This is the core data for RELIX, "RELIX: a dataset of vascular plant species presence for 353 prairie remnants in the Midwestern United States, and associated dataset of prairie remnant metadata." This is data from a variety of sources that we are intending to describe in a detailed academic study.

RELIX consists of two datasets in an Excel file that I hope will be of help to you.

The first tab, called "Spp.list" is a species list consisting of two columns. Column A ("Spp.") is the scientific name of a vascular plant species observation. Taxonomy is standardized to USDA PLANTS Database (see corresponding manuscript). Column B ("Remnant") is the name of the prairie remnant in question, and can be used as the key variable for metadata about the remnants due to matching names.

The second tab is called "Metadata." This tab records data about both the prairie remnant in question and the species list itself in the other tab. Column A ("Remnant") is the name of the prairie remnant, which corresponds to the names in The Spp.list tab. Column B ("Gen.loc.") is a simple description of where the prairie is, in the format of county, state. Column C ("State") is the abbreviated state code of where the remnant is. Column D ("Sampling.year") is the year/s when the species list was produced. Column E ("Data.quality.class") is an important variable for many analyses. It consists of data quality classes- generalized descriptors reflecting how detailed or comprehensive we inferred the species list was. Column F ("Size.acr") is the approximated size of the remnant habitat in acres...this can easily be converted to hectares but acres is how most Americans measure prairie area. And this is America. Columns G ("Lat.") and H ("Long.") are latitude/longitude coordinates of the prairie remnant in question. Note these coordinates are in WGS84 and were collected using Google Maps, so those data should be easily cross-compatible with that resource. Column I ("Predom.hydrology") is the predominant hydrology of the remnant. Sites were often classified by the original data source or inferred by us in some cases as either dry/dry mesic, mesic, wet/wet mesic, or multiple (meaning multiple types of hydrology present at site). Column J ("Estimated.habitat.heterogeneity") is another very important variable that has two codes, "Single" and "Multiple." Remnants marked "Multiple" were lists that ostensibly sampled multiple broad community types (e.g., wet and dry prairie). Remnants marked "Single" had apparently more homogenous environmental/ecological characteristics of the community. Columns K and L are soil variables. Column K ("Soil.type.broad") is a generalized descriptor of the broad soil type present on the site. It is meant to be general, and many nuances may be lost therein. Column L ("Dom.soils.SoilWeb") are specific soil types we found on SoilWeb as being present at the remnant in at least ~10% of its surface area. Column M ("Prairie.subtype") is a label noting when the remnant is a special community type. Column N ("Data.source") is a citation of the data source/s for the prairie remnant species list, which is further characterized by the type of resource it is in Column Q ("Data.type"). Columns O and P are both general notes about the prairie remnant, really just random pieces of information or additional details we thought were potentially helpful/notable for aspects about the prairie remnant list or environment ("Remnant.notes"), or small notes about the process of collecting data from the data source ("Notes.on.data.entry"). See the manuscript for some additional details about procuring these data.

With these descriptions, you can now pair the raw species list tab with the metadata tab to do cool, simple analyses (see corresponding manuscript). Note that while we think our metadata are overall reliable, sometimes making calls (especially about habitat heterogeneity, hydrology, data quality) were subjective and sometimes difficult. So perhaps if you want to inspect the list and would call a species list "Medium/partial" instead of "High/very high" that could influence your analysis. Just an FYI to consider. Regardless, we hope that even if you are very selective with the data you use, or want to inspect those data for yourself, that they will be useful to you in some way. 

Another note to consider is that this resource is far from comprehensive. Many more remnant species lists are out there, but we have been working on this since late-2022, and we decided to stop rather than struggle for increasingly limited returns. I only mention this because there may yet be useful lists out there for you to find.

Anyway, enjoy, and long live the tallgrass prairie, a wonderful sea of beauty poisoned by the salts of wanton destruction.

-Jack Zinnen, UIUC, September 2024, jzinnen2@illinois.edu

Zinnen J, Chase M, Charles B, Meissen J, Matthews JW (2024): RELIX: a dataset of vascular plant species presence for 353 prairie remnants in the Midwestern United States, with prairie remnant metadata. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. https://doi.org/10.13012/B2IDB-5653911_V1