Victorian Alpine Plot Network (Alpine Long term Monitoring - Community Changes): Plot Details - Spatial Coordinates, South-east Highlands, Australia

Abstract: The Victorian Alpine Plot Network Plot-data Package contains plot-data collected at eighty-nine sites situated in the Australian Alps. Randomly positioned transects are situated within sites rather than ‘plots’ sensu stricto. The number of transects within sites, and sampling frequency varies from annual to decadal, depending on site and purpose. This is part of a much larger dataset that spans from 1944, when plot were set up to document long-term changes in ecosystem composition and structure in relation to disturbance (see methods for more information). The Victorian Alpine Plot Network research plots are revisited on a 2-10 years basis.

A synopsis of related data packages which have been collected as part of the Victorian Alpine Plot Network’s full program is provided at https://doi.org/10.25911/5c11c3d283b0e

Sampling method: This is part of a much larger dataset that spans from 1944, when plot were set up to document long-term changes in ecosystem composition and structure in relation to disturbance (see methods for more information). The Victorian Alpine Plot Network research plots are revisited on a 2-10 years basis.

Study extent: At the Carr and Turner sites, there are fixed plots, each 0.05–0.1 ha in area. At the ‘Pretty Valley’ site, there is one plot that has been fenced (and thus ungrazed by livestock) since 1946; adjacent to this plot there is an unfenced plot, grazed by livestock (mainly cattle) from the mid 19th Century until 2005. At the ‘Rocky Valley’ site there is a 4 ha fenced area, which has excluded livestock since 1945-6. Inside there are monitoring plots located in open heathland, closed heathland and snowpatch herbfield vegetation types. There are companion plots, grazed by domestic livestock until 2005, located in equivalent vegetation types outside the fence. There is a total of 8 plots.

The four corners of each plot are marked with steel droppers or fence posts, and each is geolocated. Within each plot there are multiple transects, the ends of which are fixed with sturdy 5 cm x 5 cm wooden pegs. The length, number of and distance between transects within plots varied from plot to plot at the time of establishment; this arrangement has been preserved. There are 10-20 transects per plot, each 2-15 m long, and ca 1-1.5 m apart. Point quadrats were initially taken at intervals of 2 feet (24 inches); sampling interval was converted to 50 cm in 1979. There is a total of 600–1000 point quadrats per plot. Measurements were taken at each plot annually from 1945/6–1951, then once or twice per decade thereafter (Wahren et al. 1994). There was a full sampling of all plots in 1979, and both Pretty Valley plots have been monitored more or less annually is since 1979, and the Rocky Valley plots every 5 years. The last full sampling of all eight plots was in 2013.

Project funding: Between 2012 and 2018 this project was part of, and funded through the Long Term Ecological Research Network (LTERN) a facility within the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) and supported by the Australian Government through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy.