Pound Hill disturbance timing experiment, Silwood Park

The composition of plant communities is in part determined by seedling recruitment, which depends on seed germination and seedling survival.  Because species differ in the optimal environmental conditions for germination it is expected that variations in timing and severity of disturbances have an effect on the relative abundance of plant species and the composition of the seed bank. The Pound Hill experiment aims to assess the effect of the timing of cultivation and soil disturbance on grasslands diversity and biomass. It was established in 1991 in an area of Silwood Park that had been maintained for the conservation of arable weeds through an annual cultivation at various times of the year for at least a decade.  This regime transformed a wheat-cultivated land into a species-rich community of ruderal plants, mostly annuals. The experimental area, which is protected from rabbits' damage, is divided in plots that since October 1992 have been cultivated in March, May or October. Two data sets are available for this experiment: 

1. Data of aboveground standing biomass of each plant species present in all plots collected in July 2003 (PoundHillDist_biomass.csv)

2. Data of percentage of cover of each plant species collected in 2014, 2016, 2017, 2019-2021 (PoundHillDist_cover.csv).