Can faster growth compensate for increased mortality in subtropical dry forest fragments?

Capturing the effects of fragmentation and ongoing changing climate on the population dynamics of long-lived trees requires long-term datasets, but these are uncommon in rainforests and dry forests outside of the tropics. This study capitalised on nine 0.04-ha permanent plots established in 1982 within corridors of old-growth subtropical dry forest (Araucarian vine forest) retained as fire breaks within forestry plantations in Imbil (southern Queensland, Australia). Tree diameter growth and survival were censused in 1997 and 2021, resulting in two monitoring periods.
The most recent period was associated with an increasing trend in vapour-pressure deficit (VPD). Consistent with this trend, we found that survival was substantially lower across all size classes in the second period. Mortality-induced reductions in stem density were associated with faster growth rates in all but the largest stems in the second period. Growth was also moderately faster in plots near forest edges in the seco..., No data processing was undertaken other than the tidying and wrangling undertaken in the R scripts., , # Data from: Can faster growth compensate for increased mortality in subtropical dry forest fragments?

Date created: 2 May 2024

Authors: Vanessa Moscato, William J. F. McDonald, Birte Balle-Hosking, and John M. Dwyer

### Instructions to run the \"Imbil\_R\_Project\_Final\" R Project:

Download all data files outlined below and save them in the \"Data\" subfolder in \"Imbil_R_Project_Final\". Then open the R Project in RStudio and run \"Imbil_analysis_script.R\" to reproduce all analyses, figures, and tables.

## Data description

**\"Imbil_plot_scale_data.csv\"**: Plot-scale data for the nine plots

* plot_name: name of plot in the format of original logging area number, plot number, and logging area name.
* plot: name of plot as used in the R script and manuscript. Values include \"ARAUCARIA1\", \"DERRIER1\", \"DWYER1\", \"FRASER1\", \"FRASER2\", \"FRASER3\", \"MITCHELL1\", \"WESTERN1\", \"YABBA1\".
* latitude: latitude (decimal degrees)
* longitude: longitude (decimal degrees)
* width_of_break_m: wi...