Grassland productivity data across a gradient of invasive Pinus contorta abundance, northwest Patagonia, Argentina, 2020

This dataset contains total green biomass, palatable green biomass, sheep stocking rate, Pinus contorta tree density, P. contorta basal area and percentage canopy cover in sites across northwest Patagonia, during the summer of 2020. We measured total green biomass in the peak production (kg /hectare/year), as a metric for aboveground annual productivity, in five different sites and for a wide range of P. contorta abundance. We also measured palatable green biomass (kg/hectare/year), considering only those plant species foraged by sheep. We calculated the sheep stocking rate that can sustainably support the grasslands of our study based on the feeding requirement of an Ovine Livestock Unit (OLU). The OLU represents a Merino wether (castrated male sheep) with an average live weight of 40 kg that consume 365 kg of dry forage in a year in Patagonia grasslands. We counted the number of P. contorta individuals to calculate density (trees/ha) and recorded their diameter at ground level to calculate basal area (m2/ha) (an alternative measure of P. contorta abundance). Additionally, on each subplot we took a hemispheric picture to estimate the canopy cover (%) of P. contorta (a third measure of P. contorta abundance). Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/066b0d36-d28a-422e-b29a-298c98b8a536

本数据集涵盖了2020年夏季西北巴塔哥尼亚地区各站点总绿色生物质、适口绿色生物质、绵羊载畜率、扭叶松树密度、扭叶松树基面积及树冠覆盖率。我们以峰值生产量（千克/公顷/年）为指标，在五个不同站点及扭叶松树丰度广泛范围内，测量了总绿色生物质的年度地上生产力。同时，我们测量了适口绿色生物质（千克/公顷/年），仅考虑绵羊可食用的植物种类。基于绵羊单位（OLU）的饲养需求，我们计算了能够可持续支持研究区域草原的绵羊载畜率。绵羊单位代表一只平均体重为40千克的美利奴公羊，在巴塔哥尼亚草原一年中消耗365千克的干草。我们计数扭叶松树个体数量以计算密度（棵/公顷）并记录地面水平的树径以计算基面积（平方米/公顷）（扭叶松树丰度的另一种度量）。此外，在每个子图上拍摄半球形照片以估算扭叶松树冠覆盖率（%）（扭叶松树丰度的第三种度量）。关于本数据集的详细信息，请参阅https://doi.org/10.5285/066b0d36-d28a-422e-b29a-298c98b8a536。