Specific visual coverage on disturbed heathland
Description
Plant cover data were collected routinely in experiments which tested the effects of different types of disturbances on soil and vegetation parameters of different plant-soil communities: (i) intensive Night Camping of goats and sheep on Low Heathland (NCLH), (ii) intensive Night Camping of suckler cows on Bracken (NCB), (iii) Burning of Tall Heathland (BTH), and (iv) mechanical Clearing of Tall Heathland (CTH). In all cases plant cover was measured at different fixed positions on plots of each experiment using a rigid square quadrat of 1x1m divided in 25 cells, each of 20x20cm. Cover measurement in each quadrat was performed visually, annotating all the species present in each cell and their cover rounded to the nearest 10% interval. If a species was considered to measure below 5%, its cover value was assigned to 5%. Apart from plant species, other types of cover were also recorded: e.g. faeces, bare soil, rock/stone, dead vegetation, dry ground and scorched vegetation from livestock urine, burned vegetation and ashes from prescribed fire or rest of vegetation from clearing. Quadrat measurements were taken at different times in relation to the disturbance event: just before, just after; two, four, six and twelve weeks after, and in the two following springs, summers and autumns.
Files
Steps to reproduce
The zipped folder contains a first file with cover data by species, functional group and essay (vegetation disturbance). The second text file contains the full names of all recorded species.