Wetland compensation and its impacts on β-diversity

This is the dataset used in the Ecological Applications publication of the same name. This dataset consists of the following files:

Internal.Community.Data.txt
Regional.Community.Data.txt
Site.Attributes.txt
Year.Of.Final.Bio.Monitoring.txt

Internal.Community.Data.txt is a site and plot by species matrix. Column labeled SITE consists of site IDs. Column labeled Plot consists of Plot numbers. All other columns represent species relative abundances per plot.

Regional.Community.Data.txt is a site by species matrix of relative abundances. Column labeled site consists of site IDs. All other columns represent species relative abundances per site.

Site.attributes.txt is a matrix of site attributes. Column labeled SITE consists of site IDs. Column labeled Long represents longitude in decimal degrees. Column labeled Lat represents latitude in decimal degrees. Column labeled Richness represents species richness of sites calculated from Regional Community Data. Column labeled NAT_COMP_REST represents designation as a randomly selected natural wetland (NAT), compensation wetland (COMP) or reference quality natural wetland (REF).
Column labeled HQ_LQ_COMP represents designation as high quality (HQ), low quality (LQ) or compensation wetland (COMP). Column labeled SAMPLING_YEAR_INTERNAL represents year data used for analysis of internal β-diversity was gathered. Column labeled SAMPLING_YEAR_REGIONAL represents year data used for analysis of regional β-diversity was gathered. Column labeled TRANSECT_LENGTH represents length in meters of initial sampling transect. INAI_GRADE represents Illinois Natural Areas Inventory grades assigned to each site. Grades range from A for highest quality natural areas to E for lowest quality natural areas.

Year.Of.Final.Bio.Monitoring.txt is a table representing years of final monitoring of compensation wetlands as mandated by the US Army Corps of Engineers. Column labeled Site consists of site IDs. Column labeled YR_FIN_BIO_MON consists of years of final monitoring. Entries of N/A represent dates that were unable to be located.

More information about this dataset: Interested parties can request data from the Critical Trends Assessment Program, which was the source for data on naturally occurring wetlands in this study. More information on the program and data requests can be obtained by visiting the program webpage. Critical Trends Assessment Program, Illinois Natural History Survey. http://wwx.inhs.illinois.edu/research/ctap/