Spatial and temporal variation in the diversity, abundance, and energetic returns of underground storage organs on the coastal lowlands of the Cape Floristic Region, South Africa

This package contains data and related R script (and README file explaining the organisation of this package) which accompany the research paper with the same title submitted to the Journal of Archaeological Science, with submission ID JASC25-178. This research assessed species with underground storage organs (USOs) on the coastal lowlands of the Cape Floristic Region (CFR) in terms of their richness, abundance, and energetic returns across regions, seasons and biome types. We surveyed 212 sites equally in the growing (spring) and dormant (autumn) seasons and across three biomes (Fynbos, Renosterveld, Strandveld) in each of three regions (west, south, and southeast coasts). In all the surveyed regions, richness, abundance, and energetic returns of edible USOs peaked in winter/spring and were dominated by high-energy cormous species. On an annual basis, energetic returns were highest on the south coast, owing to USO apparency peaking in autumn, a feature absent at the other sites. In all regions, hotspots of USO energetic returns were rare, but most common on the south coast. Energetic returns were mostly higher in Strandveld than in Fynbos and Renosterveld.本数据包包含与投稿至《Journal of Archaeological Science》（《考古科学杂志》）、投稿编号为JASC25-178的同名研究论文配套的数据、相关R脚本及阐释本数据包组织架构的README文件。本研究针对开普植物区（Cape Floristic Region, CFR）沿海低地的地下储藏器官（underground storage organs, USO）物种，从区域、季节、生物群系类型三个维度，评估其物种丰富度、丰度与能量回报水平。我们在生长季（春季）与休眠季（秋季）对212个样地开展等量调查，覆盖西部、南部、东南海岸三个区域的三类生物群系：芳波什灌丛（Fynbos）、雷诺斯特维尔德灌丛（Renosterveld）与斯特兰韦德灌丛（Strandveld）。所有调查区域中，可食用地下储藏器官的物种丰富度、丰度及能量回报均在冬春季节达到峰值，且群落以高能量球茎类物种为优势类群。从年度尺度来看，南部海岸的能量回报最高，这源于其地下储藏器官的表观可见度在秋季达到峰值，而其余区域并无该特征。在所有区域内，地下储藏器官能量回报的热点区域较为稀少，但在南部海岸最为多见。整体而言，斯特兰韦德灌丛中的能量回报普遍高于芳波什灌丛与雷诺斯特维尔德灌丛。