Understory herbaceous plant cover in secondary woodlands on the Isle of Wight, 2021
Cite this dataset as:
Hughes, S.; Kunin, B.; Ziv, G.; Watts, K. (2023). Understory herbaceous plant cover in secondary woodlands on the Isle of Wight, 2021. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/7c2b2878-1d15-4ddd-9d7e-cf50bd65f652
Download/Access
PLEASE NOTE:
By accessing or using this dataset, you agree to the terms of the relevant licence agreement(s). You will ensure that this dataset is cited in any publication that describes research in which the data have been used.
This dataset is available under the terms of the Open Government Licence 
https://doi.org/10.5285/7c2b2878-1d15-4ddd-9d7e-cf50bd65f652
A species by quadrat matrix showing the percentage cover of understory herbaceous plants in ancient and recent woodlands varying in age and isolation. Percentage cover was calculated for each species individually.
The data was collected on the Isle of Wight, woodlands spanned the entire island and were not situated in one area.
All data was collected in the summer of 2021 over a period of 3 weeks covering the last 2 weeks of may May and the first week of June. This time was chosen as this is when a large subset of woodland plants are in flower.
Woodlands were sampled in blocks of three, each block contains an ancient woodland, a recent woodland adjacent to the ancient woodland and another recent woodland of similar age and size but isolated from the ancient woodland. Each woodland had six quadrats taken, systematically placed at four corners and two in the centre. Within each quadrat the percentage cover of all understory herbs was recorded.
This data was collected to measure the colonisation credit of recently planted woodlands, and to observe how much this might vary under differing degrees of isolation. This data could also be used to compare all sorts of biodiversity metrics between connected and isolated recent woodlands. It could also be used to compare beta diversity metrics between woodlands of varying degrees of isolation
The data was collected on the Isle of Wight, woodlands spanned the entire island and were not situated in one area.
All data was collected in the summer of 2021 over a period of 3 weeks covering the last 2 weeks of may May and the first week of June. This time was chosen as this is when a large subset of woodland plants are in flower.
Woodlands were sampled in blocks of three, each block contains an ancient woodland, a recent woodland adjacent to the ancient woodland and another recent woodland of similar age and size but isolated from the ancient woodland. Each woodland had six quadrats taken, systematically placed at four corners and two in the centre. Within each quadrat the percentage cover of all understory herbs was recorded.
This data was collected to measure the colonisation credit of recently planted woodlands, and to observe how much this might vary under differing degrees of isolation. This data could also be used to compare all sorts of biodiversity metrics between connected and isolated recent woodlands. It could also be used to compare beta diversity metrics between woodlands of varying degrees of isolation
Publication date: 2023-02-13
View numbers valid from 01 June 2023 Download numbers valid from 20 June 2024 (information prior to this was not collected)
Format
Comma-separated values (CSV)
Spatial information
Study area
Spatial representation type
Tabular (text)
Spatial reference system
OSGB 1936 / British National Grid
Temporal information
Temporal extent
2021-05-01 to 2021-06-30
Provenance & quality
Data were collected in field surveys on the isle of wight during the summer of 2021. Plants were identified using a dichotomous key and percentage cover was estimated subjectively using marks around the quadrat for assistance.
Units in the core matrix of the data is percentage cover, any plant covering less than 5% of the quadrat was marked as <5.
There were no processing steps undertaken on this data, values were typed into csv format straight from the paper.
All quality control had to be undertaken in the field, using a dichotomous key to identify each plant and being careful and consistent with percentage cover estimations ensured all data were correct. However, there may be limitations in that a plant may have been misidentified through human error.
Units in the core matrix of the data is percentage cover, any plant covering less than 5% of the quadrat was marked as <5.
There were no processing steps undertaken on this data, values were typed into csv format straight from the paper.
All quality control had to be undertaken in the field, using a dichotomous key to identify each plant and being careful and consistent with percentage cover estimations ensured all data were correct. However, there may be limitations in that a plant may have been misidentified through human error.
Licensing and constraints
This dataset is available under the terms of the Open Government Licence
Cite this dataset as:
Hughes, S.; Kunin, B.; Ziv, G.; Watts, K. (2023). Understory herbaceous plant cover in secondary woodlands on the Isle of Wight, 2021. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre. https://doi.org/10.5285/7c2b2878-1d15-4ddd-9d7e-cf50bd65f652
Correspondence/contact details
Other contacts
Rights holder
University of Leeds
Custodian
NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre
info@eidc.ac.uk
Publisher
NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre
info@eidc.ac.uk