Repository containing field data, Excel files, and R scripts for the analyses in "Thicket Formation and Light Limitation Drive Patch-Scale Vegetation Transitions in a Subtropical Savanna."

This repository contains the data, R scripts, supporting tables, and final figure files for the manuscript “Thicket Formation and Light Limitation Drive Patch-Scale Vegetation Transitions in a Subtropical Savanna.” The study examines woody cover change between 1949 and 2021 across 51 sites in a semi-arid savanna system in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa. The repository includes datasets and analyses used to assess long-term woody encroachment, classify sites along an encroachment gradient, identify woody community clusters, test indicator species associations, quantify understory light transmittance and leaf area index, estimate herbaceous basal cover thresholds, and evaluate herbaceous richness and diversity responses to canopy conditions.