This data was produced as part of field experiment investigating the extent, drivers, and consequences of functional trait variation in cover crops. Specifically, we studied the role of intraspecific trait variation in explaining interactions between species in cover crop mixtures, and whether and how intraspecific trait variation improves understanding of relationships between functional traits and ecosystem services from cover crops.
This dataset contains three data files used in: Blesh, J. 2017. Functional traits in cover crop mixtures: biological nitrogen fixation and multifunctionality. Journal of Applied Ecology. There are also three corresponding metadata files.
The file “Ecosystem_functions_soil_species.csv” contains data organized by farm, treatment, replicate block, and species combining the fall and spring sampling time points. These data include aboveground biomass, nitrogen and carbon content, and biological nitrogen fixation for the plant species. The dataset also includes measured soil characteristics for each farm site.
The file “Ecosystem_functions_soil_treatment.csv” contains data organized by farm, treatment, and replicate block for the fall and spring sampling time points combined. These data include aboveground biomass, nitrogen and carbon content, and biological nitrogen fixation aggregated by treatment. The dataset also includes measured soil characteristics for each farm site.
The file “Traits_unstandardized.csv” contains individual plant trait data, a subset of which were used to calculate an index of functional diversity after they were standardized to have zero mean and unit variance. These data are organized by farm, treatment, replicate block, and species.
The corresponding metadata files: “Ecosystem_functions_soil_species_metadata.csv”, “Ecosystem_functions_soil_treatment_metadata.csv”, and “Traits_unstandardized_metadata.csv” provide a detailed description of all variables in each dataset and any abbreviations used.
Note: On Dec 19th 2017, the format of the files was changed to csv to aid preservation. The following information was added to the three metadata files: the name of the data file the metadata refers to, an explanation as to the meaning of blank cells in the data file, a full citation to the paper where the author describes her findings and contact information for the author.
