The post-fire recovery of soil seed banks along a fire severity gradient in an Australian threatened mesic forest

Climate change has increased the likelihood of extreme events, increasing the number of days with dangerous fire weather conditions, resulting in fires with increased severity, frequency, and extent. This can greatly impact vegetation communities by reducing diversity and slowing recovery. The role of in situ soil seed banks in mediating the impacts of shifting fire regimes is often unclear and may vary between different vegetation types. In particular, the impact of high fire severity, an increasingly common fire regime shift, may increase the likelihood of temperatures lethal to seeds in the soil, while higher fire frequencies may reduce diversity via increased immaturity risk. Here, we aim to assess how fire severity impacts the species and functional group diversity of soil seed banks in a threatened mesic forest community. We collected 396 soil samples from 12 sites within a wet sclerophyll forest in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia, that had been burnt during the 2..., , #### Description of the data and file structure

The dataset contains all raw data used in the manuscript: The post-fire recovery of soil seed banks along a fire severity gradient in an Australian threatened mesic forest. The data is in the format of a csv.

File:\
Data_for__The_post-fire_recovery_of_soil_seed_banks_along_a_fire_severity_gradient_in_an_Australian_threatened_mesic_forest_.csv

##### **Description:** 

###### *Variables*

* ExtantorSSB: ‘Extant vegetation’ indicated plant surveys and ‘soil seed bank’ indicates soil cores.
* Severity: Fire severity determined from GEEBAM (Google Earth Engine Burnt Area Map), as outlined in methods of paper (Department of Planning and Environment, 2020). Unburnt, Moderate, High, Extreme.
* FireIntervalGroups: Using publicly available online maps supplied by the State Government of NSW and NSW DCCEEW (2010), as outlined in methods of paper.
* Site: Unique site codes, equivalent to previous NSW BioNet surveys (NSW Government Environtment and ...,