derive from an Adaptive Management (AM) project led by The Nature Conservancy, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. The objective of this AM project is to inform managers of remnant native tallgrass prairie about which management actions (burning, grazing, or rest) are most likely to improve the condition of the prairie. Improved condition is defined as increased cover and diversity of native plants and a reduction in cover and diversity of invasive plants. The project started in 2008, and a summary of the data was completed after the first 9 years of management and monitoring activities. This summary is published in the journal Ecosphere under the title "Cooperatively Improving Tallgrass Prairie with Adaptive Management," and these are the data used in that paper. This dataset includes management actions alongside field measurements for percent cover for native plant communities, a categorization of shrub versus herbaceous vegetation, and a proportion of native plant species indicators. Structure of the data: Data are collected along 25 m transects in remnant tallgrass prairie. Transects are randomly designated 1 for every 10 acres of prairie with a maximum of 15 transects per management unit. A management unit is defined as an area that experiences the same management treatments over the 3-year time frame of the AM model. Each transect has 50 plots 0.5 m long and 0.1 m wide centered along a 25 m measuring tape.