Field validation dataset of Australian supratidal forests and adjacent ecosystems

Data files

Jun 03, 2026 version files 447.52 KB

README.md

3.76 KB
SCLF-field-validation-final.csv

443.76 KB

Abstract

‘Supratidal and coastal lowland forests’ are a broadly-distributed group of coastal ecosystems which are collectively defined on the basis of their position within the coastal landscape and vegetation structure. This dataset contains information on the location, structure and composition of supratidal forests and/or other coastal lowland forests and adjacent ecosystem types (mangrove, saltmarsh, terrestrial communities), collected via field surveys in selected locations around Australia.

These data have been used to validate the first national Supratidal and Coastal Lowland Forest (SCLF) mapping product produced for Australia, available at https://doi.org/10.71862/y3cp-kd04

Dataset DOI: 10.5061/dryad.fj6q5748z

Description of the data and file structure

Files and variables

File: SCLF-field-validation-final.csv

Description: Full dataset of supratidal and coastal lowland forest and adjacent ecosystem type validation locations

Variables

Point: Unique ID
Albers_East: Easting coordinate (Australian Albers projection)
Albers_North: Northing coordinate (Australian Albers projection)
Albers_Obs: Observed offset of Albers_East and Albers_North coordinate from original Map Grid of Australia (UTM-based) projection.
Date: Date of field survey (dd/mm/yyyy)
State: Australian state or territory name
Estuary: Name of estuary study location is situated within
Site: Site name
Site_Code: Site code used in field surveys
Plot_ID: Plot code used in field surveys
Structure: vegetation structure as determined in the field (forest, herbaceous, marsh, ecotone, unvegetated). NA for plots where vegetation structure was not recorded (e.g. elevation survey only or ground control points)
Ecosystem: ecosystem classification as determined in the field (coastal coastal forest, coastal lowland forest, ecotone, mangrove, marsh, mudflat, open water, other forest, other herbaceous, supratidal flat, supratidal forest, supratidal or coastal lowland forest, unvegetated, anthropogenic). NA for plots where ecosystem type was not recorded (e.g. elevation survey only or ground control points)
Dom_Gen_Tall: Most dominant genus of the tallest vegetation stratum present (i.e. tree or shrub genus in forested communities; shrub or herbaceous in marsh communities)
Dom_Gen_Status: structural status of the most dominant genus referred to in Dom_Gen_Tall (burnt, dead, live, mixed, stressed)
MGA_Zone: Map Grid of Australia (MGA) Zone for which northing and easting values are reported
Datum_Original: Datum of the original coordinates as recorded by method in GPS_Method (GDA1994, GDA2020, WGS84)
East_Original: Easting of the original coordinates as recorded by method in GPS_Method
North_Original: Northing of the original coordinates as recorded by method in GPS_Method
GPS_Method: Global Positioning System method for centre of plot survey (Emilid Reach LS2+, Non-differential GPS, Other RTK, R10, R10/R12, R12, R8s, digital level (Sprinter) survey from RTX control points)
Elev: Elevation of the GPS survey point (plot centre) in Australian Height Datum (m AHD)
Hprec: Horizontal precision (in metres) of the GPS position. NA for non RTK/RTX GPS methods and/or if not available
Vprec: Vertical precision (in metres) of the GPS position. NA for non RTK/RTX GPS methods and/or if not available
Sp_Comp1: Species composition of the woody stratum of the vegetation community. NA if not recorded or not present. Species list may be non exhaustive
Sp_Comp2: Species composition of the herbaceous stratum of the vegetation community. NA if not recorded or not present. Species list may be non exhaustive
Woody_15m: Binary coding of outcome of high-resolution imagery interpretation of a 15m radius around plot centre. Value of 0 = <50% woody cover determined; Value of 1 = ≥ 50% woody cover determined
Woody_45m: Binary coding of outcome of high-resolution imagery interpretation of a 45m radius around plot centre. Value of 0 = <50% woody cover determined; Value of 1 = ≥ 50% woody cover determined
Woody_combined: Sum of binary codes for Woody_15m and Woody_45m.

Code/software

Access information

Other publicly accessible locations of the data:

Data was derived from the following sources:

Datasets were collated from field surveys conducted at 29 sites across Australia, including all states (except Tasmania) and the Northern Territory, between 2018 and 2024. These sites span a latitudinal range of more than 22° (from 16.5°S to 38.9°S) and were selected on the basis of existing data availability (surveys prior to 2022) and strategic selection of representative settings missing from prior survey (2022 to 2024). These sites are representative of multiple climatic zones of coastal Australia, with the exception of arid zones where little to no SCLF extent is expected due to constraints of water availability.

Almost 2000 georeferenced points, mostly acquired with RTK-GPS, were initially collected from these sites. Georeferenced points were acquired in SCLF communities, as well as adjacent ecosystems (e.g. mangrove and saltmarsh) and ecotones (transition point between two ecosystem types). In most sites, these data were collected as a shore-normal transect across a mosaic of coastal wetland to terrestrial landscapes. Vegetation composition and structure parameters were recorded for each point depending on the specific data collection objectives for each site.

Field survey points within SCLF communities were classified in the field as either ‘supratidal forest’ where there was evidence of tidal influence from water level data and/or the presence of halophytic plants; ‘coastal floodplain forest’ where there was no visible evidence of tidal influence; or ‘supratidal or coastal floodplain forest’ where such observations were uncertain or not available.

A desktop processing step was applied to determine validation points which were determined to be woody SCLF on the basis of field observation at the scale of field plots (typically <10 m radius) that contained <50% woody vegetation cover at a scale relevant to our remote sensing datasets. Aerial imagery interpretation at a scale of 1:1000 was undertaken across a radius of 45 m around the plot. Datapoints of SCLF which has <50% were excluded from map validation of SCLF, but are retained and identified in this dataset. In total, 491 field data locations were classified as SCLF (37% of retained locations), 582 locations were identified as non-SCLF ecosystems (44%) and 241 locations were classed as ecotones (18%).