DOI: 10.5061/dryad.35010
title: Data from: Mediating water temperature increases due to livestock and global change in high elevation meadow streams of the Golden Trout Wilderness

description: Rising temperatures due to climate change are pushing the thermal limits
 of many species, but how climate warming interacts with other
 anthropogenic disturbances such as land use remains poorly understood. To
 understand the interactive effects of climate warming and livestock
 grazing on water temperature in three high elevation meadow streams in the
 Golden Trout Wilderness, California, we measured riparian vegetation and
 monitored water temperature in three meadow streams between 2008 and 2013,
 including two “resting” meadows and one meadow that is partially grazed.
 All three meadows have been subject to grazing by cattle and sheep since
 the 1800s and their streams are home to the imperiled California golden
 trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss aguabonita). In 1991, a livestock exclosure was
 constructed in one of the meadows (Mulkey), leaving a portion of stream
 ungrazed to minimize the negative effects of cattle. In 2001, cattle were
 removed completely from two other meadows (Big Whitney and Ramshaw), which
 have been in a “resting” state since that time. Inside the livestock
 exclosure in Mulkey, we found that riverbank vegetation was both larger
 and denser than outside the exclosure where cattle were present, resulting
 in more shaded waters and cooler maximal temperatures inside the
 exclosure. In addition, between meadows comparisons showed that water
 temperatures were cooler in the ungrazed meadows compared to the grazed
 area in the partially grazed meadow. Finally, we found that predicted
 temperatures under different global warming scenarios were likely to be
 higher in presence of livestock grazing. Our results highlight that land
 use can interact with climate change to worsen the local thermal
 conditions for taxa on the edge and that protecting riparian vegetation is
 likely to increase the resiliency of these ecosystems to climate change.
description: Willow height and
 positionPosition and height of
 each willow measured. "ID" is the willow ID, "height",
 the willow height, "date", the time of measurement,
 "exclosure", weather the willow is inside or outside the cow
 exclosure, "Latitude" and "Longitude" are
 straightforward, "distance", is the distance from the closest
 willow within the dataset, and "dataset" is the group of data
 collected together.willow_mulkey_2014.txtprobe_depthDepth of the Probe, one day in 2014.probe_attributesProbe attributes: "Meadow", is the Meadow ID, "Probe2", the Probe ID, "Lat" and "Long", are lattitude and longitude coordinates, "Veg" is the dominant type of vegetation, "Hab" is the type of habitat, "Dep", the depth of the probe when set, "Elevation", the elevation of the probe, "Exclosure", exclosure if the probe is within or outside the exclosure.temperature data"Probe2", is the probe ID, "Date", is the day of the measurement, "Tmed", median temperature value for a particular probe and day, "Tmean", mean temperature value for a particular probe and day, "Tmax", maximal temperature value for a particular probe and day,"Tmin", minimal temperature value for a particular probe and day,"Tsd", standard deviation of temperature for a particular probe and day, "T7sd.mean", 7-days moving average for the standard deviation, "T7med.mean", 7-days moving average for the median,"T7mean.mean", 7-days moving average for the mean, "T7min.mean", 7-days moving average for the minimum, "T7max.mean", 7-days moving average for the maximum, "T7sd.med", 7-days moving median for the sd, "T7med.med", 7-days moving median for the median, "T7mean.med", 7-days moving median for the mean, "T7min.med", 7-days moving median for the minimum, "T7max.med", 7-days moving median for the maximum, "year" "date", "day", "Meadow" and "week" are straightforward.temperature_data.txt