Kenya Long-term Exclosure Experiment (KLEE) Vegetation Data 1999-2013

Herbaceous vegetation in all 18 KLEE plots has been sampled biannually (in February and June) or annually (in June) since 1995.  Sampling periods follow rainy periods that are similar in terms of average rainfall. Due to improvements in species identification, pre-1999 surveys are not fully comparable to later data. Each of the eighteen 4 ha KLEE treatment plots contains a central hectare that is divided into a 10 x 10 m grid of 100 sampling stations. Aerial plant cover and composition are assessed at these stations by counting the number of pins hit by each species over a ten-point pin frame (with vertical pins separated by 5 cm; maximum one hit per pin per species). All 100 grid points were sampled 1999-2005, and every fifth grid point (20 per plot) was sampled from 2006 to 2013 (see Fig. 2 for current vegetation sampling layout). 

This Excel datasheet contains vegetation data from 1999 – 2013. Later surveys have also been conducted and are available upon request. This Excel file is broken into the following sheets: 

o “Raw data” sheet: Scaled sum first hits data for each year (columns) organized by species, then by treatment and block. This sheet has data for all species.

o “Lumped spp.” sheet: Data are lumped together for several species that we decided needed to be treated together. (e.g. Melhania spp.)

♣ Standardizing species list:

• Aristida spp.  Aristida kenyensis

• Eragrostis tenuifolia, racemosus and B lumped together

• Justicia white and Justicia dichipteroides lumped together

• Leucas glabrata and Leucas martinensis lumped together 

• Lily A and Lily B lumped together

• Sedges (Cyperus, Mariscus and Kyllinga) lumped together

♣ After lumping, multi-species taxa include:

• Commelina spp

• Eragrostis spp

• Sedges

• Hibiscus flavifolius/aponeurus

• Leucas spp

• Melhania spp

• Plectranthus spp 

• Pseudognaphalium/Helichrysum

• Fern (<5%)

• Justicia spp (<5%)

• Lily spp (<5%)

o 5% of surveys sheet: Binary designations for whether a species occurred or not (in each plot in each year). Then calculation of the percentage of “surveys” (plots*time) that species occurred in.

o Spp >5 % sheet: first hits for only those species that occurred in at least 5% of all sampled plot*time combinations.