Kidman Springs fire experiment 1993-2013

This dataset provides understorey herbaceous biomass, ground cover and overstorey woody cover response to different fire regimes over a twenty year period at a grassland and open woodland in the tropical savannas of northern Australia. BOTANAL was used to assess understorey herbaceous biomass. Woody canopy cover was derived from digital analysis of oblique aerial imagery taken from a helicopter at the site in 1995 and again in 2013. Woody cover (tree basal area and canopy cover) was also assessed using a bitterlich gauge on BOTANAL ground based transects in 2009. The data could be used to calibrate models of herbaceous growth and woody cover change in response to long term fire. It may be useful for assessing climate change impacts on aboveground carbon sequestration. The fire regimes tested were of varying frequency (every 2, 4 and 6 years) and season (June vs. October) of fire compared to unburnt controls on woody cover and pasture composition. Sites were open to grazing by cattle.

本数据集提供了澳大利亚北部热带稀树草原内草地与开阔林地中，20年时间尺度下下层草本生物量、地表覆盖及上层木本覆盖对不同火烧制度的响应数据。研究采用BOTANAL工具评估下层草本生物量；木本冠层覆盖度通过1995年与2013年在该场地由直升机获取的倾斜航空影像的数字化分析得到。2009年，研究人员还在基于BOTANAL的地面样带调查中，使用毕特利希测角仪（Bitterlich gauge）测定了木本覆盖相关指标，包括树木断面积与冠层覆盖度。本数据集可用于校准响应长期火烧的草本生长与木本覆盖变化模型，也可用于评估气候变化对地上碳固存过程的影响。本次测试的火烧制度包含不同火烧频率（每2年、4年、6年一次）与火烧季节（6月与10月），并设置未火烧对照组，以探究其对木本覆盖与牧场群落组成的影响。所有样地均对牛群放牧开放。