Plant and insect assemblages in mixedwood Boreal forest at the Zama silvicultural experiment site in northwestern Alberta, Canada

Data files are presented of plant and lichen survey data, pitfall trap catches of carabid beetles (Coleoptera: Carabidae), light trap catches of moths, and hand net catches of moths and butterflies (Lepidoptera) from a mature mixedwood Boreal forest in northwestern Alberta, Canada. Plant and lichen data are in an EXCEL file of species coverages in 32 10Ha compartments, at eight 5m x 5m plots per compartment, surveyed in 1997 and 1998. Carabid data are in an EXCEL file of counts of males and females of each species, from six pitfall traps in each of 16 compartments. The pitfall traps were run continuously for 3.5 months in 1997, 1998, 1999, and 2002, and samples were removed from the traps for tabulation every two to three weeks. Lepidoptera data are in an EXCEL file listing catches from light traps run for one night, approximately every 7-21 days, in 16 compartments, for 3.5 months in 1997, 1998, and 1999, augmented by incidental net catches of day-flying species.  A total of 7 tre..., In 1996, a silvicultural experiment was launched in northwestern Alberta, Canada, to test whether thinning of White Spruce (Picea glauca (Moensch) Voss) trees would improve the remaining trees’ resistance to Spruce Budworm (Choristoneura fumiferana (Clemens)) outbreaks (Volney et al. 1999). The experiment was intended to run for 70 years, to assess the long-term effects of the thinning treatments on tree health, but due to budget constraints, it was terminated after a few years, and in 2012, the entire study area was burned by a wildfire. Here we present associated biodiversity datasets from the pre-treatment year (1997) and early post-treatment years (1998-2002).
The location of the study is northeast of Zama City in extreme northwestern AB, at 59.44°N 118.31°W, in mature mixedwood forest in the Lower Boreal Highlands natural subregion. Approximately 85% of the stems were White Spruce, with an average age of approximately 133 years at the time of first sampling. The experiment was set ..., # Plant and insect assemblages in mixedwood Boreal forest at the Zama silvicultural experiment site in northwestern Alberta, Canada

Dataset DOI: [10.5061/dryad.7h44j1061](10.5061/dryad.7h44j1061)

## Description of the data and file structure

Vegetation, Carabid beetles, and Lepidoptera (moths and butterflies) were collected as an inventory of baseline conditions in northern Boreal forest plots in Alberta, Canada.

### Files and variables

#### File: Zama\_lepidoptera\_DRYAD\_2025.xlsx

**Description:** Lepidoptera light trap catches and hand net catches in sample plots. 

##### Variables

* \"P-Nos.\" are Pohl & Nanz (2023) species numbers.
* \"Species names\" follow the nomenclature of Pohl & Nanz (2023).

#### File: Zama\_vegetation\_DRYAD\_2025.xlsx

**Description:** Plant and lichen coverage in sample plots.

##### Variables

* \"sppcov\" is percent coverage
* \"acronym\" is species abbreviation, defined in sheet \"veg spp key\" within the file.

#### File: Zama\_carabidae\_DRYAD\_2025.xls...,