Supporting Dataset for the article "Forest Structure Recovery Around West Africa's Last Great Rainforest: Modeling Complex Dynamics in Taï National Park"

This Terri4Sol dataset accompanies the manuscript: Houphouet, A.D.L., Sangne, Y.C., Adou Yao, Y.C., Betbeder, J., Diarrassouba, A., & Hérault, B. (2024).Forest Structure Recovery Around West Africa’s Last Great Rainforest: Modeling Complex Dynamics in Taï National Park. It provides detailed plot-level forest structure and environmental data used to model forest recovery in and around Taï National Park, one of the largest remaining blocks of tropical rainforest in West Africa. 📁 Included Datasets 1. data_2ry.csv — Secondary Forest Plots 104 plots sampled in regenerating forests after agricultural or mining use. Variables: Plot_ID: Unique plot identifier x, y: Longitude and latitude (decimal degrees, WGS84) year: Time since land abandonment (years) Gini: Structural homogeneity (unitless, inverse of tree size inequality) QMD: Quadratic Mean Diameter (cm) Lorey: Lorey’s Height (m, basal area-weighted tree height) AGB_Ha: Aboveground biomass (tons/ha) land_use: Previous land use (1 = Cocoa, 2 = Mining, 3 = Other) Animals: Number of mammal species observed via indirect signs (integer, 0–3+) water: Soil hydromorphy (1 = Hydromorphic, 0 = Well-drained) Maranthaceae: Presence of dense Marantaceae understory (0/1) AGB_ha_rmnt: Biomass of remnant trees (tons/ha) HumAct: Human disturbance score (0–3) pld_250: % forest cover within 250 m buffer (forest connectivity) 2. data_OGF_und.csv — Undisturbed Old-Growth Forest 7 plots in intact old-growth forest used as reference. Variables:Plot_ID, x, y, Gini, QMD, Lorey, Maranthaceae (same definitions as above) 3. data_OGF_dist.csv — Disturbed Old-Growth Forest 7 plots impacted by selective logging or extractive activities.Same variables as data_OGF_und.csv. 4. data_OGF_sup.csv — Supplementary Old-Growth Forest (DBH ≥ 10 cm only) 25 plots where only trees ≥10 cm DBH were inventoried (used to calibrate asymptotic reference values). Variables:Plot_ID, x, y, Gini, QMD, Lorey 🗺️ Study Area and Methods Location: Taï National Park and surrounding landscape, Côte d’Ivoire Period: September 2023 – July 2024 Plot size: 625 m² (25 × 25 m) DBH threshold: ≥ 2.5 cm for most datasets; ≥10 cm for data_OGF_sup Biomass calculation: Based on species-level allometries (Réjou-Méchain et al., 2017) 📌 Notes Variable names align with those in the manuscript. Coordinates may be slightly imprecise to protect sensitive locations. Data are suitable for forest structure modeling and Bayesian recovery analysis.