Standardised vegetation survey and monitoring data across the Australian rangelands from TERN AusPlots

Abstract

Robust ecosystem monitoring to report on condition and trajectory in rangelands requires precise and objective measurements of indicators linked to climate and disturbance regimes. TERN AusPlots provides systematic monitoring data at continental scale, enabling comparisons of metrics like vegetation cover and structure or species diversity. Here we present the first collated AusPlots dataset and overview the sampling of environments (e.g. a rainfall gradient of 129–1437 mm Mean Annual Precipitation) and vegetation. Over 3,000 vascular plant taxa in 22 major vegetation types including savanna, eucalypt woodland, chenopod shrubland and grassland have been recorded in these 442 field plots. The core field module of AusPlots is a point intercept survey, which records substrate, plant species, growth form and height at each of 1010 intercepts located along 10 transects arranged in a grid within 1 ha plots. Comprehensive plant species diversity is also recorded through systematic vouchering and formal identification, making the data robust to identification error and taxonomic change. Standardised and quantitative data combined with open access data publication via AEKOS, plus a broad spatial scope, make this a useful dataset for applications such as analysis of vegetation cover (by species, growth form or fractional cover) and species composition modelling. The data are already being used to validate remotely sensed information, including fractional cover products and estimates of tree and forest cover in drylands based on visual interpretation of satellite imagery. Data are available in raw as well as more processed or summarised formats.