LTERN Data Portal

Ninety-six 0.1 hectare sites were established on retired farmland that includes a mosaic of restored vegetation (native plantings) of varying ages juxtaposed with patches of remnant vegetation and untreated, abandoned pasture. All sites were originally woodland prior to agricultural development about 200 years ago. This dataset was collected by two PhD projects and one honours project with sampling in 2001, 2004 and 2005-7.

Plant species composition is recorded using the frequency score method (Wilkins et al. 2003), in which complete species lists are compiled in each of six nested square subquadrats. Subquadrat dimensions are successively doubled from 1 m to 2 m, 4 m, 8 m, 16 m, and 32 m. All six subplots have a common corner marked with a star picket. Only species rooted in the additional area of each subplot are recorded (i.e. excluding records from smaller nested subplots). A frequency score is computed for each species by counting the number of sub-quadrats in which it occurred. Planted and wild occurrences of the same species are recorded separately. A species list with Braun-Blanquet cover-abundance estimates (8-point scale) was recorded in an additional 20 x 20 m plot inserted within the nested sequence of subplots (see Tozer et al. (2010) for sampling methods). Percentage cover of bare ground and leaf litter, and environmental co-variables including aspect, slope, soil texture and grid location are also recorded in the 20 x 20 m plot.

The Woodland Restoration Plot Network research plots commenced in 1992 and have been revisited every 3-4 years since 2001.

See: Tozer MG, Turner K, Keith DA, Tindall D, Pennay C, Simpson C, MacKenzie B, Beukers P, Cox S (2010) Native vegetation of southeast NSW: a revised classification and map for the coast and eastern tablelands. Cunninghamia 11(3), 359-406.

Wilkins S, Keith DA, Adam P (2003). "Measuring Success: Evaluating the Restoration of a Grassy Eucalypt Woodland on the Cumberland Plain, Sydney, Australia." Restoration Ecology 11(4): 489-503.