Search for: All records

In this dataset, we report ecophysiological variables of contrasting perennial grass (Bouteloua eriopoda, Sporobolus airoides, and Aristida purpurea) and shrub (Prosopis glandulosa, Atriplex canescens, and Larrea tridentata) functional groups before and after a series of simulated sandblasting events with various intensities and frequencies. We hypothesized that grass species are more susceptible to the resulting "sandblasting" (i.e., abrasive damage by wind-blown particulates) than shrubs, thus contributing to the shift from grass to shrub dominance. To test this, we conducted a wind tunnel experiment at the USDA Jornada Experimental Range in 2018 and 2019 growing seasons. Potted plants were subjected to different levels of sandblasting in a novel portable wind tunnel, and plants’ ecophysiological responses including leaf gas exchange and nighttime leaf stomatal conductance were quantified. All tested plants were then grown in benign greenhouse conditions to investigate plant recovery post sandblasting. This dataset contains data about plant biomass and height, leaf chlorophyll content, leaf gas exchange, stomatal conductance, and water use efficiency (WUE) under the experimental treatments above. This study is complete.