Connell Rainforest Plot Network: Subtropical Rainforest Tree Demographic Data, O’Reilly’s Plot, Lamington National Park, Queensland, Australia, 1963–2013

Title General Methods

Number 1

Instrument Measuring tapes especially imported from the United States – ft and tenths of feet, and inches and tenths of inches. Star pickets mark the ends of transects, and short steel posts mark transects at 25 feet intervals. Plants are tagged with numbered aluminium tags, attached to the plant using loops of insulated copper wire on smaller stems, or nailed onto larger stems. There are no environmental monitoring devices on the plot

Description Prof Joseph H. Connell (University of California, Santa Barbara) established a long-term forest dynamics plot in 1963, in subtropical rainforest near O’Reilly’s Guest House in Lamington National Park, 84 km south of Brisbane. The plot layout consists of two 1 ha plots spaced approximately 600 m apart; these have always been treated as a single unit for analyses. This plot has never been logged, but some selective logging has occurred just outside the plot boundary.
Although a summary of methods employed in the study has been provided below, the reader should refer to a comprehensive description of the methods and the plot configuration provided in the Conceptual Design (p 84) and accompanying documentation.
In summary, samples of trees in three broad size classes have been monitored on the plots over several decades. 'Large trees’ (≥ 10.0 cm dbh) were first tagged, mapped and measured in 1963 across both plots. At the same time, ‘medium trees’ (2.5 cm dbh but < 10.0 cm dbh) were mapped and tagged along several belt transects 6.1 m wide running through the plot, centred on survey lines 20.1 m apart. The medium-tree belt transects comprise 30% of each plot. In 1965, ‘small trees’ (tiny seedlings to saplings < 2.5 cm dbh), were mapped and tagged along narrower transects either 1.8 or 3.6 m wide, centred on the same survey lines used to sample medium trees. Large trees rooted outside the plot boundaries, but whose canopies extended over the plots have also been monitored.
Large and medium trees are tagged with numbered aluminium tree tags inscribed with a unique number, nailed into the trunk with galvanized nails. Small trees are also tagged with numbered aluminium tags, attached to the plant using loops of insulated copper wire. The plots are laid out and trees are mapped using imperial and engineering units (feet and tenths of feet). Large and medium trees are measured for girth at breast height using inches and tenths of inches, and small trees are measured for height in feet and tenths of feet. These are converted to SI Units for analyses and publication. The belt transects comprise 30% of each plot (See Fig. 1). The seedlings of vines are occasionally tagged by inexperienced workers, but these are excluded from analyses.

Title Natural disturbance monitoring

Number 2

Instrument

Description Gaps created by the death of large canopy trees have been systematically surveyed many times over the decades until 2002, with the boundaries of the gaps being noted on hand drawn maps. These maps have never been digitized, and the originals are held at the University of California. Copies of some later maps are held by Peter Green at La Trobe University.

Title Floristic identification, vouchers and lists

Number 3

Instrument

Description Voucher specimens have been collected on an ad hoc basis over the years for many individuals on both plots. These specimens are curated at La Trobe University. Species lists are updated as taxonomic changes are published. Taxonomic revisions pose some problems for analyses; it is impossible to apply the revised taxonomy to un-vouchered, dead stems.

Title Surveys for canopy cover and understorey light environments

Number 4

Instrument

Description Stand structure, canopy cover and variation in understorey light environments have not been measured systematically on the plots. Under LTERN, new surveys for canopy cover and understorey light environments using hemispherical photography are being incorporated into regular plot monitoring.

Name Connell Rainforest Subtropical Rainforest Tree Data, O'Reilly's Plot Data (P60T365).

Description

"AbsX"	definition Absolute X coordinate interval number type real interval standard unit foot
"AbsY"	definition Absolute Y coordinate (ft) interval number type real interval standard unit foot
"Area"	definition Location nominal text definition Character
"Comment"	definition Comment nominal text definition Text
"Dead"	date time format YYYY definition Date of census that death was recorded
"Family"	definition Plant family nominal text definition Text
"G.1978"	definition Girth at date of first mapping ratio number type real ratio standard unit inch
"G.1986"	definition Girth in 1986 ratio number type real ratio standard unit inch
"G.1992"	definition Girth in 1992 ratio number type real ratio standard unit inch
"G.1996"	definition Girth in 1996 ratio number type real ratio standard unit inch
"G.2006"	definition Girth in 2006 ratio number type real ratio standard unit inch
"G.Map"	definition Girth at date of first mapping (inches) ratio number type real ratio standard unit inch
"H.1980"	definition Height in 1980 ratio number type real ratio standard unit foot
"H.1986"	definition Height in 1986 ratio number type real ratio standard unit foot
"H.1992"	definition Height in 1992 ratio number type real ratio standard unit foot
"H.1998"	definition Height in 1998 ratio number type real ratio standard unit foot
"H.2006"	definition Height in 2006 ratio number type real ratio standard unit foot
"H.2013"	definition Height in 2013 ratio number type real ratio standard unit foot
"H.Map"	definition Height at date of first mapping (ft) ratio number type real ratio standard unit foot
"Idx1"	definition Index 1 nominal enumeration codes 1 large trees whose size was measured as diameter, not girth, due to the presence of large buttresses. In 1992 most of these were remeasured as girth above the buttress, from 6 to 12ft above the ground. The 1992 data are OK for basal area, but since measurements before 1992 are inaccurate, they should be omitted when calculating basal area or analysing growth. 2 trees found in field in 1992 and 1993 which could not be located in the Master File, so original field notes need to be consulted before these can be used for analysis 3 those seedling recruits from incomplete surveys which were dead the next complete recruitment survey. Omit from analysis of recruitment. The years are as follows: O’Reilly’s: 1963 dead 65, O’Reilly’s & Davies Creek: 1976 dead 78, O’Reilly’s & Davies Creek: 1992 dead 93 6 trees > 25.0" Girth 1, that occur at O’Reilly’s on Line 5, x=300 to 1800. They were mapped in 1963 and have been census and remeasured fairly regularly. They should be included only in those analyses in which only trees >25.0 girth are used, where they will be useful to increase sample sizes of larger trees. NA N/A
"Idx2"	definition Index 2 nominal enumeration codes 9 At both sites, individuals that occur beyond the boundaries of the standard census areas. Omit from most analyses NA N/A
"Idx3"	definition Index 3 nominal enumeration codes 1 Standing trees 2 Top off, died back 3 Dead or missing, no obvious cause apparent 4 Trunk broken when tree was alive 5 Uprooted when tree was alive 7 Fell, unknown whether broken or uprooted 8 Killed or badly damaged by nearby tree fall NA N/A
"Idx4"	definition Index 4 nominal enumeration codes 1 Uknown NA N/A
"Line"	definition Line number (belt transect numeric identifier) nominal text definition Character
"Map"	date time format YYYY definition Date the stem(s) were originally mapped
"RcID"	definition Record identification number nominal text definition Character
"Repl"	definition No. of replicate plant for counts of seedlings within a 3x3 ft square, used when new seedlings are too numerous to tag and map individually interval number type natural interval standard unit number
"Spec"	definition Species code number nominal text definition Character
"Species"	definition Species recorded nominal text definition Text
"Tag"	definition Tag number numeric identifier nominal text definition Character
"X"	definition X coordinates chainage (feet) interval number type real interval standard unit foot
"Y"	definition Y coordinates chainage (feet) interval number type real interval standard unit foot
description	Connell Rainforest Subtropical Rainforest Tree Data, O'Reilly's Plot Data
G.2013	definition Girth in 2013 ratio number type real ratio standard unit inch
number of records	60616

Date To 2013

Date From 1963

Location Value O’Reilly’s Plot, Lamington National Park, Queensland, Australia

Location Type text

Location Value northlimit = -28.2165; southlimit = -28.2165; westlimit = 153.127; eastLimit = 153.127

Location Type iso19139dcmiBox

Surname Green

Given Name Peter

Title ANU Open Research, Long Term Ecological Research Network (LTERN) collection.

URL https://hdl.handle.net/1885/130861