Long-term litter production in a lowland dipterocarp forest, Peninsular Malaysia from 1992 to 2017

Tropical rainforests in Southeast Asia dominated by Dipterocarpaceae show a unique reproductive event, general flowering. This paper records long-term seed production of a tropical rainforest in Pasoh Forest Reserve, Peninsular Malaysia. Study site is a lowland dipterocarp forest dominated by Dipterocarpaceae and Fabaceae. Seed and other litter production data is essential for analyzing general flowering and evaluating NPP (Net Primary Production) of rainforest ecosystems under climate change. Unfortunately, there is a lack of long-term litter production data in Dipterocarp forests. This paper presents such a long-term litter data from 1992 to 2017. We collected litter samples every month from May 1992 to December 2017 in Pasoh F.R., Peninsular Malaysia (2ﾟ59´N, 102ﾟ18´E, 120-152 m a.s.l.). Litter was collected using 100 litter traps spaced evenly within a 2-ha core area of the 6-ha study plot. Each litter trap was made of 1 mm mesh with a circular area of 0.5 m2 from 8 May 1992 to 22 December 1998. Then litter trap was changed to a square type with 4 mm mesh until now. Litter samples were collected and separated to leaf, flower, seed and others (debris). After sorting litter samples were dried at 85°C for 48 h and weighed. Seeds and flowers were separated according to tentative morphological types and identified. This data paper contains two data sets. Litter data set contains weight of each litter fractions. Seed data set contains number and weight of morphological seed types and identified scientific name.