WALKER BRANCH WATERSHED VEGETATION INVENTORY, 1967-1997

The original objectives of the long-term vegetation survey of Walker Branch Watershed in eastern Tennessee (WBW; Curlin and Nelson 1968) was to quantify the standing crop of vegetation through time including measures of tree/plant size distribution, species composition, above-ground biomass, and chemical balance. Field studies of permanent vegetation plots using one sample design were conducted over a 30-year period (1967 to 1997), and observations continue with funding from the U.S. Department of Energy's Program for Ecosystem Research.* This data set consists of long-term measurements of diameter at breast height (DBH) determined on randomly located permanent inventory plots within the 4 different vegetation types located on WBW in 1967. In addition, the lignin to nitrogen content in leaves (g lignin / g N of leaf tissue) for species present in WBW was obtained from the literature. More information can be found at: http://walkerbranch.ornl.gov/. Funding for long-term data collection efforts on Walker Branch was provided by the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), Office of Science, Biological and Environmental Research (BER), as a part of the Program for Ecosystem Research (PER).