DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.7041354
title: Inventory data of woody plants surveyed and measured in North Senegal (Ferlo) in 2015-2017

description: This dataset gathers measurements from field inventory on woody vegetation carried in the sylvo-pastoral zone of Ferlo (Senegalese Sahel) in 2015-2016-2017. The data consist of dendrometric measurements, location and species for 3215 woody individuals (trees, bushes, and shrubs) belonging to 25 species and 11 families. <strong>Sites </strong> The study sites are located in the Northern Sandy Pastoral Region of Senegal around the deep wells of Widou Thiengoly (15.99° N, 15.32° W) and Tessékéré (15.85° N, 15.06° W). The vegetation formation is an open savanna, with a relatively low woody cover. For the <strong>field work of 2015</strong>, we applied a stratified sampling according to the topography and the distance to the studied deep wells. We inventoried 139 plots of 0.25 ha each. The center of each plot was marked by a gps point. The plots were located at increasing distances from the boreholes: 2, 3.5, 5, 7.5, 10, 12.5 and 15 km (20 plots per distance). For each distance, we randomly selected at least six plots in depressions (43 plots in total), the other plots being located on slopes or on hilltops, with a total vertical drop of several meters (96 plots in total). Whenever possible, the plots in each category of topography were distributed between the two soil types. In total, 86 plots were allocated to the ferruginous soils and 53 plots to the sub-arid brown red soils. In<strong> 2016, </strong>additional woody plants were surveyed within 10 circular plots with a variable radius between 27 m and 52 m, so that at least 10 individuals were counted for each plot. <strong>In 2017, </strong>woody plants were surveyed within 30 square plots of 0.25 ha each. Woody individuals were all geotagged in 2016 and 2017. <strong>Field measurements</strong> Adults woody plants (with a circumference superior to 10 cm at ground level) were inventoried within square plots (2015, 2017) or circular (2016). Species name was identified for all individuals and recorded following the taxonomic referential of the African Plant Database (version 3.4.0). Three types of dendrometric measurements were performed on woody plants: (i) circumference, measured at 30 cm from ground level, except for shrubs for which circumference was measured at ground level; (ii) tree height, measured by an ultrasonic hypsometer Vertex IV (Haglof Inc.) (iii) two perpendicular crown diameters. GPS points were taken (GPSMAP 62, Garmin Inc.) at the center of each plot (for 2015) and, in some cases for each individual (2016-2017). <strong>Data structure and metadata</strong> Data are encoded in a single file, using comma-delimited format and UTF-8 encoding. Each row describes one individual woody plant with its corresponding measurements. The following table presents the variables (columns) contained in the dataset. Shapefile format is also available (same data as the .csv). <strong>Variable name</strong> <strong>Unit</strong> <strong>Definition</strong> Tree_id - Unique identifier of the individual, with a 13 characters length. The 4 characters following the “y” indicate the year of the inventory. For instance, “tr.y2015.0034” is referring to the woody plant number 34 inventoried in 2015. Plot_id - Plot identifier Plot_area_ha ha Area of the inventoried plot Species - Genus, species, subspecies names and botanical authors Family - Family name Growth_form - Shrub, bush or tree Growth form expresses the extent of growth and the potential branching of the main-shoot axis. In this work, we refer to three types of growth form: shrub, bush and tree. A shrub refers to a small woody plant with a height below 2 meters and multi-stemmed. A tree designates a woody plant taller than 5 to 6 meters, generally presenting a single trunk. A bush, or a dwarf tree as in Pérez-Harguindeguy et al. (2013), is the intermediary between a shrub and a tree. Its height is usually between 2 to 6 meters and it is often multi-stemmed. Because of intra-specific traits variation, the mentioned growth form is valid for our study area. Circ30_m m Circumference measured at 30 cm from ground level. “NA” indicates missing data (for the individuals measured in 2017). Height_m m Tree height. “NA” indicates missing data (for the individuals measured in 2017). Dcrown1_m m First diameter of the crown Dcrown2_m m Second diameter of the crown (perpendicular to the first diameter) Geoloc_method - Geolocation method; indicates if it is the center of the plot which was geolocated (“geoloc.plot”, for individuals in 2015) or the woody plant (“geoloc.tree”, for 2016-2017). Lat_dd Decimal degrees North latitude of the plot if the geoloc_method == “geoloc.plot” and of the woody plant if the geoloc_method == “geoloc.tree”. Long_dd Decimal degrees West longitude of the plot if the geoloc_method == “geoloc.plot” and of the woody plant if the geoloc_method == “geloc.tree”. Topography - Local topography of the plot. Indicates if the plot is located within a depression (lowland) or on a hilltop. Date - Date of the survey: dd-mm-yy