The tropical forests of the Congo Basin are characterised by an unusual abundance of light-demanding species in the canopy. To investigate the origin of this phenomenon, ten permanent biodiversity monitoring plots were installed in the Moni River catchment (Yangambi, Democratic Republic of the Congo). A previous study was carried out to investigate the spatial distribution of these light-demanding species within this catchment. For the purpose of this study, light-demanding species were classified into three functional types: short-lived pioneers (SLP), long-lived pioneers (LLP) and non-pioneer light-demanding species (NPLD). In addition, Gilbertiodendron dewevrei, a particular shade-tolerant species, was included as a control.

This prior study identified highlighted pockets of light-demanding species from each functional type, as well as pockets of G. dewevrei. Within these pockets, permanent plots were installed: one plot in SLP pockets, three plots in LLP pockets, two plots in NPLD pockets, two plots in mixed forest areas outside pockets, and two plots in G. dewevrei pockets. The dataset presented here provides the number of stems inventoried for each species and functional type in each plot installed throughout the Moni catchment.

The data provided in this database are the numbers of each functional type and each species inventoried in the ten plots installed in the Moni catchment area. To obtain them, we simply counted the number of trees belonging to a functional type or species in each permanent plot.