Response variable |
Ecological meaning |
Sampling period |
Simplified
description |
Plant Community Height |
It is often correlated with leaf quality,
longevity, and life-history traits. It is often used as a proxy of plant
biomass (Guimarães-Steinicke et al., 2019). |
31/Mar to 13/Sep 2021 |
Using a terrestrial laser scanner (TLS), we generated 3D point clouds of
the plot center. The 3D point clouds were classified into soil and
vegetation points, to further extract average plant community height
(Guimarães-Steinicke et al., 2019). |
Plant Greenness |
It can be related to vegetation density, chlorophyll
content, and photosynthetic activity and is normally used to detect leaf
greening up and autumn coloring timing. (Motohka et al., 2010; Cleland
et al., 2006). |
31/Mar to 13/Sep 2021 |
We installed one phenological
camera (Brinno TLC200) pointing to the center of each plot corner. For
each picture, we calculated the Green-Red Vegetation Index (GRVI)
(Motohka et al., 2010; Yin et al., 2022). |
Root Production |
It is often related to soil carbon content, cycle, and
capacity to acquire water and nutrients. It usually correlates to net
primary productivity and soil fauna activity (Ravenek et al., 2014;
McCormack et al., 2014). |
10/Mar/2021 to 03/Feb/2022 |
We scanned each
plot using minirhizotrons. We then identified the root pixels of each
scan using a Neural Network and calculated the number of root pixels per
scan (Ma & Chen 2016; Ravenek et al., 2014). |
Detritivore Feeding Activity |
Bait consumption is used as a proxy of
detritivores’ feeding activity and is correlated with root exudation,
decomposition rates, and nutrient mineralization. |
26/Feb/2021 to
03/Feb/2022 |
In-situ decomposer feeding activity was measured
using bait lamina strips, which are PVC sticks with 16 holes filled with
cellulose-based bait. In each sampling period, old laminas were removed
from the soil. The holes were rated as empty (all bait material was
consumed, indicating high feeding activity), partly empty, or filled.
Then, new laminas were inserted in the soil (Birkhofer et al., 2011;
Eisenhauer et al., 2014). |