DOI: 10.25911/5c3ec127e490a
title: Victorian Alpine Plot Network (Alpine Summit Plots): Lowland-to-highland Roadside Transects 4WD Tracks Data, South-East Highlands, Australia, 2016
title: Victorian Alpine Plot Network: Lowland-to-highland Roadside Transects — 4WD Summit Plots, 2016

description: This Victorian Alpine Plot Network Road Transects 4WD Track Data Package comprises transect-based vegetation data for two Lowland-to-highland 4WD Roadside Transects in the South-East Highlands, Australia. These data have been used against background quadrat data to test a hypothesis about roads as vectors for dispersal of invasive species. Plots are located at altitudinally stratified intervals along two altitudinally-stratified transects. The transects follow major roads and management tracks in the Victorian Alps. Each track is divided into altitudinal sectors in which a single plot is situated. Within each plot, all species are identified and are assigned abundance and cover scores. The Alpine Summit plots study, which commenced in 2001, forms part of the collection of data packages by the Victorian Alpine Plot Network. A synopsis of related data packages which have been collected as part of the Victorian Alpine Plot Network’s full program is provided at https://doi.org/10.25911/5c11c3d283b0e.
description: Abstract: This Victorian Alpine Plot Network Road Transects 4WD Track Data Package comprises transect-based vegetation data for two Lowland-to-highland 4WD Roadside Transects in the South-East Highlands, Australia. These data have been used against background quadrat data to test a hypothesis about roads as vectors for dispersal of invasive species. Plots are located at altitudinally stratified intervals along two altitudinally-stratified transects. The transects follow major roads and management tracks in the Victorian Alps. Each track is divided into altitudinal sectors in which a single plot is situated. Within each plot, all species are identified and are assigned abundance and cover scores. The Alpine Summit plots study, which commenced in 2001, forms part of the collection of data packages by the Victorian Alpine Plot Network. 

A synopsis of related data packages which have been collected as part of the Victorian Alpine Plot Network’s full program is provided at https://doi.org/10.25911/5c11c3d283b0e.

Sampling method: The data collection protocol follows the guidelines of the Mountain Invasion Research Network (MIREN; http://www.mountaininvasions.org/). The aim is to determine which exotic (and native) species are where on mountain roadsides and are using these data against background quadrat data collected over past years and decades to test hypotheses about roads as vectors for dispersal of invasive species.

Study extent: These data aim to document the distribution of exotic (and native) species from foothills to mountain summits along transport corridors.

Project funding: Parks Victoria, Mt Hotham Alpine Resort. Between 2012 and 2018 this project was part of, and funded through the Long Term Ecological Research Network (LTERN) a facility within the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) and supported by the Australian Government through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy.