Water budget components and forest structure in burned and unburned longleaf pine stands, the Jones Center at Ichauway, Southwest Georgia, USA, 2015 - 2021

This data package includes data tables used to assemble a stand-level water budget of the longleaf pine-wiregrass ecosystem in southwestern Georgia, USA, between 2015 and 2021. Water budgets were estimated by measuring or modeling each distinct water budget component. Thus, the data tables included in the package are generally divided by stratum (i.e. overstory, midstory, vegetative groundcover, litter layer) and/or process (i.e. evaporation or transpiration). Relevant forest structure data is also included; they are often presented in tables alongside estimates of transpiration. Much of the data were collected across a soil moisture gradient, at both mesic and xeric sites, and in stands treated with different fire regimes: frequent prescribed fire (FF) or fire exclusion (EX). For some data, site or treatment may not be specified if the data were not collected for comparative purposes, but rather as representative baseline data for models that would be applied across sites and treatments. Transpiration data contained within this package include: 1) seasonal averages of daily sap-flux for pines and oaks measured with thermal dissipation probes 2) daily and seasonal transpiration for individual trees 3) seasonal transpiration for functional groups of shrubs and small trees 4) seasonal transpiration of groundcover functional groups Evaporation data contained within this package include: 1) Continuously-measured canopy interception and throughfall 2) overstory stemflow 3) midstory stemflow 3) groundcover interception and throughfall 4) litter moisture content data paired with time since rain (to develop litter drying curves), and 5) litter moisture content data paired with recent rain event depth (to develop litter wetting curves) Forest structure data contained within this package include: 1) Annual measures of tree DBH 2) Biannual estimates of small tree and shrub DBH, by functional group 3) Monthly estimates of groundcover functional group leaf area index 4) Monthly measures of litter biomass and water content