Plant, insect, and soil microbial communities vary across brome invasion gradients in northern mixed-grass prairies

Species interactions shape native plant communities, influencing both composition and ecosystem processes, with invasion by non-native species threatening these dynamic relationships, native species, and function. The consequences of invasive plants in particular may stretch across taxa to impact plant, insect, and soil microbial communities directly and indirectly, with consequences for ecological functioning. In northern mixed-grass prairies in the United States, invasion by two annual brome grasses, Bromus arvensis and B. tectorum, negatively impacts rangeland plants; however, the simultaneous effects on insects and soil microbes (bacteria and archaea), and the implications for ecological function, have received less attention. Here, using observational field studies conducted at two mixed-grass prairie sites in Montana and Wyoming, we assessed the relationships between plants, insects, and soil microbes across gradients of invasion by B. arvensis and B. tectorum. Overall, we found d..., These datsets were collected from the Thunder Basin (TB) Ecoregion in Wyoming and Fort Keogh (FK) Livestock and Range Research Laboratory in Montana. , , # Plant, insect, and soil microbial communities vary across brome invasion gradients in northern mixed-grass prairies

Contains datasets associated with plant, insect, and soil microbial community analyses in R

-Date of data collection: 2019-2022

-Geographic location: Thunder Basin Ecoregion, Wyoming, and Fort Keogh Livestock and Range Research Laboratory, Montana. Below, Thunder Basin Ecoregion is abbreviated TB and Fort Keogh Livestock and Range Research Laboratory is abbreviated FK. Note also that BRAR = Bromus arvensis and BRTE = Bromus tectorum throughout. Many variables are repeated throughout datasets, so for readability, we define each variable once.

### **Datasets included:**

**-File list:**

**1) TB_FK_fieldwork_v5.R**

Description: R script containing workflow for this project. Imports subsequent datasets.

**2) TB_plotinfo.csv**

Description: Contains specific plot information for the study conducted in TB. Exact plot coordinates is replaced with \"null\" to protect the...