Connell Rainforest Plot Network: Annual Variation in Flowering and Fruiting in Eight Species, Davies Creek Plot, Dinden National Park, Queensland, Australia, 1995–2003

Abstract: This data package shows annual variation in flowering and fruiting between 1995 and 2003 for eight species of trees. These demonstrate that there is considerable variation in flowering and fruiting across both species and time. These data are used to produce the graphs found in figures 5.19 on page 142.

This plot consists of one 1.7 hectare plot in tropical rainforest, established in 1963. Rainforest tree attributes recorded comprise the size (height or girth) of tagged and mapped, free-standing stems of shrub and tree species. Sampling has been undertaken at intervals of 1-6 years since 1963, and this data package describes longitudinal variation in seedling recruitment over almost four decades. This data package forms part of the collection of vegetation data undertaken at plots situated in both Lamington National Park and Davies Creek initiated by Professor Joseph H. Connell (University of California, Santa Barbara) in 1963.

A synopsis of related data packages which have been collected as part of the Connell Rainforest Plot Network’s full program is provided at https://doi.org/10.25911/5c13444388e1b.

Sampling method: The Dinden National Park Plot is a 1.7 hectare plot. The plot was selected by Prof. Joseph H. Connell in 1963 on the advice of his CSIRO collaborators Dr Len Webb and Mr Geoff Tracey, and was chosen for three reasons; it was accessible, it was unlogged, and a smaller 0.4 ha plot belonging to the Queensland Department of Forestry had already been established there in 1951. This plot is one of two plots established by Connell in 1963 – the other is in subtropical rainforest near O’Reilly’s Guesthouse in Lamington National Park, 65 km south of Brisbane. The same sampling methods are employed at both plots, at intervals of 1-6 years.

Project funding: The National Science Foundation was the sole funder of this research between 1963 and 2003.

The plots were unfunded from 2003–2011.

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.

These data were curated and published with strategic funds from a TERN initiative to publish long term data packages for the book Lindenmayer et al. 2014 Biodiversity and Environmental Change: Monitoring, Challenges and Direction.