CITATION.bib

@article {Ernest332783,
	author = {Ernest, S. K. Morgan and Yenni, Glenda M. and Allington, Ginger and Bledsoe, Ellen K. and Christensen, Erica M. and Diaz, Renata M. and Geluso, Keith and Goheen, Jacob R. and Guo, Qinfeng and Heske, Edward and Kelt, Douglas and Meiners, Joan M. and Munger, Jim and Restrepo, Carla and Samson, Douglas A. and Schutzenhofer, Michele R. and Skupski, Marian and Supp, Sarah R. and Thibault, Kate and Taylor, Shawn and White, Ethan and Davidson, Diane W. and Brown, James H. and Valone, Thomas J.},
	title = {The Portal Project: a long-term study of a Chihuahuan desert ecosystem},
	elocation-id = {332783},
	year = {2018},
	doi = {10.1101/332783},
	publisher = {Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory},
	abstract = {This is a data paper for the Portal Project, a long-term ecological study of rodents, plants, and ants located in southeastern Arizona, U.S.A. This paper contains an overview of methods and information about the structure of the data files and the relational structure among the files. This is a living data paper and will be updated with new information as major changes or additions are made to the data. All data - along with more detailed data collection protocols and site information - is archived at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1215988.Background and Summary Long-term studies play a key role in ecology by providing unique and often foundational insights into how nature operates (Lindenmayer et al 2012; Hughes et al 2017a). Insights from long-term studies have advanced our understanding of the rapidity of species evolution (Boag and Grant 1981; Grant 1985; Arbogast et al 2006) and contributed to the development of ecological theories (Hubbell 2001) and the discovery of anthropogenic impacts on nature (Hughes et al 2017b). Despite the importance of long-term data for understanding how ecosystems and processes change over time, less than 9\% of studies in ecology use data collected for more than a decade (Estes et al 2018). In ecology, data collection for a typical study spans fewer than 3 years (Tilman 1989, Estes et al 2018). Without institutional support (e.g. NSF-funded Long-Term Ecological Research sites), long-term projects can be difficult to maintain, vulnerable to both the vagaries of funding and to the longevity and interest of the scientist running it. Because long-term data is difficult to collect, there is often resistance by its collectors to making it publicly available (Mills et al 2015). Thus long-term data is highly valuable but also less available than other types of data.This data paper describes a publicly-available, long-term study of a Chihuahuan Desert Ecosystem near Portal, Arizona in the United States (aka the Portal Project). Started in 1977, the Portal Project encompasses over 40 years of ecological research, involving both short-term and long-term experiments and monitoring of a variety of different taxa (rodents, plants, and, for many decades, ants). These data have been used in over 100 scientific publications studying competition (e.g., Munger and Brown 1981), granivory (e.g., Chen and Valone 2017), community dynamics (e.g., Ernest et al 2008), and the long-term reorganization of the ecosystem in response to habitat conversion (e.g., Brown et al 1995). Data can be downloaded from Zenodo (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1215988). The goal of this data paper is to provide an overview of the study, our available data and its structure, and the general data collection and data entry/quality assurance/quality control processes for the different data types. Detailed protocols for data collection and curation are in the metadata associated with the archived data.},
	URL = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/11/08/332783},
	eprint = {https://www.biorxiv.org/content/early/2018/11/08/332783.full.pdf},
	journal = {bioRxiv}
}