Portal Long Term Desert Plant, Ant, and Rodent Manipulation

Taxonomic Group	Herbaceous plants, Invertebrates, Mammals, Woody Plants
Level of Organization	Population, Community, Ecosystem
Scale	Local
Data Type	Experimental, Time series
Accessibility	Publicly available, EcoData Retriever ready
Data Retriever	Yes
Georeferenced	Yes

This dataset describes long-term (1977-2002) experimental manipulations of ant, plant and rodent species in a desert ecosystem, among other alterations to the system.

Data Location: Ecological Archives

Site Location: Chihuahuan Desert, near Portal, Arizona (31^(o) 56’ 20.29” N, 109^(o) 4’ 47.44” W)

Sites Georeferenced: Yes (not part of this dataset)

Timespan: 1977 - 2002

Sampling Frequency: Annually to Monthly

Methods: 24 permanent plots are assigned to various experimental manipulation; however some plots do not maintain a consistent treatment throughout the life of the study site. Plant and Rodent treatments are described in Brown, J. H. 1998. The desert granivory experiments at Portal. Pages 71-95 in W.L. Resetarits, Jr and J. Bernardo, editors. Issues and Perspectives in Experimental Ecology. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.

Data Collected: Composition and Abundance of ants, plants, and rodents; rodent species, sex, size, reproductive condition; precipitation

Citation: S. K. Morgan Ernest, Thomas J. Valone, and James H. Brown. 2009. Long-term monitoring and experimental manipulation of a Chihuahuan Desert ecosystem near Portal, Arizona, USA. Ecology 90:1708.

Available on EcoData Retriever: Yes (mammals only)**
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