Alpine Plant Demography and Microenvironment in Gunnison National Forest

Plant census and microenvironment dataset from Mt. Baldy, Colorado, USA, 2014-2017 comprises a long-term study of alpine plant community dynamics. The data include annual census records for all plants in 50 plots, individual-level demographic estimates, and high-resolution microenvironmental and functional trait measurements. It covers several thousand individuals across approximately twenty species and highlights an apparent pattern of demographic decline.

Use Cases

• Modeling population growth and survival based on individual-level demographic estimates.
• Analyzing plant community composition shifts using annual census data from 50 plots.
• Investigating species-environment relationships using microenvironmental data at 2m resolution.
• Studying trait-based ecology using functional trait data for biomass allocation, leaf, root, seed, and floral traits.

Strengths

• Includes detailed individual-level plant data on size, reproduction, life stage, and mortality for several thousand individuals.
• Provides high-resolution (2m) microenvironmental data covering topography, soil chemistry, and temperature across the site.
• Combines long-term annual census data (2014-2017) with functional trait measurements for ecological synthesis.

Limitations

• Key metadata such as exact row count, specific column names, and license information are missing from all platform entries.
• The 'Last updated' field shows a future date (2026-04-16), indicating a potential metadata error.

Provenance

Source

Government Digital Service

Collection Method

Annual field census of 50 2x2m plots, with microenvironmental surveys and functional trait measurements.

Time Range

2014-2017

Freshness

2026-04-16 10:06:43.185593

Geography

Mt. Baldy, Gunnison National Forest, Colorado, USA