Biomass removal at the initiation of a biodiversity experiment at the Jornada Basin LTER site in 1995

This dataset contains data on vegetation biomass removed from
treatment plots during the establishment of a biodiversity
experiment at the Jornada Basin LTER site in southern New Mexico,
USA. In fall of 1995, various combinations of plant functional
groups or species were experimentally removed from 25 x 25 meter
plots with the objective to distinguish the differential effects of
plant community biomass, functional groups, and biodiversity within
functional groups on ecosystem and plant community function. Eight
different treatments were established with selective removal of
species or functional groups: control (C, no removals); four
functional group removal treatments (PG, perennial grass removed; S,
shrubs removed; SSh, subshrubs removed; Succ, succulents removed),
and three species richness manipulation treatments. Richness
manipulations included a simplified treatment (Simp), where only the
single most abundant species of each growth form is preserved and
all other species in the growth form are removed, a reduced‐Larrea
treatment (rL), where the Larrea is assumed to be the dominant and
is removed while minority components remain, and a reduced-Prosopsis
treatment (rP), where Prosopis rather than Larrea is removed as the
shrub dominant. The amount of plant material removed during the
establishment of these treatments was recorded for later use as
covariate or measure of disturbance. Removed fresh material was
weighed in the field by species, then converted to dry mass using a
subset of removed plot vegetation that was oven-dried and weighed in
the lab. Variables in this file summarize the dry mass of plants
removed by growth form (functional group, i.e. shrub, subshrub,
perennial grass, succulent), and by total live dry mass, for each
plot in the biodiversity experiment. Also provided are masses of
dead material collected from plots (same groups as live material
removed for each treatment) and total dry mass, live plus dead.
Species-level data are available upon request. This study is
complete.