Annual Alpine Plant Demography with Spatial Coordinates from Mt. Baldy, Colorado

Annual demography data for an alpine plant community on Mt. Baldy, Colorado, collected at approximately 3540 meters above sea level. The dataset supports analyses in a 2021 Ecosphere publication and is actively used for PhD dissertation work. It updates previous years of data posted to the Dryad repository.

Use Cases

• Modeling plant survival and mortality based on the 'Died.this.census.final' and 'Survival' fields.
• Analyzing individual plant growth trajectories using the 'Length..cm.', 'Length..cm..prev', and 'Growth' columns.
• Mapping spatial distributions and patterns within plots using the 'X..cm.' and 'Y..cm.' coordinates.
• Studying reproductive output and fitness through the 'X..Capitulescences' column.
• Identifying seedling recruitment dynamics with the 'Is.seedling' indicator.

Strengths

• Includes detailed spatial coordinates ('X..cm.', 'Y..cm.') and tag offsets for precise plant location tracking.
• Contains longitudinal measures like previous year's length ('Length..cm..prev') and calculated growth ('Growth'), enabling time-series analysis.
• Data is linked to a specific peer-reviewed publication (Franzman et al., Ecosphere 2021), providing academic context.

Limitations

• The dataset is described as provisional, with further quality control and additional years of data pending.
• Row count and total temporal coverage are unknown, which may limit suitability assessment for large-scale analyses.
• Potential users are encouraged to contact the submitters prior to analysis, which may create a barrier to immediate use.

Provenance

Source

University of California, Berkeley (Author: Benjamin Blonder)

Collection Method

Field census data collected annually from marked plots in an alpine plant community.

Geography

Mt. Baldy, Colorado, USA (38.978725°N, 107.042104°W, ~3540 masl)