Eucalyptus camaldulensis (Dehnh.) seedling survival, height and sediment salinity dataset

In September 2006 (austral spring), 480 seedlings of E. camaldulensis were planted in 24 plots on the banks of six ephemeral creeks, three of which were artificially flooded for 6–8 wk. Managed flooding was engineered by pumping water from the river into dry anabranch creeks that were dammed at their entrances using levee banks. Maximum flood depth among plots ranged from 0.4–0.7 m.<br>Two pairs of browsed and unbrowsed (1  2 m) plots were established along each creek. Browsing treatments (browsed or unbrowsed) were allocated randomly within each pair of plots, with all mammal herbivores being excluded by 1.3 m high steel fencing, with wire netting (3 cm mesh) attached.<br>One-year-old seedlings, grown from seed collected from a Murray River floodplain with similar climate and hydrological conditions (ca 80 km downstream from the study area), were obtained from a commercial nursery. Twenty seedlings were planted 40 cm apart in each plot. Seedling survival and height were measured eight times (spanning two austral summers) between October 2006 and June 2008 (0, 61, 151, 182, 273, 365, 578 and 609 d after planting).<br>In the austral spring of 2007, we collected three sediment cores from each plot at 20-30 cm below the surface, which corresponded to the lower seedling root zone. Sediment salinity was estimated by measuring electrical conductivity from the sediment samples using the 1:5 sediment/water paste extraction method (Rayment &amp; Higginson 1992).

2006年9月（澳大利亚春季），研究人员在6条季节性干涸溪谷沿岸的24个样地中栽种了480株赤桉（E. camaldulensis）幼苗，其中3条溪谷对应的样地被人工淹水6~8周。人工淹水工程通过将河水泵送至干涸的分流溪谷实现，这类溪谷的入口处以堤岸拦挡。各样地的最大淹水深度介于0.4~0.7米之间。
沿每条溪谷设置了两对啃食与未啃食（1×2米）的样地。啃食处理（啃食/未啃食）在每对样地内随机分配，所有哺乳类草食动物均通过1.3米高的钢制围栏加以阻隔，围栏附有网孔为3厘米的铁丝网。
试验所用的1年生幼苗，由采自墨累河（Murray River）泛滥平原的种子培育而来——该区域与本研究区域气候、水文条件相似，位于研究区域下游约80公里处，幼苗购自商业苗圃。每个样地内以40厘米的间距栽种20株幼苗。在2006年10月至2008年6月间，共计8次监测了幼苗的存活率与株高（覆盖两个澳大利亚夏季），监测时间点分别为栽种后0、61、151、182、273、365、578和609天。
2007年澳大利亚春季，研究人员从每个样地地下20~30厘米处（对应幼苗下层根系区域）采集了3个沉积物岩芯。采用1:5沉积物/水糊状物萃取法（Rayment & Higginson 1992）测定沉积物样品的电导率，以此估算沉积物盐度。