This dataset was used to create Figure 1 within the linked On the Nature of Things article. The article describes how botanists have historically contributed to the field of invasion biology and why botanists should be an important contributor in the coming years. To make this point, we compared the relative frequencies of google ngrams containing the words 'invasive species', 'invasive plants', or the sum of frequencies from several different animal taxa including: ‘invasive insects’,...

Abstract — The genus Solidago represents a taxonomically challenging group due to its sheer number of species, putative hybridization, polyploidy, and shallow genetic divergence among species. Here we use a dataset obtained exclusively from herbarium specimens to evaluate the status of Solidago ulmifolia var. palmeri, a morphologically subtle taxon potentially confined to Alabama, Arkansas, Mississippi, and Missouri. A multivariate analysis of both discrete and continuous morphological data revealed no clear distinction between S. ulmifolia var....

Arthropods are critical to the decomposition of carrion, but little is known about the biodiversity of arthropods attracted to carrion or environmental factors that shape communities. This research described carrion beetle (Coleoptera: Silphidae) and dung beetle (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Scarabaeinae and Aphodiinae) community assemblages on rat carrion across a full annual cycle (twelve contiguous months, 2016-2017). Abiotic data (light availability, wind speed, soil surface humidity, soil surface temperature) complement the beetle biodiversity data. Together, these data...