This record contains information on the Plant Functional Type Classification, Richness and Cover in <i>Eucalyptus salubris</i> Woodlands, Great Western Woodland site. The data were generated across time since fire chronosequence, 2010-2011.

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.; [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.

<p>The dataset contains raw records on the frequency and % cover of Australian plant species stored in TERN's AEKOS as at 23 February 2017. There is information on basal area data in addition.The data includes plant records for the following datasets: [1] Australian Ground Cover Reference Sites Database, [2] Biological Survey of South Australia - Vegetation Survey - Biological Database of South Australia, [3] Atlas of NSW database: VIS flora survey module, [4] Queensland CORVEG Database, [5] TERN AusPlots Rangelands, [6] Transects for Environmental Monitoring and Decision Making (TREND) (2013-present) and the [7] TREND-Biome of Australia Soil Environments (BASE). </p> Soil samples for physical structure and chemical analysis (14 sites) throughout Australia were also incorporated in addition (starting 2013). The sites were: [1] AusCover Supersites SLATS Star Transects, [2] Biological Survey of the Ravensthorpe Range (Western Australia), [3] Biological Survey of South Australia - Roadside Vegetation Survey, [4] Biological Database of South Australia, [5] South-Western Australian Transitional Transect (SWATT), [6] Koonamore Vegetation Monitoring Project (1925-present), [7] Desert Ecology Research Group Plots (1990-2011) and Long Term Ecological Research Network (2012-2015), Simpson Desert, [8] Western Queensland, Australia (plants only) and [9] the TERN AusPlots Forest Monitoring Network - Large Tree Survey - 2012-2015. In total, 97,035 sites were extracted and downloaded for individual and population levels. The download package contains site location files, separate data files for individual and population levels, citation details for individual surveys and notes on how to interpret the download.

This data contains a once-off general structural description according to the National Vegetation Information System (NVIS) level 6 for the core 1 hectare plot in the Warra Tall Eucalypt site in 2014. Dominant growth form, cover, height and species (up to 5 species in order of dominance) for up to 3 sub-stratum per traditional strata (Ground, Mid and Upper).

This data contains a once-off general structural description according to the National Vegetation Information System (NVIS) level 5 for the core 1 hectare plot in the Great Western Woodlands site in 2013. Dominant growth form, cover, height and species (up to 5 species in order of dominance) for up to 3 sub-stratum per traditional strata (Ground, Mid and Upper).

The AEKOS Australian Vegetation sPlot dataset consists of high quality, well-described plot-based data extracted from the AEKOS (portal.aekos.org.au) on 11/11/2014. The data includes vegetation records for the following datasets: Australian Ground Cover Reference Sites Database, Biological Survey of South Australia - Vegetation Survey - Biological Database of South Australia, Atlas of NSW database: VIS flora survey module, Queensland CORVEG Database, TERN AusPlots Rangelands, Transect for Environmental Monitoring and Decision Making (TREND), AusCover Supersites SLATS Star Transects, Biological Survey of the Ravensthorpe Range (Western Australia).The portal's vegetation plot data was extracted using the portal's download feature to obtain the full extent of available data for the all datasets. In addition, an average cover value was calculated for each site using a slight modification of the ingestion scripts normally used to ingest the source data into AEKOS. The altitude values derived from a map layer using the site coordinates were obtained from the AEKOS index. Finally, land use and vegetation type were derived from map layers using the site coordinates. These data were loaded in different tables of a PostgreSQL database. Subsequently, two SQL queries were built to centralise the available data in two tables: table r_site containing the site specific data and table r_speciesobservations containing the individual data on observed specimen. A PostgreSQL backup file containing these two table was then built using the pg_dump tool. The dataset can be reused for contintental-wide or global synthesis of the cover of Australian vegetation.

This data contains a once-off general structural description according to the National Vegetation Information System (NVIS) level 5 for the core 1 hectare plot in the Tumbarumba Wet Eucalypt site in 2015. Dominant growth form, cover, height and species (up to 5 species in order of dominance) for up to 3 sub-stratum per traditional strata (Ground, Mid and Upper).

This data contains a once-off general structural description according to the National Vegetation Information System (NVIS) level 5 for the core 1 hectare plot in the Mitchell Grass Rangeland site in 2018. Dominant growth form, cover, height and species (up to 5 species in order of dominance) for up to 3 sub-stratum per traditional strata (Ground, Mid and Upper).

This data contains a once-off general structural description according to the National Vegetation Information System (NVIS) level 5 for the core 1 hectare plot in the Samford Peri-Urban site in 2012. Dominant growth form, cover, height and species (up to 5 species in order of dominance) for up to 3 sub-stratum per traditional strata (Ground, Mid and Upper).

The data set contains count data of amphibians from surveys of grazing properties in the Central and Southern Tablelands of NSW, Australia. Amphibians were surveyed using pitfall and funnel trapping along transects. Twelve properties were surveyed for the data set. Each property was surveyed 5 times for five trap nights on each survey between 2014 and 2015. A total of 2378 amphibians were captured from 11 different species during the surveys. All species captured were from one of three families: Limnodynastidae (three species), Myobatrachidae (four species) and Hylidae (four species).