Annual grassland plant species and biomass response to rainfall x grazing treatment, Sierra Foothill Research and Extension Center, California, 2012-2015

Data associated with the publication: Hallett, Lauren M., Claudia Stein, and Katharine N. Suding. “Functional Diversity Increases Ecological Stability in a Grazed Grassland.” Oecologia, January 17, 2017, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-016-3802-3.Understanding the factors governing ecological stability in variable environments is a central focus of ecology. Functional diversity can stabilize ecosystem function over time if one group of species compensates for an environmentally-driven decline in another. Although intuitively appealing, evidence for this pattern is mixed. We hypothesized that diverse functional responses to rainfall will increase the stability of vegetation cover and biomass across rainfall conditions, but that this effect depends on land-use legacies that maintain functional diversity. We experimentally manipulated grazing in a California grassland to create land-use legacies of low and moderate grazing, across which we implemented rainout shelters and irrigation to create dry and wet conditions over three years. As such, the data include species composition and biomass data from plots that experienced a legacy of either low or moderate grazing, crossed with three rainfall treatments (drought, irrigated, and control) over three years.