Data from: Decoupled recovery of ecological communities after reclamation

Grassland restoration is largely focused on creating plant communities that match reference conditions. However, these communities reflect only a subset of the biodiversity of grassland systems. We conducted a multi-trophic study to assess ecosystem recovery following energy development for oil and gas extraction in northern U.S. Great Plains rangelands. We compared soil factors, plant species composition and cover, and nematode trophic structuring between reclaimed oil and gas well sites ("reclaims") that comprise a chronosequence of two – 33 years since reclamation and adjacent, undeveloped rangeland at distances of 50 m and 150 m from reclaim edges. Soils and plant communities in reclaims did not match those on undeveloped rangeland even after 33 years. Reclaimed soils had higher salt concentrations and pH than undeveloped soils. Reclaims had lower overall plant cover, a greater proportion of exotic and ruderal plant cover and lower native plant species richness than undeveloped rangeland. However, nematode communities appear to have recovered following reclamation. Although total and omni-carnivorous nematode abundances differed between reclaimed well sites and undeveloped rangeland, community composition and structure did not. These findings suggest that current reclamation practices recover the functional composition of nematode communities, but not soil conditions or plant communities. Our results show that plant communities have failed to recover through reclamation: high soil salinity may create a persistent impediment to native plant growth and ecosystem recovery.

• Resource Title: Vegetation Cover Data (xlsx).

  File Name: Sylvain et al PeerJ 2019 Vegetation data.xlsx

  Resource Description: Vegetation cover collected using percent cover estimation method. Second worksheet contains metadata including species associated with each species code found as column headers in the data worksheet and brief collection methods.




• Resource Title: Nematode trophic group data (xlsx).

  File Name: Sylvain et al PeerJ 2019 Nematode data.xlsx

  Resource Description: Nematodes identified to trophic group. Metadata including brief extraction methods and how to standardize data can be found on the second worksheet.




• Resource Title: Soil physical and chemical factors (xlsx).

  File Name: Sylvain et al PeerJ 2019 Soils data.xlsx

  Resource Description: Data for soil physical and chemical factors. Second worksheet includes metadata explaining units for each measurement in the data worksheet.




• Resource Title: Soil physical and chemical factors (csv).

  File Name: Sylvain-PeerJ-2019-Soils.csv

  Resource Description: Data for soil physical and chemical factors.




• Resource Title: Nematode trophic group data (csv).

  File Name: Sylvain-PeerJ-2019-Nematode.csv

  Resource Description: Nematodes identified to trophic group.




• Resource Title: Vegetation Cover Data (csv).

  File Name: Sylvain-PeerJ-2019-Vegetation.csv

  Resource Description: Vegetation cover collected using percent cover estimation method.




• Resource Title: Data Dictionary.

  File Name: Sylvain-et-al-PeerJ-2019-DataDictionary.csv

  Resource Description: Details Species and Habitat codes and variables for abundance data collected.