Forage Resources in Warming and Removal Plots, Almont, CO, 2019

Description

This is data collected to explore the impacts of warming and dominant species removal on the quantity and quality of plants for cattle foraging. The data were collected from the Colorado low elevation site (Almont) of the Warming and Removal in Mountains experiment which examines the direct and indirect impacts of climate change on plant and soil communities. Treatments include a control, warming (+1.5C), removal of the dominant species (Wyethia Amplexicalus), and both warming and dominant species removal. The dataset includes data that were collected in 2019 as well as historical data from the site. From 2019 we have in situ air temperature contained in and soil temperature data and an assessment of plant cover from every plot. We then have a compiled set of plant traits for each of the nine most common species including the leaf nitrogen, crude protein content, and forage quality class which are used for analysis on forage quality. The dataset also includes the annual plant cover data collected at peak season from 2013 to 2021 which was compared to daily temperature and precipitation data from the same date range collected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. All reported figures and statistics published can be created from this data package.