Tree and plant occurrence from long-term vegetation plot monitoring in restoration and forest areas, Valparai Plateau, Anamalai Hills, Tamil Nadu, India (2016-2025)

This dataset compiles vegetation-monitoring records from a set of tropical rainforest restoration studies carried out in degraded forest fragments across the Valparai plateau (Anamalai Hills, Western Ghats, southern India). Sites span actively restored plots, unrestored/degraded plots, and intact benchmark forests. At each site, woody vegetation was surveyed in nested plots: a larger 20x20 m plot recording established trees (girth and height), and a smaller 5x5 m plot recording seedlings and saplings, larger trees overtopping the 5x5m plot, and other (incidental) species recorded around the 5x5 plot. Ground and canopy cover were scored in the 20x20 m plots. Surveys were conducted in two rounds ("seasons") in many multiple seasons/rounds (S1, S2, S3). The records are drawn from several overlapping studies, flagged per site in the metadata file (a single site may belong to more than one study): studyChronos - Chronosequence study: restored plots planted across a range of years (~2002-2010) compared against unrestored and benchmark forest, to track recovery of vegetation over time since planting. studyCandura - Candura fragment study: intensive survey within the Candura fragment, contrasting planted vs. not-planted areas and control plots. studyDecadal - Decadal resurvey: repeat monitoring of a subset of sites after roughly a decade to assess longer-term change. studySeeWeed - Seeding/weeding experiment: small experimental trial comparing weeding, seeding, and combined weeding+seeding treatments. studyEucalyp - Eucalyptus study: survey of Eucalyptus plantation plots (5x5 only) FILE LIST--------- 00_readMe.txt - This file. 01_metadata.csv - One row per survey site; site attributes, location, study membership, dates, treatment. 02_data20x20.csv - Individual tree records from the 20x20 m plots. 03_cover20x20.csv - Ground- and canopy-cover scores per 20x20 m plot. 04_data5x5.csv - Seedling/sapling counts by species per 5x5 m plot. 05_treesAbove5x5.csv - Larger trees overtopping the 5x5 m plot, by species. 06_otherSpecies5x5.csv - Other/non-target (e.g. weedy, herbaceous) species recorded in the 5x5 m plot. 07_specieslist.csv - Taxonomic lookup table for the species recorded, with GBIF-reconciled classification. 08_extra20x20injiparai_INJ03U.csv - Supplementary standalone 20x20 m tree survey of one additional (excluded) Injiparai site,in wide format. 09_extra5x5tataAGoffice_AGO_01-02-03R.csv - Supplementary 5x5 m seedling/sapling records for the TATA AG Office sites (AGO_01R/02R/03R). Files are linked by siteID (all files) and by survey date/season (date20x20, date5x5, season). The species column links the survey files to 07_specieslist.csv. Files 08 and 09 are self-contained supplements that carry their own site/location fields. Notes on shared conventions: - empty cells indicate no entry / not available / not recorded - Cover/abundance classes are ordinal: Absent < Low < Med < High. - verbatimSpecies preserves the name as originally recorded; species gives the reconciled/accepted name used for analysis.