Inundation and salinity regimes support blue carbon conditions in Australian temperate supratidal forests

In this study we report on new datasets of vegetation structure, carbon cycling parameters, inundation and salinity patterns across 18 sites spanning more than 4,000 km of Australia’s temperate coastlines. We report site-specific ecosystem carbon stocks ranging from 169 to 635 Mg Corg ha-1, with mean aboveground biomass (134 ± 63 Mg DW ha-1) and belowground carbon stocks to 1 m soil depth (193 ± 98 Mg Corg ha-1), which are within the range of national estimates for mangrove and saltmarsh ecosystems. While there are variations in vegetation structure between sites dominated by the genera Melaleuca and Casuarina, this does not lead to discernible differences in above- or belowground carbon stocks. Organic matter decomposition trends within supratidal forest substrates were similar to adjacent mangrove and saltmarsh, though there were differences among study sites and between labile versus recalcitrant tea litters. Soil-atmospheric flux measurements conducted at one site were also within t..., This study collates datasets collected between 2017 and 2023 from 18 study sites spanning a diversity of settings along these coastlines. Within each setting, sites were prioritised where there was adjoining saltmarsh and/or mangrove communities, to allow comparative analyses with either existing or new datasets of those communities. Therefore, our collation of study sites may be under representative of supratidal forests occurring in isolation from intertidal mangrove and saltmarsh, and should not be considered a systematic or comprehensive coverage of forest settings. The measured parameters, measurement frequency and sampling designs varied among study locations according to their specific data collection objectives.
Water level and salinity
Groundwater standpipes were installed opportunistically across five sites (TP, MIN-FP, TIL-F, CI and ONK) to enable continuous logging of water level and/or salinity concentrations and explore the role of tidal inundation and rainfall on these pa..., # Inundation and salinity regimes support blue carbon conditions in Australian temperate supratidal forests

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.1g1jwsv9c](10.5061/dryad.1g1jwsv9c)

## Description of the data and file structure

### Files and variables

**File: dat_biomass.csv**

**Description:** Field biomass survey datasets of supratidal forest sites

**Variables**

* Record: Data entry number (unique value)
* Plot_ID: Field plot ID
* Site: Study side ID (see dat_sites.csv for full details)
* Species: species of measured plant
* Dominant_genus: dominant canopy species of the plot
* Quadrat: quadrat ID within site
* Tree: Tree number within plot. n/a = not available (see Stem number instead)
* Stem: Stem number within plot. n/a = not available (see Tree number instead)
* Status: Tree health status (L = Live; D = Dead; S = Stressed)
* Height_m: Tree height. Unit = m. n/a = not recorded
* D10_cm:  Trunk/stem diameter at 10cm above ground surface. Unit = cm. n/a = not recorded
* DBH_cm: Trunk/ste...,