We conducted a study comparing the recovery of vascular plants in the Mountain ash forests of Victoria’s Central Highlands after various disturbances. Prior to disturbance, all sites had a dominant overstorey of Mountain Ash that had regenerated from the 1939 wildfire. Our sites covered four disturbance treatment types – two severities of wildfire (low and high severity) and two types of logging treatment (clearfell and salvage logging). Comparisons were made between the treated sites with undisturbed forest which were unlogged and unburnt since 1939.

The data were collected from long term monitoring sites in 2011 following the large 2009 Black Saturday wildfire. All vascular plant species were recorded along a 100 metre transect that extended centrally down the middle of each 1.0 hectare (100 x 100 metre) study sites. Plant species presence was recorded within 5 metres either side of the transect, and in three 10 x 10 metres plots situated 10–20 metres, 50–60 metres and 90–100 metres along the central transect. Clearfelled sites were logged in 2009 as well as cut unburnt forest. Slashed areas were subsequently burnt in a regeneration burn, typically 6 months post-harvest. Salvage logging also involved clearfelling, undertaken within 12 months of the 2009 Black Saturday bushfire. Forest that was salvage logged was burned at high severity.

The study concluded there were important differences in response to fire and logging. Species richness declined across the ‘disturbance gradient’ from low severity burned, high severity burned, clearfell logged to salvage logged forest, and the frequency of certain functional groups (sprouting species, ferns and midstorey trees) declined across the gradient of disturbance.

This is part of a much larger dataset that began in 1983 when the Victorian Tall Eucalypt Forest Plot Network research plots commenced. A synopsis of related data packages which have been collected as part of the Victorian Tall Eucalypt Forest Plot Network’s full program is provided at http://www.ltern.org.au/index.php/ltern-plot-networks/victorian-tall-eucalypt-forest

These data were published as a component of the paper Blair et al., in press. Disturbance gradient shows logging affects plant functional groups more than fire. Ecological Applications. DOI:10.1002/eap.1369