Wildflower survey data from French Broad River Basin, North Carolina, 2014

This dataset includes measures of the abundance of blooming wildflowers from field surveys conducted in the French Broad River Basin in western North Carolina, USA. This basin is in the Southern Appalachian Mountains. Data were collected to examine the spatial and seasonal supply of biodiversity-based cultural ecosystem services (CES), in this case, nature study by viewing wildflowers. The data includes blooming species observed at 69 sites on public and private lands during the period 2014-04-01 to 2014-08-08. Flower species were characterized as charismatic if represented in tourism websites. Environmental data for 56 sites are provided: elevation, early season precipitation, mean summer temperature, land cover diversity, tree cover, vegetation structural diversity, vegetation annual productivity, and building density at local and landscape scales. Graves et al. (2017, doi: 10.1007/s10980-016-0452-0) used these data to analyze seasonal shifts in supply of floral resources and how those shifts impacted public access to projected resource hotspots. Relationships between landscape gradients, biodiversity, and ecosystem service supply varied seasonally, and the analysis identified CES hotspots otherwise obscured by simple proxies. Landscape models of biodiversity-based cultural ecosystem services should include seasonal dynamics of biotic communities to avoid under- or over-emphasizing the importance of specific locations in ecosystem service assessments.