Data Collection
Vegetation plots were surveyed in April (4/24/2019 – 5/8/2019), June
(6/25/2019-7/10/2019), August (8/17/2019 – 8/28/2019), and October 2019
(9/22/2019 – 10/6/2019). We identified all species present and then
visually estimated the percent cover of individual species (to the
nearest 0.5%) in each plot. We calculated species richness, evenness as
Pielou’s Evenness Index [\(J^{{}^{\prime}}=\ \frac{H^{\prime}}{H^{\prime}max}\)], and their
combined effect as Shannon diversity
[\(\left(H\right)=\ -\sum_{i=1}^{s}\text{pi}\ln\text{pi}\)].
We summed all plant species cover as a proxy measurement of plant
productivity. As an additional proxy measurement of plant productivity,
we measured the height (cm) of every plant in each plot and calculated
an average height (ground level to the tallest vegetation) per plot.