DOI: 10.5061/dryad.d2547d80g
title: Data from: Consequences of aboveground invasion by non-native plants into restored vernal pools do not prompt changes in belowground processes

description: Given the frequent overlap between biological plant invasion and
 ecological restoration efforts it is important to investigate their
 interactions to sustain desirable plant communities and modify long-term
 legacies both above and belowground. To address this relationship, we used
 natural reference, invaded, and constructed vernal pools in the Central
 Valley of California to examine potential changes in direct and indirect
 plant effects on soils associated with biological invasion and active
 restoration ecosystem disturbances. Our results showed that through a
 shift in vegetation composition and changes in the plant community tissue
 chemistry, invasion by non-native plant species has the potential to
 transform plant inputs to soils in vernal pool systems. In particular, we
 found that while non-native litter decomposition was driven by seasonal
 and interannual variability, associated with changes in precipitation, the
 overall decomposition for non-native litter was drastically lower than
 native species. This shift has important implications for long-term
 alterations in plant-based inputs to soils in a negative feedback to
 nutrient cycling. Moreover, these results were independent of historic
 active restoration efforts. Despite the consistent shift in plant litter
 decomposition rates and community composition, we did not detect
 associated shifts in belowground function associated with invasion by
 non-native plants. Instead, soil C:N ratios and microbial biomass did not
 differ between invaded and reference naturally occurring pools but were
 reduced in the manipulated restored pools independent of invasion levels.
 Our results suggest that while there is an observed invasive positive
 feedback aboveground, this trajectory is not necessarily represented
 belowground and restoration legacies were still dominant ten years after
 practices were applied. Restoration practices that limit invasive plant
 feedbacks and account for soil legacy recovery, therefore offer the best
 solution for disturbed ephemeral ecosystems.
description: All data presented here were collected associated from a
 long-term restoration vernal pool field site located on Travis Air Force
 Base, in Solano Co. California. Field samples  including plant materials
 and soils were collected and processed as described in the associated
 paper. 
description: There are datasets associated with this paper, associated with
 different types of samples and sample processing. These include: leaf
 litter decomposition data (ChurchillFaist_Decomposition), soil properties
 (ChurchillFaist_SoilMetrics), plant community composition
 (ChurchillFaist_PlantMultiVariate), and plant tissue chemistry data
 (ChurchillFaist_PlantUniVariate). Column names and explanations are listed
 below for each discrete dataset.
 ChurchillFaist_Decomposition: Dataframe containing weights
 associated with litter bag deployments, Year- refers to the year
 decomposition study was conducted, Pool- an ordinal assigned to identify
 the on-site location of the pool sampled, PoolType- a classification
 (factor) associated with the type of plant community, Location- a category
 within each pool associated with the position of litter bag relative to
 the microtopography of each pool (bottom, transition, edge),
 LitterPlacement- a category of either above or below the existing litter
 layer as a placement for each litter bag, Species- the species of litter
 used for decomposition; LOMU is invasive, PLCA is native, Season- refers
 to the time of year when litter bags were deployed (winter or summer),
 PropLost- the proportion of the litter mass lost relative to the original
 weight, PercentMassLoss- the percent of litter mass lost relative to the
 original weight ChurchillFaist_SoilMetrics: Dataframe
 associated with soil samples collected during April 2011, Pool- an ordinal
 assigned to identify the on-site location of the pool sampled, PoolType-
 a classification (factor) associated with the type of plant community
 growing in the pool, Location- a category within each pool associated with
 the position of litter bag, SoilCN- ratio of soil carbon to nitrogen for
 soils collected in 2011, SM- soil moisture of subsample collected
 simultaneous to other metrics (%), pH- soil pH measured using 1:3 soil to
 water ratio, Sand- soil texture fraction component sand (%), Silt- soil
 texture fraction component silt (%), Clay- soil texture fraction component
 clay (%), MicrobialBiomass- microbial biomass (mg Carbon / g dry weight
 soil) ChurchillFaist_PlantMultiVariate: Dataframe
 associated with plant count data measured in the growing season of 2011,
 Year- refers to the year species composition surveys were conducted, Pool-
 an ordinal assigned to identify the on-site location of the pool sampled,
 PoolType- a classification (factor) associated with the type of plant
 community growing in the pool, Location- a category within each pool
 associated with the position of litter bag relative to the microtopography
 of each pool (bottom, transition, edge), All remaining columns are counts
 associated with individual plant species codes. 
 ChurchillFaist_PlantUniVariate: This dataframe contains plant
 chemistry trait information for species present at the field site; samples
 collected in 2011 (Note that not all species included here were present in
 2011, and there are species also present in 2011 that were not sampled for
 chemistry due to limited sample availability), PlantType- category for
 either Native or Invasive type of plants, FxnlGroup- functional group for
 plant species, either grass or forb in this dataset, Species- scientific
 name of plant species, Code- Shorthand abbreviation for species used in
 PlantMultiVariate dataframe, Nitrogen- plant tissue percent nitrogen,
 Carbon- plant tissue percent carbon, Cellulose- plant tissue percent
 cellulose, Lignin- plant tissue percent lignin, CN- ratio of plant tissue
 carbon and nitrogen, LN- ratio of plant tissue lignin and nitrogen,
 Cell_N- ratio of plant tissue cellulose and nitrogen. Codes for species
 that were present in count surveys but not analyzed for tissue chemistry
 are also included here.