Rodent capture data across grassland-shrubland ecotones at 3 sites in the Jornada Basin, 2004-ongoing

The objective of this study is to investigate how pulses of
precipitation translate into pulses of plant aboveground net primary
productivity (ANPP) and how the small mammal community responds to
such changes in relation to shrub gradients in northern Chihuahuan
Desert landscapes. This dataset consists of the first capture of
individuals each year that can be used to calculate an index of
relative abundance of rodents (i.e., number of unique individuals
captured by species). The first-capture data are derived from
mark-recapture sampling during 4 consecutive night trapping events
held annually in three habitat vegetation zones (grassland, ecotone,
and mesquite shrubland) at three grassland-to-shrubland ecotone
sites in the Jornada Basin, Dona Ana County, New Mexico, USA.
Variables include rodent species, sex, reproductive status, weight,
and maturity status. Also available are measures of relative
abundance and biomass of rodents in data package
knb-lter-jrn.210262010. This is an ongoing dataset.