DOI: 10.5061/dryad.902k846/1
title: Southern Korup Transect Plots Data

description: Text to files on Korup plot data of Gartlan and Thomas
In the southern part of Korup National Park (58o10 N, 8o70 E), 135 plots, each of 80 m x 80m in area, were laid out at 150-m intervals along four E-to-W transect lines (P, Q, R and S; each of 34 plots, excepting Q with 33). Lines were ~5 km in length, and separated S-to-N at ~4 km distance. Shrubs and small trees were very lightly cut to show a way between plots. Each plot was divided into four 40-m x 40-m subplots, although only data at the whole plot level are archived here. Details of the layout and environmental information are found in Gartlan et al. (1986). All trees of ≥ 30 cm gbh (girth at breast height, 1.3 m) were measured and identified. Coordinate locations of trees within subplots were not taken: trees were not tagged. Lianas were also recorded but are not included here. The plots were not marked at their corners in any permanent manner apart from an indication of their location by single tags on trees at the start of each plot on the line. The field work was undertaken in 1975-1977, principally by J. S. Gartlan, D. W. Thomas and F. Namata. Plots were relocatable up to about 1998, after which time many tags had become very difficult to find. Except for transect P, the southernmost line, and which has continued in use for further research up until the present, the other lines have faded.
There are four ASCII-text files. These were the inputs for the abundance tables, classifications and ordinations in Gartlan et al. (1986). (1) ‘korbar.txt’ has the basal areas (ba) per plot (units: m2/0.1-ha) of each tree species, written in the Cornell Condensed Format (CCF) of the programs DECORANA and CANOCO. Each line of the data has a plot number followed by four couplets of ‘species number and ba-value’. (Some lines have trailing zero entries.) Plots numbers are: 1-34, transect P; 35-67, Q; 68-101, R; and 102-135, S. (2) ‘korfre.txt’ has the numbers of trees of each tree species per plot, corresponding to ‘korbar.txt’ and also in the CCF. (3) ‘korlsp.txt’ contains a list of the 444 species’ identifier codes (all transects); and (4) ‘kortax.txt’ is a dictionary of these species’ codes giving their full Latin names and authorities as of 1986, arranged under family names. The taxonomy has not been updated, and the modern user may want to revise it using an international plant names’ index.
These data were also the basis to Newbery & Gartlan (1996) and Newbery et al. (1988, 1997, 1998).
_References
Gartlan, J. S., D. M. Newbery, D. W. Thomas, and P. G. Waterman. 1986. The influence of topography and soil phosphorus on the vegetation of Korup Forest Reserve, Cameroun. Vegetatio 65:131-148.
Newbery, D. M., I. J. Alexander, and J. A. Rother. 1997. Phosphorus dynamics in a lowland African rain forest: The influence of ectomycorrhizal trees. Ecological Monographs 67:367-409.
Newbery, D. M., I. J. Alexander, D. W. Thomas, and J. S. Gartlan. 1988. Ectomycorrhizal Rain-Forest Legumes and Soil-Phosphorus in Korup-National-Park, Cameroon. New Phytologist 109:433-450.
Newbery, D. M. and J. S. Gartlan. 1996. Structural analysis of the rain forest at Korup and Douala Edea, Cameroon. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh B 104:177-224.
Newbery, D. M., N. C. Songwe, and G. B. Chuyong. 1998. Phenology and dynamics of an African rain forest at Korup, Cameroon. Pages 267-308 in D. M. Newbery, H. H. T. Prins, and N. D. Brown, editors. Dynamics of tropical communities. Blackwell Science, Oxford.