Data from: The post-fire recovery of soil seed banks along a fire severity gradient in an Australian threatened mesic forest
Data files
Feb 18, 2026 version files 416.31 KB
Abstract
Climate change has increased the likelihood of extreme events, increasing the number of days with dangerous fire weather conditions, resulting in fires with increased severity, frequency, and extent. This can greatly impact vegetation communities by reducing diversity and slowing recovery. The role of in situ soil seed banks in mediating the impacts of shifting fire regimes is often unclear and may vary between different vegetation types. In particular, the impact of high fire severity, an increasingly common fire regime shift, may increase the likelihood of temperatures lethal to seeds in the soil, while higher fire frequencies may reduce diversity via increased immaturity risk. Here, we aim to assess how fire severity impacts the species and functional group diversity of soil seed banks in a threatened mesic forest community. We collected 396 soil samples from 12 sites within a wet sclerophyll forest in the Blue Mountains of New South Wales, Australia, that had been burnt during the 2019/2020 Australian megafires at differing fire severities (moderate, high, and extreme), as well as from unburnt (control) sites, three years post-fire. Soil samples were split into the leaf litter and soil, both treated with smoke and heat to break fire-related dormancy, and regularly watered in a greenhouse to observe germination for a year. This was compared to floristic surveys conducted at each site. Our data showed a hump-shaped relationship between species richness and fire severity, both in the extant vegetation and in the soil seed bank. The lowest richness occurred at unburnt sites increasi, increasing to a peak at moderate severity burn sites and declining slightly at high and then extreme severity sites. Obligate resprouters generally declined as severity increased. A distinct difference in composition between extant vegetation and the soil seed bank emphasises that a significant portion of the species richness within these communities solely exists in the soil seed bank, fluctuating as environmental conditions change. The soil seed bank is susceptible to decline in richness when both unburnt and burnt and extreme severities, largely impacting the composition within these ecosystems.
Description of the data and file structure
The dataset contains all raw data used in the manuscript: The post-fire recovery of soil seed banks along a fire severity gradient in an Australian threatened mesic forest. The data is in the format of a csv.
File:
Data_for__The_post-fire_recovery_of_soil_seed_banks_along_a_fire_severity_gradient_in_an_Australian_threatened_mesic_forest_.csv
Description:
- ExtantorSSB: ‘Extant vegetation’ indicated plant surveys and ‘soil seed bank’ indicates soil cores.
- Severity: Fire severity determined from GEEBAM (Google Earth Engine Burnt Area Map), as outlined in methods of paper (Department of Planning and Environment, 2020). Unburnt, Moderate, High, Extreme.
- FireIntervalGroups: Using publicly available online maps supplied by the State Government of NSW and NSW DCCEEW (2010), as outlined in methods of paper.
- Site: Unique site codes, equivalent to previous NSW BioNet surveys (NSW Government Environtment and Heritage, 2021).
- Quadrat: Plots at each site, 11 2x1m quadrats distributed along a 50 m transect.
- Depth: Differing soil depths, Leaf litter (separated from the top of the soil core) and Soil (8cm soil core). Only relevant for soil seed bank. NA = not available.
- DateFirstEmergence: Date first seedling emerged for each species for each sample. Only relevant for soil seed bank. NA = not available.
- Species: Species name.
- FunctionalGroup: No fire response, Serotinous resprouters, Obligate resprouters, Facultative resprouters, Obligate seeders. For species where resprouting or seed storage could not be determined, the functional group was recorded as Undetermined.
- Count: Number of seedlings that emerged from soil seed bank during year. Only relevant for soil seed bank. NA = not available.
- Cover: Percent of 2x1 metre plot covered by species in extant vegetation aboveground. Only relevant for extant vegetation, NA = not available.
Software
R studio version 4.3.0 was used for all data analysis (RStudio Team, 2015).
References
Department of Planning and Environment 2020. Google Earth Engine Burnt Area Map (GEEBAM). The Seed Initiative.
Nsw Government Environtment and Heritage 2021. BioNet Atlas.
Rstudio Team. 2015. RStudio: Integrated development for R [Online]. Boston, MA: RStudio, Inc. Available: http://www.rstudio.com/ [Accessed 22 March 2020].
State Government of Nsw and Nsw Dcceew 2010. NPWS Fire History - Wildfires and Prescribed Burns, accessed from The Sharing and Enabling Environmental Data Portal.