Date
2011
Abstract
The germination rate of creosote (Larrea tridentata) on the Sevilleta appears to be very low. During the early years of the LTER project it was attempted to quantify such germination through the use of seedling plots which were monitored on a bi-annual basis (spring and fall). During the period from 1989 through 1992 there were no creosote seedling that germinated on the monitoring plots. In 1999 a rather sizeable population of small seedlings was observed in one quite localized area in the vicinity of Five Points. This rather large number of individuals in one very limited area raised several questions:1. When did this small community of individuals germinate- the supposition is that they had all germinated at the same time.2. What conditions existed in this particular location which allowed such prolific germination when there was no indication of virtually any other germination in this vicinty.3. The most immediate question was whether these seedlings would survive through the impending La Nina winter, spring and summer as many of the individuals did not appear to be very "healthy." To help answer these questions it was decided to begin a "small" monitoring project. All of the individuals in this small area thatappeared to be of the same age were marked with posts, located with GPS, measured (height) and photographed. This initial survey included 78 individuals. The population was resurveyed in August, 2000 and it was discovered that: 1. Many individuals were missed in the initial survey; 2. Most of the individuals (72 of 78) had survived the intervening 9 months; and 3. The average individual growth during this period was 1.4 cm. It is planned that this population will continue to be monitored (probably on an annual basis) to track survival and growth rate of these individuals.
Handle
http://hdl.handle.net/1928/30002.1
Other Identifier
SEV203
Knowledge Network for Biocomplexity (KNB) Identifier
knb-lter-sev.203.104837
Document Type
Dataset
Rights
Data Policies: This dataset is released to the public and may be freely downloaded. Please keep the designated Contact person informed of any plans to use the dataset. Consultation or collaboration with the original investigators is strongly encouraged. Publications and data products that make use of the dataset must include proper acknowledgement of the Sevilleta LTER. Datasets must be cited as in the example provided. A copy of any publications using these data must be supplied to the Sevilleta LTER Information Manager. By downloading any data you implicitly acknowledge the LTER Data Policy (http://www.lternet.edu/data/netpolicy.html).
Publisher
SEV LTER, Department of Biology, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM , 87131
Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/3744f6841c5cdccfc7d7c807467f1946
Temporal coverage
1999-11-11 - 2009-10-27
Spatial coverage
Location: The Five Points area emcompasses both the Five Points Black Grama and Five Points Creosote study sites. Five Points falls along the transition between the Chihuahuan Desert Scrub and Desert Grassland habitats. Both core sites are subject to intensive research activities, including NPP measurements, phenology observations, pollinator diversity studies, and ground dwelling arthropod and rodent population assessments. There are rain-out shelters for drought studies in both the Five Points Black Grama and Five Points Creosote sites.Vegetation: The Five Points Creosote site is characterized as Chihuahuan Desert Scrub, dominated by a creosote overstory, with broom snakeweed, purple pricklypear (Opuntia macrocentra), and soapweed yucca as co-occurring shrubs. The site is also characterized by numerous, dense, grass-dominated patches, reflecting proximity to the Five Points Black Grama Site. Dominant grasses are black grama, fluffgrass (Dasyochloa pulchellum), burrograss (Scleropogon brevifolia), bushmuhly (Muhlenbergia porteri), and galleta (Pleuraphis jamesii). Notable forbs include field bahia (Bahia absinthifolia), baby aster (Chaetopappa ericoides), plains hiddenflower (Cryptantha crassisepala), Indian rushpea (Hoffmannseggia glauca), Fendlers bladderpod (Lesquerella fendleri), and globemallows (Sphaeralcea spp.), siteid: 3
DOI
doi:10.6073/pasta/3744f6841c5cdccfc7d7c807467f1946
Permanent URL
http://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/3744f6841c5cdccfc7d7c807467f1946
Recommended Citation
Moore, Douglas I. (2011): Larrea Seedling Monitoring Study at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, New Mexico. Long Term Ecological Research Network. http://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/3744f6841c5cdccfc7d7c807467f1946
Show full metadata
knb-lter-sev.203.104837-provenance.xml (2 kB)
Show provenance metadata
knb-lter-sev.203.104837-report.html (22 kB)
Show original LTER Network Data Portal ingest report
sev203_creosoteseed_07312012.txt (39 kB)
Data in TXT format
Comments
This dataset was originally published on the Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Network Data Portal, https://portal.lternet.edu, and potentially via other repositories or portals as described. The Digital Object Identifier (DOI) of the source data package is doi:10.6073/pasta/3744f6841c5cdccfc7d7c807467f1946, and may be accessed at http://dx.doi.org/10.6073/pasta/3744f6841c5cdccfc7d7c807467f1946. Metadata and files included in this record mirror as closely as possible the source data and documentation, with the provenance metadata and quality report generated by the LTER portal reproduced here as '*-provenance.xml' and *-report.html' files, respectively.