Plant cover under precipitation and nitrogen manipulation treatments at the Jornada Basin LTER site, 2006-2008

This data package contains plot cover data from a precipitation and nitrogen manipulation experiment conducted on the Jornada Experimental Range from 2006-2008. The objective of the study was to understand the interaction of precipitation and nitrogen fertilization on aboveground net primary productivity (ANPP) legacies. Rain-out shelters or supplemental irrigation were used to create 5 levels of precipitation: -80% and -50% reduced, ambient control, and +50% and +80% increased PPT. Half of the plots were randomly assigned to receive ammonium nitrate fertilizer. Plant cover was sampled with a line intercept method in fall 2006 before any treatments began, then again in fall 2007 and 2008 after treatments had been applied. Also available are soil moisture data from this study in data package knb-lter-jrn.210278001. For further information and results, see: Throop, H., L. G. Reichmann, O. Sala, and S. Archer. (2012), Response of dominant grass and shrub species to water manipulation: an ecophysical basis for shrub invasion in a Chihuahuan desert grassland. Oecologia 169: 373-383. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00442-011-2217-4 Reichmann, L. G., O. E. Sala, and D. P. C. Peters. (2013), Water controls on nitrogen transformations and stocks in an arid ecosystem. Ecosphere 4(1):11. https://doi.org/10.1890/ES12-00263.1 Reichmann, L.G., Sala, O.E. and Peters, D.P.C. (2013), Precipitation legacies in desert grassland primary production occur through previous‐year tiller density. Ecology, 94: 435-443. https://doi.org/ 10.1890/12-1237.1