University of Iowa · Living Laboratory

Ashton Prairie Living Laboratory

An open data hub for teaching and research datasets from a restored tallgrass prairie near Iowa City.

Living laboratory · UI SEESGeophysics dataset available nowOpen data · CC BY 4.0
About the site

A restored prairie for hands-on teaching and research

The Ashton Prairie Living Laboratory (APLL) is an 8-acre prairie restoration established in 2019 by the University of Iowa's School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability. It sits within the Ashton Cross Country Course northwest of Iowa City, beside a small stream, and serves as a hands-on teaching and research site for ecology, hydrology, and the earth sciences.

Official Ashton Prairie Living Laboratory site →

Data collections

A growing archive for teaching and research

This hub collects datasets from the Ashton Prairie Living Laboratory. Geophysical surveys are available now; additional teaching and research data will be added as they are curated. The planned collections below are placeholders for that expansion.

Available nowGeophysical surveysERT, seismic refraction, and GEM-2 EM from the April 11 and May 2 field campaigns. Interactive map and survey packages below.
PlannedHydrology & soilsSoil moisture, water levels, and soil-property observations to pair with the geophysics.
PlannedEcology & monitoringVegetation, pollinator, and long-term site-monitoring datasets from APLL research and courses.
Available dataset · Geophysics

Explore the survey layout

Filter by field date, method, or EM profile, then click any survey line or EM cell to inspect its provenance and processing notes. Individual raw survey points and the non-straight June 25 pre-processing ERT track are omitted for a cleaner field-layout view.

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Survey data packages

ERT and SRT are organized one profile per package. The May 2 GEM-2 release is one survey package containing Profiles 01–09. Each package includes data, matching locations, and a concise acquisition README.

Survey packageAcquisitionContentsAccess
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Loading…Download processing notebook · Open in Colab · Data licensed CC BY 4.0

Using this data

The Ashton Prairie Living Laboratory datasets are released for teaching and research under CC BY 4.0. Please credit the University of Iowa Ashton Prairie Living Laboratory (School of Earth, Environment, and Sustainability). A formal data descriptor for the site is planned; until it is available, cite this data hub and the linked license.