Biological Surveys of South Australia, Vegetation Surveys
<p>The Biological Databases of South Australia (BDBSA) is South Australia's flora and fauna database that stores and manages specimen and observation records. This record is a subset, focusing on the methodology known as the 'Biological Survey of South Australia Vegetation Surveys' and forms an important component of the BDBSA. This dataset includes vegetation structural attributes, observations on individual plants such as stem diameter, growth form, plant height, and plant community measures such as crown density, canopy cover, as well as plant occurrence data. Preliminary data associated with site description that include soil and landform related parameters are also included in this record. The resulting dataset provides a comprehensive record of plant diversity across sites ground-truthed during a diverse range of biological survey projects undertaken in South Australia and provides a basis for future updating of mapping or other relevant work such as species modelling.</p>
<p>Only validated BDBSA data is made publicly available and all records of sensitive taxa have been masked from the dataset. Data is accessible from the TERN Data Infrastructure, which provides the ability to extract subsets of vegetation data across multiple data collections and bioregions for more than 31 variables including stem diameter, tree crown extent, and number of individual plants.</p>
Simple
Identification info
- Date (Creation)
- 2011-08-23
- Date (Publication)
- 2024-05-28
- Date (Revision)
- 2025-12-11
- Edition
- 1.0
Publisher
Author
Department for Environment and Water, South Australian Government
81-95 Waymouth Street, Adelaide, South Australia, 5000, Australia
Adelaide
South Australia
5000
Australia
- Website
- https://www.tern.org.au/
- Purpose
- Data collected using the Biological Survey of SA methodology aims to substantially improve knowledge and management of the biodiversity of South Australia, as well as track the direction of long-term ecological change by: <ul style="list-style-type: disc;"> <li>determining the distribution of plant and terrestrial vertebrate species</li> <li>systematically surveying the range of major habitats via quadrat-based sampling</li> <li>collecting opportunistic data by active searching away from established quadrats</li> <li>assessing vegetation and fauna condition</li> <li>establishing baseline data for future monitoring</li> <li>producing structural and floristic vegetation maps</li></ul>
- Credit
- We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging.
- Status
- On going
Point of contact
Department for Environment and Water, South Australian Government
81-95 Waymouth Street, Adelaide, South Australia, 5000, Australia
81-95 Waymouth Street
Adelaide
South Australia
5000
Australia
Point of contact
Department for Environment and Water, South Australian Government - Smith, Felicity ()
81-95 Waymouth Street, Adelaide, South Australia, 5000, Australia
81-95 Waymouth Street
Adelaide
South Australia
5000
Australia
- Topic category
-
- Biota
- Environment
Extent
- Description
- Various locations across South Australia, including some opportunistic observations throughout Australia (excluding Tasmania).
N
S
E
W
))
Temporal extent
- Time period
- 1976-10-20
- Maintenance and update frequency
- Annually
- GCMD Science Keywords
- ANZSRC Fields of Research
- TERN Parameter Vocabulary
-
- mean canopy gap
- Metre
- mean canopy openness
- Percent
- mean crown depth
- Metre
- mean crown diameter
- Metre
- crown separation ratio average
- Unitless
- average vegetative height
- Metre
- fire present
- Unitless
- foliage projective cover
- Metre
- growth form
- Unitless
- plant cover-abundance
- Unitless
- plant presence
- Unitless
- planted status
- Unitless
- scientific name
- Unitless
- stratum of dominant species
- Unitless
- structural formation
- Unitless
- vegetation stratum category
- Unitless
- landform pattern
- Unitless
- landform element
- Unitless
- outcrop lithology
- Unitless
- outcrop ground cover
- Unitless
- soil texture
- Unitless
- surface strew lithology
- Unitless
- slope angle
- Degree
- aspect angle
- Degree
- QUDT Units of Measure
- GCMD Horizontal Resolution Ranges
- GCMD Temporal Resolution Ranges
- Keywords (Discipline)
-
- BDBSA
Resource constraints
- Use limitation
- The Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) license allows others to copy, distribute, display, and create derivative works provided that they credit the original source and any other nominated parties. Details are provided at https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- File name
- 88x31.png
- File description
- CCBy Logo from creativecommons.org
- File type
- png
- Title
- Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
- Alternate title
- CC-BY
- Edition
- 4.0
- Access constraints
- License
- Use constraints
- Other restrictions
- Other constraints
- TERN services are provided on an "as-is" and "as available" basis. Users use any TERN services at their discretion and risk. They will be solely responsible for any damage or loss whatsoever that results from such use including use of any data obtained through TERN and any analysis performed using the TERN infrastructure. <br />Web links to and from external, third party websites should not be construed as implying any relationships with and/or endorsement of the external site or its content by TERN. <br /><br />Please advise any work or publications that use this data via the online form at https://www.tern.org.au/research-publications/#reporting
- Other constraints
- Please cite this dataset as {Author} ({PublicationYear}). {Title}. {Version, as appropriate}. Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network. Dataset. {Identifier}.
Resource constraints
- Classification
- Unclassified
Distribution Information
- Distribution format
-
Distributor
Distributor
Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
80 Meiers Road, Indooroopilly, Queensland, 4068, Australia
Indooroopilly
Queensland
4068
Australia
- OnLine resource
- EcoPlots BDBSA – Vegetation Surveys Data
- OnLine resource
- EcoPlots API
- OnLine resource
- EcoPlots BDBSA – Soil and Landform
- OnLine resource
- ro-crate-metadata.json
Data quality info
- Hierarchy level
- Dataset
- Other
- Records generated as part of the Biological Survey of South Australia methodology are typically validated with representative voucher specimens lodged with the State Herbarium of South Australia and confirmed by botanical experts.<br></br> During upload all data is validated against location and temporal constraints imposed by the associated project metadata and data is subject to a variety or error feedback and ongoing outlier checks.
Resource lineage
- Statement
- The methods followed here are described at <a href="https://data.environment.sa.gov.au/Content/Publications/vegetation_survey_manual.pdf">BDBSA Vegetation Surveys</a>, which contribute data to the Biological Databases of South Australia. Detailed guidelines for the selection of survey sites, plot physical description, including soil, landform and associated vegetation are covered in this manual. <br></br>For site-specific metadata details, please see the BDBSA project list and metadata available at <a href=" https://apps.environment.sa.gov.au/emap/envmaps-query.do?cmd=su.SurveySummaryMain">BDBSA Project List and Metadata</a>. <br></br> A summary of the methods applicable for vegetation surveys are listed on the TERN Linked Data's <a href="https://linkeddata.tern.org.au/prez/bdbsa-cv/v/collection/bdbs-cv:935b53d8-e08d-4a21-83c7-1a7b427149d0">BDBSA – Controlled Vocabularies</a>.
- Hierarchy level
- Dataset
Process step
- Description
- <p>Site based (quadrat) vegetation surveys, following the Biological Survey methodology, are conducted to collect information on the presence of plant species, the cover abundance of species present, the structural composition of the vegetation, the physical environment, and the presence/absence of disturbances. For detailed protocols, please visit the "<a href="https://data.environment.sa.gov.au/Content/Publications/vegetation_survey_manual.pdf">Guide to a native vegetation survey (agricultural region) using the biological survey of South Australia methodology</a></p>
Process step
- Description
- <p>For general summary of the BDBSA vegetation survey protocols please see the following links:</p> <table> <tbody> <tr> <td><a href="https://linkeddata.tern.org.au/prez/bdbsa-cv/v/collection/bdbs-cv:15c566ba-84f9-49af-86bc-edbc1c3815ac/bdbs-cv:4685d5a2-68e7-4a68-ad86-a35ac9fc8624">Plot physical description</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="https://linkeddata.tern.org.au/prez/bdbsa-cv/v/collection/bdbs-cv:15c566ba-84f9-49af-86bc-edbc1c3815ac/bdbs-cv:572be096-a3d9-4b79-a94d-970063f4c669">Study Location Establishment Method</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="https://linkeddata.tern.org.au/prez/bdbsa-cv/v/collection/bdbs-cv:15c566ba-84f9-49af-86bc-edbc1c3815ac/bdbs-cv:596378b8-b28f-418e-aafe-92696534bb41">Fire Evidence Assessment Method</a></td> </tr> </tr> <td><a href="https://linkeddata.tern.org.au/prez/bdbsa-cv/v/collection/bdbs-cv:15c566ba-84f9-49af-86bc-edbc1c3815ac/bdbs-cv:ee399c85-9318-45cf-9d26-a5b612a7407f">Plant Opportunistic Observations Method</a></td> </tr> <td><a href="https://linkeddata.tern.org.au/prez/bdbsa-cv/v/collection/bdbs-cv:15c566ba-84f9-49af-86bc-edbc1c3815ac/bdbs-cv:e863e5bb-0f35-43a3-b563-8eef46501650">Plant Specimen Method</a></td> </tr> </tr> <td><a href="https://linkeddata.tern.org.au/prez/bdbsa-cv/v/collection/bdbs-cv:15c566ba-84f9-49af-86bc-edbc1c3815ac/bdbs-cv:5ec8d644-39af-4105-91b5-a550737def56">Structural Formation Assessment Method</a></td> </tr> <tr> <td><a href="https://linkeddata.tern.org.au/prez/bdbsa-cv/v/collection/bdbs-cv:15c566ba-84f9-49af-86bc-edbc1c3815ac/bdbs-cv:1ed926d7-b7d3-4fb4-9214-86e68ba0cbfa">Vegetation Age Class Assessment Method</a></td> </tr> </tr> <td><a href="https://linkeddata.tern.org.au/prez/bdbsa-cv/v/collection/bdbs-cv:15c566ba-84f9-49af-86bc-edbc1c3815ac/bdbs-cv:86bce58f-fb58-453b-a343-f905e3329878">Vegetation Assemblage Assessment Method</a></td> </tr> <td><a href="https://linkeddata.tern.org.au/prez/bdbsa-cv/v/collection/bdbs-cv:15c566ba-84f9-49af-86bc-edbc1c3815ac/bdbs-cv:e4293682-d889-446c-9e36-f43144faf3a0">Vegetation Canopy Cover Assessment Method</a></td> </tr> </tr> <td><a href="https://linkeddata.tern.org.au/prez/bdbsa-cv/v/collection/bdbs-cv:15c566ba-84f9-49af-86bc-edbc1c3815ac/bdbs-cv:b8357454-8d38-4169-99bc-c3afb7cb084a">Vegetation Overstorey Measurement Method</a></td> </tr> </tr> <td><a href="https://linkeddata.tern.org.au/prez/bdbsa-cv/v/collection/bdbs-cv:15c566ba-84f9-49af-86bc-edbc1c3815ac/bdbs-cv:b191a8a4-1a4d-42b8-9075-cac54b99d67a">Vegetation Species Assessment Method</a></td> </tr> </tbody> </table> <p> </p>
Reference System Information
- Reference system identifier
- EPSG/EPSG:4326
- Reference system type
- Geodetic Geographic 2D
Metadata
- Metadata identifier
-
urn:uuid/d3d4ff4a-0efe-45f6-99e8-45478aefbfe2
- Title
- TERN GeoNetwork UUID
- Language
- English
- Character encoding
- UTF8
Point of contact
Type of resource
- Resource scope
- Dataset
- Metadata linkage
-
https://geonetwork.tern.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/d3d4ff4a-0efe-45f6-99e8-45478aefbfe2
Point-of-truth metadata URL
- Date info (Creation)
- 2022-08-23T00:00:00.000000+00:00
- Date info (Revision)
- 2025-12-11T22:45:01.537860+00:00
Metadata standard
- Title
- ISO 19115-1:2014/AMD 1:2018 Geographic information - Metadata - Fundamentals
- Edition
- 1
Metadata standard
- Title
- ISO/TS 19115-3:2016
- Edition
- 1.0
Metadata standard
- Title
- ISO/TS 19157-2:2016
- Edition
- 1.0
- Title
- Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) Metadata Profile of ISO 19115-3:2016 and ISO 19157-2:2016
- Date (published)
- 2021
- Edition
- 1.0
Identifier
Overviews
Spatial extent
N
S
E
W
Provided by
Associated resources
Not available