Shifts in functional group community diversity of threatened mesic forests with changing fire regimes

Changing fire regimes, including increased fire severity, may impact plant community recovery, altering structure and composition, potentially causing a state change. For threatened wet sclerophyll forests, mesic forests which contain both dry sclerophyll and rainforest elements, this could mean a shift to a more fire-prone species composition. We investigate how species and functional group diversity responses differ across a gradient of fire severity and how recovery changes with time since fire in a mesic forest community. We hypothesize that increased fire severity can lead to reduced diversity and altered composition. We surveyed plant species cover and abundance three years post-fire at sites with different fire severities (moderate, high, or extreme) during the 2019/2020 Australian megafires, and sampled adjacent unburnt sites as controls. We calculated species and functional type beta diversity indices across a fire severity gradient. Our data showed a hump-shaped..., , , # Data from: Shifts in functional group community diversity of threatened mesic forests with changing fire regimes

[https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.ngf1vhj59](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.ngf1vhj59)

## Description of the data and file structure

The dataset contains all raw data used in the manuscript ‘Shifts in functional group community diversity of threatened mesic forests with changing fire regimes’. The data is in the format of a csv.

#### File: Data_for_Shifts_in_functional_group_community_diversity_of_threatened_mesic_forests_with_changing_fire_regimes.csv

**Description:** 

##### Variables

* SiteNo: Unique site codes, equivalent to previous NSW BioNet surveys (NSW Government Environment and Heritage, 2021).
* Severity: Fire severity determined from GEEBAM (Google Earth Engine Burnt Area Map), as outlined in the methods of the paper (Department of Planning and Environment, 2020). Unburnt, Moderate, High, Extreme.
* YearsPostFire: Number of years between 2019-2020 Megafires an...,