Revision of Luquillo Dataset 23: Grid Points Bird Counts from Tue, 2010-06-08 10:55
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Overview:
The Luquillo Grid Points Bird Count is a long-term observational study of the bird community at the Luquillo LTER on Puerto Rico. While Dataset 23 includes files for several sites, this description currently only covers the Luquillo Forest Dynamics Plot (aka El Verde).
Ecological Level: Community
Biome: Tropical
Location: Puerto Rico (Lat/Long)
Spatial
Scale of
data: The Luquillo Forest Dynamics Plot is a 16 ha grid and bird data is collected at 40- 25m radius sampling sites on this grid.
Timespan: 1990-2008
Frequency: 1-3 times per year
Observational/Experimental: Observational
Dataset Location:
Data collection summary: All plots are trapped for one night each month. Each plot consists of 49 permanent trapping locations. Around the new moon, a sherman trap is placed at each stake. Data is collected for each animal that is caught.
Data Collected: Species, gender, reproductive information, location caught, weight, hindfoot length, individual tag.
Issues:
1) "Monthly": While data collection is meant
to be
monthly, things happen. Trapping follows the new moon, so some years
there are
13 sample periods because there were 13 new moons in a 12 month period.
Weather, airline delays, etc, can cause sample periods to be missed, so
some
years will have less than 12 sample periods. The take home message:
different
years can have different sampling intensities. Do not simply sum all
sample
periods within a year and compare across years.
NOTE: Files for several sites can be found for Dataset 23. This description only applies to the El Verde site.