Why I'm listing my data, but not posting my data

Most of us have data that we're done with, but are hesitant to simply make publicly available. Why? Because we worked hard to get it and because we've all also had data that we've gone back to and used again later! Of course, this attitude has the potential to greatly slow scientific advancement. Given that I'm unwilling to just make all my data or null model code freely available, I'm instead listing what I have here so that anyone can take a look and if they have an idea for how the data might be used, they can contact me and initiate collaboration. It's not giving the data away, but it might mean that others don't have to collect the same data.

I'm also a bit of a null modeler these days, so below the data list, I've indicated some models that I've worked on that might suit your data. Feel free to take a look and contact me. Again, I'm not giving these away (although for some of the more basic ones I might), but I'm happy to tag-team a research question

A final note on the data listed below. Given what I've stated above, I take part in a lot of collaborations. Some of the data listed below are data I have been using in collaborative investigations. These data are not mine to share, even in collaboration, without further involvement of the original collectors. That said, I generally only work with friendly sort of people that have already proven themselves interested in collaboration.

Vegetation Survey Data:

1. Plot and Transect Data for Forests:

A) Forest Plot Data for ~3000 10x10 m plots spanning 50,000 km square in Southern Ontario, Canada (From 1-4 plots per forest stand) Soil texture, moisture, rockiness, depth to bedrock data for plots are available. Canopy openness measures available for ~125 plots

B) Forest Transects. I have 1000 metres of transect, most frequently in ten transects of 100 metres, for a collection of fifteen forests spanning three categories of potential forest productivity. Each of these forests (1000 m transect each) were chosen because they are relatively homogeneous. These forests are in southern Ontario, Canada, and are detailed surveys of the forests in the above plot dataset.

2. Plot Data for Old Fields:

A) 49 Plots at 1x1 m from a single old field; plots randomly located; these plot data include above-ground biomass, soil total nitrogen; light penetration to ground level measured biweekly through the seasn; proportion of ramets of each species that are flowering; abundance of each species measured as number of ramets/tillers; 50 additional plots in this field have been surveyed for the presence/absence of species

B) 20 Plots at 1x1 m from each of three fields varying in how recently they have been disturbed (three disturbance treatments). Surveys were done at two times of the year for one disturbance treatment. All plots were randomly located within the field. Biomass per species per plot was also recorded, and used to calculate total plot biomass.

C) 18 Plots at 50x50 cm from a single old-field, undisturbed for 30 years. All species identified and abundance of each species measured as number of ramets/tillers. For this same field, I have 43 plots at 30x30 cm and 100 plots at 10x10 cm. For all these species, I have maximum biomass, maximum height, seed mass, and specific leaf area data.

D) 50 Plots at 1x1 m from an old-field (different from those listed above). In each plot, the total number of species were censused, as well as the total number of species that achieved flowering in the study year. For each species in this community, flowering period was recorded for 25 individuals. Specific leaf area and maximum species biomass and height was also recorded for each of these species.

3. Plot Data for Mires and Fens (note that these data are only available through collaboration with my colleagues Dr. M. Hájek and M. Horsak of Masaryk University in the Czech Republic):

A) 215 Plots (25x25cm) with all plant species identified and biomass measured for all plots.

B) 206 Plots (75x75cm) with all plant species identified and biomass measured for all plots.

C) 83 Plots (3x3m) with all plant species identified and biomass measured for all plots.

D) 37 Plots (4x4m) with all plant species identified and biomass measured for all plots.

E) Snail species presence absence from 145 treeless fens in the West Carpathian Mountains. These data also include vascular plant species richness and cover, bryophyte richness, water pH and conductivity.

Trait Data (Having grown up in the hockey-card era, I'm open to trading):

1. Species maximum height data for 3000+ species; much of this is from the literature; however, data for approximately 100 tree species in Ontario, Canada are from field measurements of as many as 100 specimens per species.

2. Species maximum biomass data for ~70 old field species

3. Specific Leaf Area for ~300 species and growing (forest, old-field, and weed species)

4. Seed mass for ~100 species collected from field, ~1116 aggregated from British Flora Database , plus several thousand species from other published sources

5. Petal Colour/Flower Colour (~3000 species) aggregated from the USDA Plants database

6. Pretty much all the species character data from the Ecological Flora of the British Isles (you're welcome to have a student aggregate it for you, but I bet you can think of other things for them to do.

7. Phenological data for ~60 species from an old field (see D above)

More to come on null model algorithms...