Presence and absence of butterflies in the Rim Fire, Stanislaus National Forest, California

These data document observed presence of butterflies in selected transects throughout the Rim Fire boundary in the Stanislaus National Forest, California. Data were collected from 2014 to 2015. Records for each year reflect five visits at about 10-14 day intervals from late May or early June through late July. Data include species detected, date, location, whether the individual was taking nectar, and if so, the nectar source and location.
Data were collected to examine relationships between abundance and occupancy of butterflies and environmental attributes including canopy cover, live ground cover, and nectar source abundance. Data also were collected to investigate whether soil and vegetation burn severity affected those same environmental attributes. Knowledge of how fire affects environmental attributes that determine the abundance and distribution of butterflies can be used to inform fire management practices for endangered and threatened species of butterflies.
The vegetation data, which serve as environmental covariates for this butterfly data, were collected at all locations where butterflies were sampled. The data publication containing these vegetation data is 'Post-fire vegetation attributes in the Rim Fire, Stanislaus National Forest, California’ (Pavlik 2016). Original metadata date was 07/08/2016. Minor metadata updates on 12/16/2016.