DOI: 10.5061/dryad.j9kd51c9f
title: Data from: Finding clarity in ecological outcomes using empirical integrated social-ecological systems: a case study of agriculture-dependent grassland birds

description: 1.    Efforts to monitor and conserve
 populations and ecosystems in human-dominated landscapes can benefit from
 an empirical social-ecological systems approach. 2.  
  Here we illustrate how latent variable structural equation
 modelling of regional time series data can effectively describe
 interconnected drivers of population fluctuations in dynamic landscapes
 and can help to reveal previously unknown system drivers.
 3.    Using a declining farmland-dependent bird
 species (Ammodramus savannarum) in the eastern United States (1994-2015)
 as a case study, our analysis reveals how farm management decisions drive
 population fluctuations (R2 = 20%), while management is in turn highly
 influenced by climate (R2 = 23-51%), but not by regional conservation
 spending. 4.    Synthesis and applications.
 Structural equation modelling revealed potential social-ecological
 pathways for halting regional population declines in a grassland bird, the
 Grasshopper Sparrow. Lower population growth rates followed years of
 higher hay yields (~4 percentage points per metric ton increase in hay
 yield) and later harvests (~2 percentage points per 10-day delay in
 harvest). Thus, one pathway for stabilising regional populations could
 involve compensating farmers for reducing hay harvests, potentially
 requiring a six-fold increase in current annual agri-environmental
 conservation spending.
description: This data set was gathered from various sources published by
 federal agencies and in the public domain (U.S. Department of Agriculture,
 U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, United States
 Geological Survey, United States Bureau of Labor Statistics). Two
 variables (SPEND and deltaSPEND) contain data on conservation spending
 from the EWG Conservation Database (Source: Environmental Working
 Group, www.ewg.org. Reproduced with permission). Variables were then converted into other units or processed / derived in various ways (e.g., adjusted for inflation, relativized by area). The specific data sources and processing methods used are described in detail in the Methods and Supporting Information (Appendices S2 and S3) of the accompanying manuscript (Allen, Lockwood, & Burger, 2020). Allen, M. C.; Lockwood, J.; Burger, J. (2020). Finding clarity in ecological outcomes using empirical integrated social-ecological systems: a case study of agriculture-dependent grassland birds. Journal of Applied Ecology. (Manuscript number: JAPPL-2020-00322)
description: The code and data for this study are provided as RMarkdown (.Rmd)
 and comma separated values (.csv) files, respectively. RMarkdown files are
 designed to run in the freely available RStudio program
 (https://rmarkdown.rstudio.com/) and contain both R code and formatted
 explanatory text. They can also be opened in text editing software to
 extract just the R code. If the .Rmd and .csv file are placed into the
 same folder on a computer, the code should link to the data within RStudio
 and allow reproduction of the analyses within the manuscript. Further
 instructions and comments on running the code, including descriptions of
 the variables contained within the .csv data file, are in the .Rmd
 file.