DERG Trachymene glaucifolia Dataset for MARSS models 

This dataset consists of counts of plants and seeds for the ephemeral desert herb Trachymene glaucifolia obtained from the Ethabuka and Carlo Reserves in the Simpson Desert, Australia, from 2004-2011 by the Desert Ecology Research Group (DERG) in conjunction with LTERN. It also consists of monthly rainfall data obtained from 1995-2012. Collectively, the dataset was used to construct Multivariate Auto-regressive State-Space (MARSS) models for the manuscript "Reducing common sources of uncertainty in time series population data using MARSS models". For more information see: DERG : https://www.sydney.edu.au/science/our-research/research-areas/life-and-environmental-sciences/desert-ecology.html 

We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. The authors acknowledge Aaron Greenville, Bobby Tamayo, DERG staff, LTERN, Bush Heritage Australia and ARC for funding, support and assistance in data collection, data entry and data management. 

This dataset is a subset of a larger vegetation plot dataset collected by the Desert Ecology Research Group in conjunction with LTERN. It consists of plant and seed counts for the species Trachymene glaucifolia in plots located in Ethabuka and Carlo Reserves within the Simpson Desert from 2004-2011, and rainfall data for the study sites from 1995-2012. Files have been formatted to be read into the statistical program R to construct Multivariate Auto-Regressive State-Space (MARSS) models using the MARSS package. For more information on MARSS, see: Holmes E.E., Ward E.J. & Scheuerell M.D. (2012). Analysis of multivariate time-series using the MARSS package. Version 3.4. http://cran.r-project.org/web/packages/MARSS. Holmes E.E., Ward E.J. & Wills K. (2012). MARSS: multivariate autoregressive state-space models for analyzing time series data. R Journal, 4, 11-19. Desert Ecology Plot Network 8,000 km2 in the north-eastern Simpson Desert, western Queensland Established: 1990 Aim: Track long-term shifts in biodiversity in relation to key drivers, both intrinsic to the resource-pulse dynamics and due to human disturbance. These drivers include unpredictable rainfall and droughts, fire, feral predators and grazing. Key research questions: 1) How will increased climate extremes impact on the dynamic network of interactions among species and their role in maintaining biodiversity? 2) How do complex predator-prey interactions regulate vertebrate diversity in arid Australia? Surveys: Surveys of flora and fauna are undertaken several times each year and manipulative experiments are conducted to disentangle the multiple interacting processes. Climatic variables of rainfall and temperature are recorded continuously by 13 automatic weather stations installed in 1995. 

Data not provided.