Data Package Metadata View Summary

Wildflower survey data from French Broad River Basin, North Carolina, 2014

General Information

Data Package:

Local Identifier:

edi.539.2

Title:

Wildflower survey data from French Broad River Basin, North Carolina, 2014

Alternate Identifier:

DOI PLACE HOLDER

Abstract:

This dataset includes measures of the abundance of blooming wildflowers from field surveys conducted in the French Broad River Basin in western North Carolina, USA. This basin is in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Data were collected to examine the spatial and seasonal supply of biodiversity-based cultural ecosystem services (CES), in this case, nature study by viewing wildflowers. The data includes blooming species observed at 69 sites on public and private lands during the period 2014-04-01 to 2014-08-08. Flower species were characterized as charismatic if represented in tourism websites. Environmental data for 56 sites are provided: elevation, early season precipitation, mean summer temperature, land cover diversity, tree cover, vegetation structural diversity, vegetation annual productivity, and building density at local and landscape scales.

Graves et al. (2017, doi: 10.1007/s10980-016-0452-0) used these data to analyze seasonal shifts in supply of floral resources and how those shifts impacted public access to projected resource hotspots. Relationships between landscape gradients, biodiversity, and ecosystem service supply varied seasonally, and the analysis identified CES hotspots otherwise obscured by simple proxies. Landscape models of biodiversity-based cultural ecosystem services should include seasonal dynamics of biotic communities to avoid under- or over-emphasizing the importance of specific locations in ecosystem service assessments.

Publication Date:

2021-11-15

For more information:
Visit:	DOI PLACE HOLDER

Time Period

Begin:

2014-04-01

End:

2014-08-08

People and Organizations
Contact:	Graves, Rose A. [ email ]
Contact:	Pearson, Scott M. [ email ]
Creator:	Graves, Rose A.
Creator:	Pearson, Scott M.
Associate:	Turner, Monica G.
Organization:	Coweeta LTER

Data Entities
Data Table Name:	WildflowerCES_FrenchBroadRiverBasin_site_info
Description:	Site characteristics
Data Table Name:	WildflowerCES_FrenchBroadRiverBasin_species_codes
Description:	List of species observed with charismatic status. Taxonomic source: plants.usda.gov (2021)
Data Table Name:	WildflowerCES_FrenchBroadRiverBasin_flower_counts
Description:	Wildflower survey data: abundance and percent cover
Other Name:	WildflowerCES_detailed_methods
Description:	Detailed methods with literature citations

Detailed Metadata

Data Entities

Data Table


Data:	https://pasta-s.lternet.edu/package/data/eml/edi/539/2/74a9fcb7029bb48e3a1c7b786923f579
Name:	WildflowerCES_FrenchBroadRiverBasin_site_info
Description:	Site characteristics
Number of Records:	56
Number of Columns:	14

Table Structure

Object Name:

WildflowerCES_FrenchBroadRiverBasin_site_info.csv

Size:

6668 byte

Authentication:

951b63f626885cdbfa3472dcb95f7dab Calculated By MD5

Text Format:

Number of Header Lines:

Record Delimiter:

Orientation:

column

Simple Delimited:

Field Delimiter:	,
Quote Character:	"

Table Column Descriptions

site

siteno

elev_m

temperature_summer

precip_early

veg_structure

bd100

bd1000

ptree100

SIDI

longtude

latitude

ann_prd

land ownership

Column Name:

site

siteno

elev_m

temperature_summer

precip_early

veg_structure

bd100

bd1000

ptree100

SIDI

lon

lat

ann_prd

ownership

Definition:

site name

unique site number

elevation in meters a.s.l.

mean summer temperature from DayMet

cumulative precipitation from January 1 - April 1, 2014 from DayMet

vegetation structural diversity, calculated using the Shannon Evenness index using the proportion of LIDAR returns in each of four vegetation strata (i.e., herb, shrub, subcanopy, and canopy layers) within 100 m of the site center

building density within 100 of site center

building density within 1000 of site center

proportion of area within 100 m of site center covered by tree canopy

land cover diversity: Simpson’s diversity index using six land-cover categories within 200 m of site center

longitude of site center

latitude of site center

annual vegetation productivity from MODIS Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI)

land ownership type

Storage Type:

string

integer

float

string

Measurement Type:

nominal

ratio

nominal

Measurement Values Domain:

Definition

site name

Unit	number
Type	integer

Unit	meter
Type	real

Unit	celsius
Type	real

Unit	centimeter
Type	integer

Unit	number
Type	real

Unit	numberPerHectare
Type	real

Unit	numberPerHectare
Type	real

Unit	number
Type	real

Unit	number
Type	real

Unit	degree
Type	real

Unit	degree
Type	real

Unit	number
Type	integer

Allowed Values and Definitions

Enumerated Domain

Code Definition

Code	private
Definition	private land ownership
Source

Code Definition

Code	public
Definition	public land ownership
Source

Missing Value Code:

Accuracy Report:

Accuracy Assessment:

Coverage:

Methods:

Data Table


Data:	https://pasta-s.lternet.edu/package/data/eml/edi/539/2/3b9d4d1319b76d0ccb79652be34c9525
Name:	WildflowerCES_FrenchBroadRiverBasin_species_codes
Description:	List of species observed with charismatic status. Taxonomic source: plants.usda.gov (2021)
Number of Records:	230
Number of Columns:	3

Table Structure

Object Name:

WildflowerCES_FrenchBroadRiverBasin_species_codes.csv

Size:

8517 byte

Authentication:

094e99356e9a7c2a6acb2af788ffbcdf Calculated By MD5

Text Format:

Number of Header Lines:

Record Delimiter:

Orientation:

column

Simple Delimited:

Field Delimiter:	,
Quote Character:	"

Table Column Descriptions

species_code

sci_name

charismatic

Column Name:

species_code

sci_name

charismatic

Definition:

four letter abbreviation for plant species observed

scientific name with taxonomic authority. Source: plants.usda.gov (2021)

denotes charismatic species (1) based on appearance in tourism websites

Storage Type:

string

Measurement Type:

nominal

Measurement Values Domain:

Definition

four letter abbreviation for plant species observed

Definition

scientific name with taxonomic authority. Source: plants.usda.gov (2021)

Allowed Values and Definitions

Enumerated Domain

Code Definition

Code	0
Definition	not a charismatic species
Source

Code Definition

Code	1
Definition	charismatic species
Source

Missing Value Code:

Accuracy Report:

Accuracy Assessment:

Coverage:

Methods:

Data Table


Data:	https://pasta-s.lternet.edu/package/data/eml/edi/539/2/711d3c7893b453e478773dc54fea0911
Name:	WildflowerCES_FrenchBroadRiverBasin_flower_counts
Description:	Wildflower survey data: abundance and percent cover
Number of Records:	2074
Number of Columns:	9

Table Structure

Object Name:

WildflowerCES_FrenchBroadRiverBasin_flower_counts.csv

Size:

108650 byte

Authentication:

a4feb83b62f40c9aeb48afd1a70d8e08 Calculated By MD5

Text Format:

Number of Header Lines:

Record Delimiter:

Orientation:

column

Simple Delimited:

Field Delimiter:	,
Quote Character:	"

Table Column Descriptions

siteno

week

date

day_of_year

site_visit

observer

avgscore

species_code

count of individuals detected on this visit

Column Name:

siteno

week

date

day_of_year

site_visit

observer

avgscore

species_code

count

Definition:

unique site number

The week when the site visit occur, counting from 2014-04-01

date of survey

day of year that visit occurred

unique combination of site number and day_of_year

initials of person who conducted the survey

Total percent cover of flowering species along transect

four letter abbreviation for plant species observed

number of individuals detected

Storage Type:

integer

float

dateTime

float

string

float

string

float

Measurement Type:

ratio

dateTime

ratio

nominal

ratio

nominal

ratio

Measurement Values Domain:

Unit	number
Type	integer

Unit	number
Type	integer

Format	YYYY-MM-DD
Precision

Unit	number
Type	integer

Definition

unique combination of site number and day_of_year

Allowed Values and Definitions

Enumerated Domain

Code Definition

Code	MEH
Definition	Mark E. Hopey
Source

Code Definition

Code	RAG
Definition	Rose A. Graves
Source

Code Definition

Code	RAG/GL
Definition	Rose A. Graves and other
Source

Code Definition

Code	RAG_SMP
Definition	Rose A. Graves and Scott M. Pearson
Source

Code Definition

Code	SMP
Definition	Scott M. Pearson
Source

Unit	percent
Type	real

Definition

four letter abbreviation for plant species observed

Unit	number
Type	integer

Missing Value Code:

Code	-99
Expl	information not available

Accuracy Report:

Accuracy Assessment:

Coverage:

Methods:

Non-Categorized Data Resource

Name:

WildflowerCES_detailed_methods

Entity Type:

pdf

Description:

Detailed methods with literature citations

Physical Structure Description:

Object Name:

WildflowerCES_detailed_methods.pdf

Size:

158198 byte

Authentication:

1bef082d73503784c3ba699af4be8eee Calculated By MD5

Externally Defined Format:

Format Name:

pdf

Data:

https://pasta-s.lternet.edu/package/data/eml/edi/539/2/a0ca85b9784a36242c8114ae570547c3

Data Package Usage Rights

This information is released under the Creative Commons license - Attribution - CC BY (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). The consumer of these data ("Data User" herein) is required to cite it appropriately in any publication that results from its use. The Data User should realize that these data may be actively used by others for ongoing research and that coordination may be necessary to prevent duplicate publication. The Data User is urged to contact the authors of these data if any questions about methodology or results occur. Where appropriate, the Data User is encouraged to consider collaboration or co-authorship with the authors. The Data User should realize that misinterpretation of data may occur if used out of context of the original study. While substantial efforts are made to ensure the accuracy of data and associated documentation, complete accuracy of data sets cannot be guaranteed. All data are made available "as is." The Data User should be aware, however, that data are updated periodically and it is the responsibility of the Data User to check for new versions of the data. The data authors and the repository where these data were obtained shall not be liable for damages resulting from any use or misinterpretation of the data. Thank you.

Keywords

By Thesaurus:
LTER Controlled Vocabulary	flowers, flowering, species diversity, landscape, land cover, land use, forests, biodiversity
(No thesaurus)	building density, landscape pattern, angiosperm, tracheophyta, CWT LTER, southern Appalachian mountains

Methods and Protocols

These methods, instrumentation and/or protocols apply to all data in this dataset:

Methods and protocols used in the collection of this data package

Description:

Blooming wildflowers were surveyed at 69 sites located on public and private property. The study area was the upper French Broad River basin in western North Carolina, USA, in the southern Appalachian Mountains. Sites were in forested areas (n = 51) or open fields (e.g., pastures or low-intensity hay fields, n = 12) and within 150 m of trails or roads to characterize floral resources likely to be visible to people. Sites were stratified by elevation and development intensity (e.g., building density). The same sites were used to collect bird community data (Pearson and Graves 2021) for a concurrent study (Graves et al. 2019); detailed site selection methods are published (Graves et al. 2017).

To protect privacy of private landowners, a random value between -0.01 to +0.01 degree was added to the latitude and longitude coordinates of those sites. Thus, the actual sites were located within the 1.0 km2 marked by the coordinates provided in this dataset.

Flower surveys were conducted at least once every three weeks at each site, and a subset of sites was visited weekly, from April 1 to August 8, 2014. Surveys consisted of a 50 m x 2 m belt transect established at a fixed location at each site. During each visit, we tallied the number of flowering individuals by species and estimated percent cover of flowers along the transect. Total percent cover of blooming species was estimated for each 10-m section of the 50-m transect. The mean of these estimates is provided as “average cover” of flowering individuals for each site visit.

Charismatic species were determined by conducting a search of tourism websites using the terms ‘‘western North Carolina’’, ‘‘southern Appalachian Mountains’’, or ‘‘Asheville, North Carolina’’ and listing all flowering species mentioned by name or appearing in photographs on those websites. Species that appeared on >=40% of tourism websites were considered charismatic (Graves et al. 2017).

Remotely sensed and GIS data were used to derive environmental variables: local and landscape building density, land-cover diversity, tree cover, vegetation structural diversity, estimated annual productivity, and elevation. Annual productivity and elevation were extracted at the center point of each study site. The remaining variables were extracted using buffers of 100, 200, and 1000 m, depending upon the variable.

Annual vegetation productivity was extracted from a smoothed and gap-filled MODIS Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) dataset (Spruce et al. 2016). We calculated the 10-year (2004–2014) median of annual vegetation productivity for each study site. Elevation was extracted from the National Elevational Dataset-Digital Elevation Model (NED-DEM, USGS 2017).

Building density (building units per hectare) was quantified by counting the number of buildings located within 100 and 1000 m of the center of each study site to account for local and landscape scale effects of development intensity. Vegetation structure and tree cover were calculated from LIDAR (light detection and ranging) data within 100 m of the site center. Vegetation structural diversity was calculated using the Shannon Evenness index using the proportion (pi) of LIDAR returns in each of four vegetation strata (S = 4, i.e., herb, shrub, subcanopy, and canopy layers). Tree cover was recorded as the proportion of LIDAR returns within subcanopy or canopy layers (>2.0 m above ground, Graves et al. 2017). Land-cover diversity was calculated using Simpson’s diversity index with six land-cover categories (grassland/herb, shrubland, cropland, forest, developed, and other/water) within 200 m of each study site. SIDI ranges from 0 to 1.0 and describes the probability of two points chosen at random within a given area being in different land-cover types (McGarigal et al. 2012). We used the 2014 Cropland Data Layer (CDL, USDA-NASS 2014) and calculated SIDI using Fragstats (McGarigal et al. 2012).

See Graves et al. (2017) for more details of data collection and resulting analysis. See the WildflowerCES_detailed_methods.pdf file for bibliographic information for the cited sources.

==================== Data Sources =========================

Title: DayMet

URL: https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/11281

Creator: Thorton et al. 2015

Contact: ORNL DAAC uso@daac.ornl.gov

Title: MODIS NDVI Data, Smoothed and Gap-filled, for the Conterminous US: 2000-2015

URL: https://doi.org/10.3334/ORNLDAAC/1299

Creator: Spruce, J.P., G.E. Gasser, and W.W. Hargrove (2016)

Contact: ORNL DAAC uso@daac.ornl.gov

Title: National Elevation Dataset, 1/3rd arc-second Digital Elevation Models

URL: https://viewer.nationalmap.gov/

Creator: U.S. Geological Survey 2016.

Title: NC Flood Mapping: LIDAR Phase 3 all-returns data

URL: http://fris.nc.gov/fris/Download.aspx?ST=NC

Creator: Floodplain Mapping Program; Raleigh, North Carolina. NCDEM 2006.

Title: Cropland Data Layer

URL: https://nassgeodata.gmu.edu/CropScape/

Creator: USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. USDA NASS 2014.

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Description: