Fish collection and hydrological data for oxbows in western Iowa

The data set associated with this metadata is included in three separate csv files: 'Occupancy_Data', 'Stage_Raw', and 'Flood_Stage_Height'.

'Occupancy_Data' was used to fit the dynamic occupancy models and includes 17 columns: Time: time periods numbered 1 to 5; 'Oxbow': individual oxbows numbered 1 through 10; 'OxbowName': the name of each oxbow; 'Species': species encountered during sampling, numbered 1 to 16; 'SpeciesName': common and scientific names for each species; 'Occ1', 'Occ2', 'Occ3': detection (1) and non-detection data for each Time, Oxbow, Species combination across 3 survey occasions (NAs represent surveys that did not occur); Binary-coded life history characteristics (traits) for each species: 'Intolerant', 'Tolerant', 'Riverine', and 'Lacustrine'; 'MeanRelativeStage': the mean relative stage height for each oxbow during each of five time periods; 'StMeanReleativeStage' a standardized version of MeanRelativeStage (MeanRealtiveStage-mean(MeanRelativeStage)/sd(MeanRelativeStage) ); 'Connect': a binary variable indicating that the stage height in each oxbow exceeded the flood stage between time intervals, resulting in a connection event to the adjacent river (1 = yes, 0 = no); 'PresStream': a binary variable indicating whether each species was detected in each oxbow's paired stream during each time period, where NA indicates samples that did not occur; and 'PredPres': a binary variable indicating whether a predator species was detected in each oxbow's paired stream during each time period.

'Stage_Raw' contains stage height time series data for each oxbow and was used to summarize stage height conditions in each oxbow between each of the five time periods in this study. Note that oxbows B1 and H4 were excluded from the occupancy analysis because fish were never present in these oxbows.

'Flood_Stage_Height' contains oxbow-specific information including names ('Oxbow' and 'Oxbow_Name') and the stage at which each oxbow connected to its adjacent stream, 'Flood_Stage_Height'. Site coordinates ('UTM_Easting' and 'UTM Northing') are available but have been omitted because of the sensitive nature of site locations due to private property considerations and because a federally listed species is present at some locations.