Data on prairie dogs, plants, arthropod biomass, and birds for Thunder Basin, Wyoming in 2017

Data were collected in 2017 by researchers at the USGS, USDA-ARS, and University of Wyoming on the food webs of plants, prairie dogs, arthropods, and birds in the Thunder Basin National Grassland. Data were collected from 87 sites in order to parameterize a structural equation model linking prairie dog impacts to changes in vegetation, arthropods, and birds. Abiotic information such as topographic wetness index, terrain roughness, and soil characteristics were estimated at the same set of plots in order to account for abiotic variation across the landscape.2017年，美国地质调查局（USGS）、美国农业部农业研究服务局（USDA-ARS）与怀俄明大学的研究人员，在雷霆盆地国家草原（Thunder Basin National Grassland）针对植物、草原犬鼠、节肢动物与鸟类的食物网开展了数据采集工作。本次研究共布设87个样地采集数据，用于构建结构方程模型（structural equation model），以关联草原犬鼠活动与植被、节肢动物及鸟类群落变化之间的关系。同时，研究团队还在全部样地中估算了地形湿度指数、地形粗糙度与土壤特性等非生物环境信息，用以校正研究区域内不同景观间的非生物因子变异。