Vegetation cover and environmental data from baseline quadrat survey of the Nephin Forest, Co. Mayo, Ireland (2022)

Vegetation communities of the Nephin Forest were assessed through an 8x8m quadrat survey as part of a Cullen PhD project. Each plant species present in a quadrat and its % cover of the quadrat was recorded. Environmental variables were measured either directly in the field or through GIS software. The data are contained in three datasets, one for percentage cover of vegetation (VegDataOnly_Long), one for continuous environmental variables (EnviroCont_Long) and one environmental categorical variables (EnviroCharacter_Long ). The categorical variables are derived from published desciptive metrics including Fossit's (2000) habitat classification (FossHab, Habitat_Original, FossLv2), Teagasc Soils and Subsoils classifation (Fealy et al., 2009) (Soil, Subsoil), Geological Survey Ireland's Bedrock Geology data (GSI, 2021) (Geology) and the Von Post Scale of Humification (von_Post, Moisture). Topography describes the topographical position of the quadrat and is recorded as either Flat, Lower-slope, Mid-slope, Upper-slope or Summit. Aspect describes the orientation of the quadrat and is recorded as either Flat, East, West, North or South. Peat_depth_cat is a categorical description of the continous variable Peat_depth and is recorded as either 1(0-50cm), 2(50-100cm), 3(100-150cm), 4(150-200cm), 5(200-250cm), 6(250-300cm), 7(300-350cm), 8(350-400cm), or 9 (400+cm). Forest_Type describes the age and/or growth class of forest habitat types and is recorded as either Pre-thicket (0-10 years old), Thicket (10-20 years old), Mid-rotation (20-30 years old), Mature (30+ years old), Thinned (Mature plantations which have undergone thinning), Clearfelled (Recently felled forest), Stunted (Poorly grown plantation forest) or Unforested (Non-forest type habitat).