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Jurien Bay Dune Chronosequence Data

The dataset accompanies the paper by Zemunik et al. (2015), which used the Jurien Bay dune chronosequence to investigate the changes in the community-wide suite of plant nutrient-acquisition strategies in response to long-term soil development. The study was located in the Southwest Australian biodiversity hotspot, in an area with an extremely rich regional flora. The dataset consists of both flora and soil data that not only allow all analyses presented in the paper (Zemunik et al. 2015) to be independently investigated, but also would allow further exploration of the data not considered or presented in the study. The study used a randomised stratified design, stratifying the dune system of the chronosequence into six stages, the first three spanning the Holocene (to ~6.5 ka) and oldest spanning soil development from the Early to Middle Pleistocene (to ~2 Ma). Floristic surveys were conducted in 60 permanent 10 m × 10 m plots (10 plots in each of six chronosequence stages). Each plot was surveyed at least once between August 2011 and March 2012, and September 2012. To estimate canopy cover and number of individuals for each plant species within the 10 m × 10 m plots, seven randomly-located 2 m × 2 m subplots were surveyed within each plot. Within each subplot, all vascular plant species were identified, the corresponding number of individuals was counted and the vertically projected vegetation canopy cover was estimated. Surface (0-20 cm) soil from each of the 420 subplots was collected, air dried and analysed at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, for a range of chemical and physical properties, the main ones of which were considered in this paper being total and resin soil phosphorus, total nitrogen and dissolved organic nitrogen, soil total and organic carbon, and pH (measured in H20 and CaCl2). However, other soil data are also presented in the dataset. Nutrient-acquisition strategies were determined from the literature, where known, and from mycorrhizal analyses of root samples from species with poorly known strategies. Most of the currently known nutrient-acqusition strategies were found in the species of the chronosequence. Previous studies in the Jurien Bay chronosequence have established that its soil development conforms to models of long-term soil development first presented by Walker and Syers (1976); the youngest soils are N-limiting and the oldest are P-limiting (Laliberté et al. 2012). However, filtering of the regional flora by high soil pH on the youngest soils has the strongest effect on local plant species diversity (Laliberté et al. 2014). <br></br>


References: [1] Zemunik, G., Turner, B., Lambers, H. et al. Diversity of plant nutrient-acquisition strategies increases during long-term ecosystem development. Nature Plants 1, 15050 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1038/nplants.2015.50 ; [2] T.W. Walker, J.K. Syers. The fate of phosphorus during pedogenesis Geoderma, 15 (1) (1976), pp. 1-19, 10.1016/0016-7061(76)90066-5 ; [3] Laliberté, E., Turner, B.L., Costes, T., Pearse, S.J., Wyrwoll, K.H., Zemunik, G. & Lambers, H. (2012); [3] Laliberté, E., Turner, B.L., Costes, T., Pearse, S.J., Wyrwoll, K.-H., Zemunik, G. and Lambers, H. (2012), Experimental assessment of nutrient limitation along a 2-million-year dune chronosequence in the south-western Australia biodiversity hotspot. Journal of Ecology, 100: 631-642. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2745.2012.01962.x .; [4] Laliberté E, Zemunik G, Turner BL. Environmental filtering explains variation in plant diversity along resource gradients. Science. 2014 Sep 26;345(6204):1602-5. doi: 10.1126/science.1256330.

Simple

Identification info

Date (Creation)
2012-09-30
Date (Publication)
2015-03-31
Date (Revision)
2025-12-11
Edition
1

Identifier

Title
DataCite
Code
doi:10.4227/05/551A3DDE8BAF8
Codespace
http://dx.doi.org

Publisher

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Building 1019, 80 Meiers Rd
Indooroopilly
QLD
4068
Australia
+61 7 3365 9097

Author

University of Western Australia - Zemunik, Graham (Field Ecologist)
35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia, 6009, Australia
Crawley
Western Australia
6009
Australia
Website
https://www.tern.org.au/

Purpose
Soil fertility strongly influences plant communities, but its effects on diversity of belowground strategies by which plants obtain nutrients are poorly known. As soil fertility declines, plants with nutrient-conserving traits are favoured, leading to functional convergence. This led to generalisations that environmental filtering dominates plant community assembly at low fertility. By contrast, our study along an exceptionally-strong fertility gradient in a biodiversity hotspot showed increasing diversity of nutrient-acquisition strategies with declining fertility. Our results demonstrated that fundamentally-different community-assembly processes operate above- and belowground. As such, it emphasises the importance of belowground traits to predict how vegetation will respond to environmental changes such as eutrophication.
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
Completed

Point of contact

University of Western Australia - Zemunik, Graham (Field Ecologist)
35 Stirling Highway, Crawley, Western Australia, 6009, Australia
35 Stirling Highway
Crawley
Western Australia
6009
Australia
Topic category
  • Environment
  • Biota

Extent

Description
The study area of the Jurien Bay chronosequence, which spans approximately 42 km north to south and 12 km east to west.
N
S
E
W


Temporal extent

Time period
2011-07-19 2012-09-30
Maintenance and update frequency
Not planned
GCMD Science Keywords
  • TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS
  • SOILS
  • SOIL FERTILITY
  • VEGETATION COVER
  • FUNGI
  • SOIL PH
ANZSRC Fields of Research
  • Terrestrial ecology
  • Ecology
  • Palaeoecology
  • Conservation and biodiversity
TERN Parameter Vocabulary
  • field species name
  • Unitless
  • plant cover
  • Percent
  • growth form
  • Unitless
  • total phosphorous
  • Milligram per Gram
  • soil potassium
  • Milligram per Gram
  • soil magnesium content
  • Milligram per Gram
  • soil calcium content
  • Milligram per Gram
QUDT Units of Measure
  • Unitless
  • Percent
  • Unitless
  • Milligram per Gram
  • Milligram per Gram
  • Milligram per Gram
  • Milligram per Gram
GCMD Horizontal Resolution Ranges
  • 10 km - < 50 km or approximately .09 degree - < .5 degree
GCMD Temporal Resolution Ranges
  • Subannual
Keywords (Discipline)
  • Flowering Trees
  • Forbs
  • Grasses
  • Cycads
  • Shrubs
  • Monocots

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
Linkage
https://w3id.org/tern/static/cc-by/88x31.png

Title
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Licence
Alternate title
CC-BY
Edition
4.0
Website
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/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}.
Other constraints
(C)2015 University of Western Australia. Rights owned by University of Western Australia.

Resource constraints

Classification
Unclassified

Distribution Information

Distribution format
  • NetCDF

Distributor

Distributor

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Building 1019, 80 Meiers Rd
Indooroopilly
QLD
4068
Australia
OnLine resource
plotssoildata

Distribution Information

Distribution format
  • NetCDF

Distributor

Distributor

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Building 1019, 80 Meiers Rd
Indooroopilly
QLD
4068
Australia
OnLine resource
Species_in_plots_names

Distribution Information

Distribution format
  • NetCDF

Distributor

Distributor

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Building 1019, 80 Meiers Rd
Indooroopilly
QLD
4068
Australia
OnLine resource
Plot_data

Distribution Information

Distribution format

Distributor

Distributor

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Building 1019, 80 Meiers Rd, Indooroopilly, QLD, Australia, 4068
Indooroopilly
QLD
4068
Australia
OnLine resource
ro-crate-metadata.json

Resource lineage

Statement
Flora surveys: In brief, to estimate canopy cover and number of individuals for each plant species within the 10 m × 10 m plots, seven randomly-located 2 m × 2 m subplots were surveyed within each plot. Within each subplot, all vascular plant species were identified, the corresponding number of individuals was counted and the vertically projected vegetation canopy cover was estimated. Nutrient-acquisition strategies were identified from the literature, where known, and from roots sampled from species in the field, where unknown. The file contains the following: stage: the chronosequence stage number plot: three-part code name for the plot species: Binomial (sometimes with the common name in brackets) of the species family: The species' family cover: Absolute cover (%) in the plot. This usually will sum to <100% relativecover: Relative cover (%) in the plot. This sums to 100% strategy: The nutrient-acquisition strategy, as determined from the literature and root sampling of selected species. Can be a combination of the following: "AM", "Carnivorous", "Cluster roots", "Dauciform", "Ectomycorrhizal", "Ericoid", "Hemiparasite", "Holoparasite", "Non-mycorrhizal", "Orchid mycorrhizal", "Sand-binding", "Thysanotus mycorrhizal, Sand-binding", "Unspecialised" growthform: the species' growth form. Can be one of: "annual grass" , "annual herb", "annual sedge", "geophytic herb", "grass", "perennial herb", "rush", "sedge", "shrub", "tree"
Hierarchy level
Dataset

Reference System Information

Reference system identifier
EPSG/EPSG:3577

Reference system type
Geodetic Geographic 2D

Metadata

Metadata identifier
urn:uuid/bd0ad05b-3641-4dbf-b1e0-9a4ceb5961f7

Title
TERN GeoNetwork UUID

Language
English
Character encoding
UTF8

Point of contact

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network
Building 1019, 80 Meiers Rd
Indooroopilly
QLD
4068
Australia
+61 7 3365 9097
Title
Jurien Bay Dune Chronosequence Floristics and Soil Dataset

Identifier

Code
d696ddd5-9bea-40c5-a132-d133834bd5a0
Codespace
https://geonetwork.tern.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/
Description
Parent Metadata Record

Type of resource

Resource scope
Dataset
Metadata linkage
https://geonetwork.tern.org.au/geonetwork/srv/eng/catalog.search#/metadata/bd0ad05b-3641-4dbf-b1e0-9a4ceb5961f7

Point-of-truth metadata URL

Date info (Creation)
2023-01-10T00:00:00.000000+00:00
Date info (Revision)
2025-12-11T22:42:29.743652+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

Code
10.5281/zenodo.5652221
Website
https://github.com/ternaustralia/TERN-ISO19115/releases/tag/v1.0

 
 

Overviews

Spatial extent

N
S
E
W


Keywords

ANZSRC Fields of Research
Conservation and biodiversity Ecology Palaeoecology Terrestrial ecology
GCMD Science Keywords
FUNGI SOIL FERTILITY SOIL PH SOILS TERRESTRIAL ECOSYSTEMS VEGETATION COVER

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Associated resources

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