Timber and trails: Low-intensity selective logging and elephant trails shape seedling dynamics in an Afrotropical forest

Very low-intensity logging can be a compromise between strict conservation and income-generating land use in tropical forests. Investigating how selective logging influences the understory environment and seedling dynamics as the forest regenerates offers insights into whether logging negatively impacts forest dynamics, influencing the composition and structure of future forests. We explored how very low-intensity logging (<2 trees ha-1) influences understory factors and seedling dynamics across a logging chronosequence (unlogged forest vs. forest actively logged and forest logged four and fourteen years prior). To do this, we assessed (i) how light levels, prevalence of vegetation damage, and elephant trails differ in logged forests at different recovery stages compared to unlogged forest; (ii) how these understory factors influence seedling dynamics; (iii) how seedling dynamics differ across the logging chronosequence; and (iv) how logging impacts liana vs. tree seedlings across th...,
Data collection methods:
Study area and seedling censuses
We sampled vegetation communities across eighty 20×20 m plots in the Société Equatoriale d'Exploitation Forestière (SEEF), a logging concession to the east of the Mbé sector of the Monts de Cristal National Park (0°42′41′′ N, 10°17′18′′ E) in northwestern Gabon (Sullivan et al. 2022). We sampled 20 plots within each of four different treatment areas, or logging “blocks” that varied in the year that they were logged (Fig. 1A). The blocks in our study were logged in 2008, 2018, 2020, and one additional block was sampled as an unlogged control. SEEF started systematic logging in this logging concession in 2000 and has a very low timber removal rate (<2 trees per ha, Medjibe et al. 2011, SEEF 2019), which is typical for the Congo basin region (Sist, 2000). 
Each 20×20 m vegetation plot was established between September 2018 and October 2019 (Sullivan et al. 2022) and contained nine 1×1 m seedling plots (Fig. 1B), spaced 10 m..., , # Data from: Timber and trails: Low-intensity selective logging and elephant trails shape seedling dynamics in an Afrotropical forest

## Description of the data and file structure

We studied forest recovery in northwestern Gabon by setting up 80 plots, each 20×20 m, across areas logged in different years and one untouched forest. Inside each plot, we placed smaller seedling plots to track young trees and vines—measuring their growth and survival from 2018–2019 and again in 2022. We also recorded light levels, signs of damage, and elephant trails to understand how these factors affect regeneration.

### Description:

recensus_2022.csv contains the vegetation plot information from the 720 seedling plots:

* date - date that plots were recensused
* plot - vegetation plot subplot - seedling subplot ID
* spp - species code
* height_cm - height from census1 (2019) in cm
* tag_no - tag number on seedling
* code - codes indicating broken, liana, etc. from census1
* code_2022 - codes indicatin...,