Biodiversity Data Journal :
Data Paper (Biosciences)
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Corresponding author: Richard Levy (richard.levy@botanicgardens.org)
Academic editor: Quentin Groom
Received: 06 Mar 2020 | Accepted: 27 Mar 2020 | Published: 03 Apr 2020
© 2020 Richard Levy, Margo Paces, Rebecca Hufft
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
Levy R, Paces M, Hufft R (2020) Sampling event dataset for ecological monitoring of riparian restoration effort in Colorado foothills. Biodiversity Data Journal 8: e51817. https://doi.org/10.3897/BDJ.8.e51817
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The foothills and shortgrass prairie ecosystems of Colorado, United States, have undergone substantial and sustained anthropogenic habitat change over the past two centuries. Riparian systems have been dramatically altered by agriculture, hydrological engineering, urbanisation and the introduction of non-native invasive species. In 2016, Denver Botanic Gardens began a restoration effort of Deer Creek which seeks to modify the hydrology of the creek by mimicking the effects of beaver dams with artificial structures. The site, owned by the US Army Core of Engineers and managed by Denver Botanic Gardens, had been the subject of previous botanical surveys. With the initiation of the restoration project, permanent transects were established along the stream and are sampled for ground vegetation richness and abundance, canopy cover, soil and stream conditions and aquatic macroinvertebrate community makeup on an annual basis. To provide a means for tracking any post-intervention changes in the riparian ecosystem, this resource reports all recorded occurrences and measurements, along with methodologies and motivations from past and current surveys in the form of a sampling event dataset.
The current project and past surveys document 382 plant taxa and 157 aquatic macroinvertebrate taxa. A total of 16304 occurrences and 7422 measurements are included in the resource. Occurrence and measurement data taken from transects provide a means to measure species abundance, ground cover and other biotic and abiotic characteristics relevant to assessing the effects of hydrological restoration on riparian plant communities.
sampling event, riparian, ecological restoration, ecological monitoring, ground cover
Riparian corridors and waterways in the American West have been drastically altered though agricultural disturbance, hydrological engineering, exotic species introductions, urbanisation and historical exploitation of the North American beaver, Castor canadensis (
In 2016, Denver Botanic Gardens initiated long-term ecological restoration of Deer Creek in southern Jefferson County, Colorado, United States. A section of Deer Creek runs from west to east through a Jefferson County Open Space property and Denver Botanic Gardens Chatfield Farms property. The creek and its surrounding area had been subjected to human disturbance such as channelling, livestock grazing, hay production and urbanisation, dating back as far as the mid-19th century (
To track progress, we established permanent transects to monitor the ground vegetation community, canopy cover, stream conditions, water quality and aquatic macroinvertebrate diversity. Presented as a sampling event dataset, using the Darwin Core standard and relevant extensions, we provide records for all data, samples and specimens pertaining to the restoration project’s progress, as well as specimen data from previous surveys in the area of interest (
Sampling transect data were recorded to monitor any changes in ground vegetation, canopy cover, water quality and aquatic invertebrate community over the course of an ongoing restoration effort of the hydrological conditions of the stream. Herbarium specimens were collected in previous and the current surveys to document plant species richness in the areas described in this dataset and are provided here for additional context.
Deer Creek Riparian Restoration Ecological Monitoring
The study area lies within the Deer Creek Sub Watershed (Hydrological Unit Code: HUC 12 101900020702) which lies within the Upper South Platte River Watershed (HUC 8 10190002). This area, known as the Chatfield Basin, is located at the base of the foothills of the Eastern Slope of the Rockies at the intersection of the Southern Rockies, High Plains and South-western Tablelands Level III Ecoregions (
Temporary structures, designed to mimic beaver dams (Fig.
Images of artifical beaver dam channel structures and vegetation monitoring transect. a) Artificial beaver dam structure at locationID DeerCreek05 on 17 March 2017 with dry creekbed. b) Artificial beaver dam structure at locationID DeerCreek05 on 29 March 2017 with wetted creekbed. c) Artificial beaver dam structure at locationID DeerCreek05 on 10 May 2018 with wetted creekbed during growing season. d) Vegetation monitoring transect at locationID DeerCreek18 on 26 June 2019.
Funding was provided by the Borgen Family Foundation, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Five Star and Urban Waters Program, Colorado Department of Agriculture Noxious Weed Fund, Denver Debutante Ball, Jefferson County Open Space and Colorado Water Conservation Board.
Data were collected in 2015 through 2019. In 2015, a botanical survey was conducted to record and voucher plant species occurring in the area of interest for restoration. Twelve monitoring sites were established in 2016 and six were added in 2018 for a total of eighteen sites. Each site has a permanent 25-m belt transect that was surveyed once per year during the summer months. Stream and water conditions in points of stream, adjacent to transects, were sampled once per year, as were aquatic macroinvertebrates. Specimens housed in the Kathryn Kalmbach Herbarium (KHD), collected during previous surveys (
All sites were sampled once per year, during the growing season when most vegetation was mature enough to make proper species identifications.
For the first two years of monitoring (2016-2017), twelve 25-m transects were installed to measure ground and canopy cover. For ground cover, every 0.25 m was sampled via the point intercept method. Ground vegetation species were recorded as top canopy (1st hit) or lower canopy (2nd hits) and presented here as occurrences, based on human observation. In 2016 and 2017, the ground surface type was recorded only when no vegetation was present, but beginning in 2018, ground surface type was recorded every 0.25 m. Ground surface type is provided in the extendedMeasurementOrFact extension within this resource. When no vegetation was present at a point along the transect, we provide this information in the form of an occurrence record with the status "absent" and indicate the type of ground cover in the occurrenceRemarks. For canopy cover, every 0.5 m was sampled. Canopy species observed through a GRS densiometer were recorded and are provided here as occurrences, based on human observation. Any plant species observed within 1 m of either side of the transect, that were not recorded as part of the point intercept sampling, were also recorded as observation occurrences. Voucher specimens of plants were taken when identification to species was not confident or possible in the field. Sections of stream, directly adjacent to the vegetation transects, were sampled for stream conditions and water quality measurements, including stream velocity, stream depth, stream width, bank height, bank to thalweg distance, streambed substrate at thalweg, water surface to bankful distance, wetted channel width, estimated percent of pools, estimated percent of runs, estimated percent of riffles, estimated percent of undercut bank, water nitrogen levels, E. coli content, dissolved oxygen, water temperature, electrical conductivity, pH, coliform levels, total dissolved solids and visual condition of water in stream. Water samples were sent to a contractor for measurements. Aquatic macroinvertebrate communities were also sampled within the stream and sent to a contractor for sorting and identification.
In 2018, six additional transects were added upstream of the temporarily installed dam-like structures. Several additional measurements were also recorded along the vegetation transects: soil moisture percentage was measured every 1.0 m, canopy cover percentage was measured with a spherical densiometer every 0.5 m and ground surface type, regardless of the presence of vegetation, was recorded every 0.25 m. These measurements are provided within the extendedMesurementOrFact extension of this resource.
Voucher specimens from previous botanic surveys, aimed at documenting species richness of the area, are also included in this resource as occurrences, based on preserved specimens. The property on the eastern portion of the stream reach is managed by Denver Botanic Gardens and, consequently, has been an area of thorough botanical survey. Specimen occurrence data from these varied botanical surveys is provided here to document the historical existence and/or location of plant species in the area, as this passive long-term restoration effort may rely on seedbanks and the movement or expansion of existing local populations. Methods used in previous surveys were not as well documented, but are similiar to those in
Raw data from sampling transects were checked upon transcription into digital format. Once data were submitted into a relational database, a random sample of records was produced and checked against the raw data. During ecological surveys, herbarium voucher specimens were collected when species identification could not be confidently determined in the field.
Measuring ground cover/community composition (
Measuring soil moisture (
Measuring tree canopy cover (
Recording additional species (
Water Quality Measurements (
Stream Measurements (
Bank Measurements (
Aquatic Macroinvertebrate Collection (
Data were collected from 18 sites along Deer Creek (Fig.
39.544 and 39.555 Latitude; -105.0885 and -105.136 Longitude.
Angiosperms and gymnosperms are provided as occurrences, both as preserved specimens and observations. These originate from botanical surveys, ground vegetation and canopy monitoring efforts. Invertebrate animals are provided as observation-based occurrence data. Invertebrate samples were collected as part of the aquatic macroinvertebrate surveys within the stream and sent to a contractor laboratory for identification and analysis.
Rank | Scientific Name | Common Name |
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phylum | Tracheophyta | vascular plants |
kingdom | Animalia | animals |
Three botanical survey efforts were undertaken prior to implementation of restoration effort and ecological monitoring.
Column label | Column description |
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eventID | An identifier for the set of information associated with an Event (something that occurs at a place and time). May be a global unique identifier or an identifier specific to the dataset. |
parentEventID | An identifier for the broader Event that groups this and potentially other Events. http://rs.tdwg.org/dwc/terms/parentEventIDAn identifier for the broader Event that groups this and potentially other Events. |
samplingProtocol | The name of, reference to, or description of the method or protocol used during an Event. |
sampleSizeValue | A numeric value for a measurement of the size (time duration, length, area or volume) of a sample in a sampling event. |
sampleSizeUnit | The unit of measurement of the size (time duration, length, area or volume) of a sample in a sampling event. |
samplingEffort | The amount of effort expended during an Event. |
eventDate | The date-time or interval during which an Event occurred. For occurrences, this is the date-time when the event was recorded. Not suitable for a time in a geological context. |
habitat | A category or description of the habitat in which the Event occurred. |
eventRemarks | Comments or notes about the Event. |
locationID | An identifier for the set of location information (data associated with dcterms:Location). May be a global unique identifier or an identifier specific to the dataset. |
country | The name of the country or major administrative unit in which the Location occurs. |
stateProvince | The name of the next smaller administrative region than country (state, province, canton, department, region etc.) in which the Location occurs. |
county | The full, unabbreviated name of the next smaller administrative region than stateProvince (county, shire, department etc.) in which the Location occurs. |
locality | The specific description of the place. Less specific geographic information can be provided in other geographic terms (higherGeography, continent, country, stateProvince, county, municipality, waterBody, island, islandGroup). This term may contain information modified from the original to correct perceived errors or standardise the description. |
minimumElevationInMeters | The lower limit of the range of elevation (altitude, usually above sea level), in metres. |
locationRemarks | Comments or notes about the Location. |
verbatimCoordinates | The verbatim original spatial coordinates of the Location. The coordinate ellipsoid, geodeticDatum or full Spatial Reference System (SRS) for these coordinates should be stored in verbatimSRS and the coordinate system should be stored in verbatimCoordinateSystem. |
decimalLatitude | The geographic latitude (in decimal degrees, using the spatial reference system given in geodeticDatum) of the geographic centre of a Location. Positive values are north of the Equator, negative values are south of it. Legal values lie between -90 and 90, inclusive. |
decimalLongitude | The geographic longitude (in decimal degrees, using the spatial reference system given in geodeticDatum) of the geographic centre of a Location. Positive values are east of the Greenwich Meridian, negative values are west of it. Legal values lie between -180 and 180, inclusive. |
geodeticDatum | The ellipsoid, geodetic datum or spatial reference system (SRS), upon which the geographic coordinates given in decimalLatitude and decimalLongitude are based. |
coordinateUncertaintyInMeters | The horizontal distance (in metres) from the given decimalLatitude and decimalLongitude describing the smallest circle containing the whole of the Location. Leave the value empty if the uncertainty is unknown, cannot be estimated or is not applicable (because there are no coordinates). Zero is not a valid value for this term. |
footprintWKT | A Well-Known Text (WKT) representation of the shape (footprint, geometry) that defines the Location. A Location may have both a point-radius representation (see decimalLatitude) and a footprint representation and they may differ from each other. |
georeferencedBy | A list (concatenated and separated) of names of people, groups or organisations who determined the georeference (spatial representation) for the Location. |
georeferenceRemarks | Notes or comments about the spatial description determination, explaining assumptions made in addition or opposition to the those formalised in the method referred to in georeferenceProtocol. |
Column label | Column description |
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occurrenceID | An identifier for the Occurrence (as opposed to a particular digital record of the occurrence). In the absence of a persistent global unique identifier, construct one from a combination of identifiers in the record that will most closely make the occurrenceID globally unique. |
institutionID | An identifier for the institution having custody of the object(s) or information referred to in the record. |
collectionID | An identifier for the collection or dataset from which the record was derived. |
datasetID | An identifier for the set of data. May be a global unique identifier or an identifier specific to a collection or institution. |
institutionCode | The name (or acronym) in use by the institution having custody of the object(s) or information referred to in the record. |
collectionCode | The name, acronym, coden or initialism identifying the collection or dataset from which the record was derived. |
basisOfRecord | The specific nature of the data record. |
catalogNumber | An identifier (preferably unique) for the record within the data set or collection. |
occurrenceRemarks | Comments or notes about the Occurrence. |
recordNumber | An identifier given to the Occurrence at the time it was recorded. Often serves as a link between field notes and an Occurrence record, such as a specimen collector's number. |
recordedBy | A list (concatenated and separated) of names of people, groups or organisations responsible for recording the original Occurrence. The primary collector or observer, especially one who applies a personal identifier (recordNumber), should be listed first. |
individualCount | The number of individuals represented, present at the time of the Occurrence. |
reproductiveCondition | The reproductive condition of the biological individual(s) represented in the Occurrence. |
occurrenceStatus | A statement about the presence or absence of a Taxon at a Location. |
associatedTaxa | A list (concatenated and separated) of identifiers or names of taxa and their associations with the Occurrence. |
identifiedBy | A list (concatenated and separated) of names of people, groups or organisations who assigned the Taxon to the subject. |
dateIdentified | The date on which the subject was identified as representing the Taxon. |
identificationReferences | A list (concatenated and separated) of references (publication, global unique identifier, URI) used in the Identification. |
identificationRemarks | Comments or notes about the Identification. |
nameAccordingToID | An identifier for the source in which the specific taxon concept circumscription is defined or implied. See nameAccordingTo. |
scientificName | The full scientific name, with authorship and date information, if known. When forming part of an Identification, this should be the name in lowest level taxonomic rank that can be determined. This term should not contain identification qualifications, which should, instead, be supplied in the IdentificationQualifier term. |
kingdom | The full scientific name of the kingdom in which the taxon is classified. |
phylum | The full scientific name of the phylum or division in which the taxon is classified. |
class | The full scientific name of the class in which the taxon is classified. |
order | The full scientific name of the order in which the taxon is classified. |
family | The full scientific name of the family in which the taxon is classified. |
genus | The full scientific name of the genus in which the taxon is classified. |
specificEpithet | The name of the first or species epithet of the scientificName. |
infraspecificEpithet | The name of the lowest or terminal infraspecific epithet of the scientificName, excluding any rank designation. |
taxonRank | The taxonomic rank of the most specific name in the scientificName. |
Column label | Column description |
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identifier | An arbitrary code that is unique for the resource, with the resource being either a provider, collection or media item. |
type | dc:type may take as value any type term from the DCMI Type Vocabulary. Recommended terms are Collection, StillImage, Sound, MovingImage, InteractiveResource, Text. Values may be used either in their literal form or with a full namespace from a controlled vocabulary, but the best practice is to use the literal form when using dc:type and use dcterms:type when you can supply the URI from a controlled vocabulary and implementers may require this practice. At least one of dc:type and dcterms:type must be supplied but, when feasible, supplying both may make the metadata more widely useful. The values of each should designate the same type, but in case of ambiguity dcterms:type prevails. |
subtype | Any URI may be used that provides for more specialisation than the type. Possible values are community-defined. For examples, see the non-normative page AC_Subtype_Examples. |
MetadataDate | Point in time recording when the last modification to metadata (not necessarily the media object itself) occurred. The date and time must comply with the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C) datetime practice, which requires that date and time representation correspond to ISO 8601:1998, but with year fields always comprising 4 digits. This makes datetime records compliant with 8601:2004. AC datetime values may also follow 8601:2004 for ranges by separating two IS0 8601 datetime fields by a solidus ("forward slash", '/'). See also the Wikipedia IS0 8601 entry for further explanation and examples. |
metadataLanguage | URI from the ISO639-2 list of URIs for ISO 3-letter language codes. Note: At least one of ac:metadataLanguage and ac:metadataLanguageLiteral must be supplied but, when feasible, supplying both may make the metadata more widely useful. |
metadataLanguageLiteral | Language of description and other metadata (but not necessarily of the image itself) represented as an ISO639-2 three letter language code. ISO639-1 two-letter codes are permitted but deprecated. |
providerManagedID | A free-form identifier (a simple number, an alphanumeric code, a URL etc.) that is unique and meaningful primarily for the data provider. |
WebStatement | A URL defining or further elaborating on the licence statement (e.g. a web page explaining the precise terms of use). |
associatedSpecimenReference | A reference to a specimen associated with this resource. |
accessURI | A URI that uniquely identifies a service that provides a representation of the underlying resource. If this resource can be acquired by an http request, its http URL should be given. If not, but it has some URI in another URI scheme, that may be given here. |
format | A string describing the technical format of the resource (file format or physical medium). |
Column label | Column description |
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measurementID | An identifier for the MeasurementOrFact (information pertaining to measurements, facts, characteristics or assertions). May be a global unique identifier or an identifier specific to the dataset. |
measurementType | The nature of the measurement, fact, characteristic or assertion. Recommended best practice is to use a controlled vocabulary. |
measurementTypeID | An identifier for the measurementType (global unique identifier, URI). The identifier should reference the measurementType in a vocabulary. |
measurementValue | The value of the measurement, fact, characteristic or assertion. |
measurementValueID | An identifier for facts stored in the column measurementValue (global unique identifier, URI). This identifier can reference a controlled vocabulary (e.g. for sampling instrument names, methodologies, life stages) or reference a methodology paper with a DOI. When the measurementValue refers to a value and not to a fact, the measurementvalueID has no meaning and should remain empty. |
measurementUnit | The units associated with the measurementValue. Recommended best practice is to use the International System of Units (SI). |
measurementDeterminedDate | The date on which the MeasurementOrFact was made. Recommended best practice is to use an encoding scheme, such as ISO 8601:2004(E). |
measurementDeterminedBy | A list (concatenated and separated) of names of people, groups or organisations who determined the value of the MeasurementOrFact. |
measurementMethod | A description of or reference to (publication, URI) the method or protocol used to determine the measurement, fact, characteristic or assertion. |
measurementRemarks | Comments or notes accompanying the MeasurementOrFact. |
We thank Carla DeMasters, Laura Vary, Melissa Islam, Janet Wingate, Meghan McGill, Julia Clark, Alex Seglias, Katherine Fu, Larry Vickerman and Jennifer Neale.
R.L. prepared the dataset, wrote the metadata description and wrote the manuscript. M.P. collected and transcribed much of the data, provided consultation for the metadata description and manuscript and contributed to the methodology. R.H. designed and directed the study.