DOI: 10.5061/dryad.866t1g22g
title: Plant responses to a re-emergence of cultural burning in long-unburnt, threatened temperate woodlands

description: For tens of thousands of years, Indigenous Peoples have shaped the
 structure and function of ecosystems through cultural burning, which has
 many important cultural, ecological and societal values. In recent years,
 public interest in cultural burning has increased in response to more
 severe wildfires globally, and alongside greater calls from Indigenous
 Peoples for cultural revitalisation, as well as generations of Indigenous
 leadership in advancing community self-determination. This has sparked the
 development of many new agency-supported cultural burning programs
 worldwide. However, these programs are often limited by an absence of
 cross-cultural partnerships, and a lack of understanding of how
 contemporary ecosystems respond to burning. Here, we report the ecological
 outcomes of an Indigenous-led cultural burning program, delivered by a
 cross-cultural partnership between Aboriginal communities, ecologists,
 land managers, and emergency responders. Our ecological study was
 underpinned by data collected against a before, after, control, impact
 design in the critically-endangered box-gum grassy woodlands of eastern
 Australia. We provide evidence that cultural burning promoted the
 establishment of disturbance-sensitive native leguminous plants and
 graminoids, with positive responses pronounced in high-condition sites.
 However, exotic plants characterized burning responses where floristic
 condition was initially low. Our findings demonstrate the marked influence
 of starting conditions on vegetation responses after burning, which are
 likely a product of past disturbance. Taken together, the results
 highlight the potential complexities of re-introducing fire into
 long-unburnt landscapes that have been highly modified by a long history
 of western agricultural management. Therefore, post-burning interventions
 in low-floristic condition sites will be critical to mitigate
 weed-invasion and to promote native plants. Our work demonstrates the
 value of forming partnerships which unite Indigenous knowledge, and
 western science and management, to generate cross-cultural positive
 outcomes and benefits. These include the generation of a new body of
 ecological evidence to support the re-emergence of cultural burning in
 south-eastern Australia.
description: # Plant responses to a re-emergence of cultural burning in long-unburnt,
 threatened temperate woodlands Dataset DOI:
 [10.5061/dryad.866t1g22g](10.5061/dryad.866t1g22g) ## Description of the
 data and file structure Plant responses to a re-emergence of cultural
 burning in long-unburnt, threatened temperate woodlands ### Files and
 variables #### File: Vegetation_data_dryad_15_12_25_submitted.xlsx
 **1.Sheet Name:** README_Point_intercept1\ **Description:** Instructions
 to interpret **Point_intercept1** - data frame used for analysis of
 species count data | Colname | Description | | :------------------- |
 :---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | ANUSiteName | Site Name/ TSR Block | | Transectdistance | Location of plot (0m or 200m) on transect/site | | Transectposition | 1,2,3. Position of transect on each transect/site | | Transect | transect/site - two per TSR Block. One burned, one control. | | Treatment | Burn or Control  | | BurnCoverCat | Burn severity index based on burn cover for burn sites only | | TSR\_FVS\_rank2 | Floristic Value score of TSR block (Alow= Low, ModHigh = Moderate or High) | | TimePeriod | Pre burn or Post burn survey | | graminoid.B | Sum of counts (abundance) of graminoid species with B floristic value scores.  | | graminoid.C | Sum of counts (abundance) of graminoid species with C floristic value scores.  | | graminoid.Z | Sum of counts (abundance) of graminoid species with Z floristic value scores.  | | graminoid.A | Sum of counts (abundance) of graminoid species with A floristic value scores.  | | graminoid.X | Sum of counts (abundance) of graminoid species with X floristic value scores.  | | graminoid.Y | Sum of counts (abundance) of graminoid species with Y floristic value scores.  | | A | Sum of counts (abundance) of species with A floristic value score.  | | B | Sum of counts (abundance) of species with B floristic value score.  | | C | Sum of counts (abundance) of species with C floristic value score.  | | Y | Sum of counts (abundance) of herb species with Y floristic value scores.  | | Z | Sum of counts (abundance) of herb species with Z floristic value scores.  | | X | Sum of counts (abundance) of herb species with X floristic value scores.  | | Rare\_shrubsherbs | Sum of counts (abundance) of herb and shrub species with A or B floristic value scores.  | | Common\_herb\_shrub | Sum of counts (abundance) of herb and shrub species with C floristic value scores.  | | native\_herbs | Sum of counts (abundance) of all herb species with A,B or C floristic value scores.  | | native\_shrub | Sum of counts (abundance) of all shrub species with A,B or C floristic value scores.  | | ExoticHerbShrubCover | Sum of counts (abundance) of all herb and shrubs species with X,Y or Z floristic value scores.  | **2.Sheet Name:** README_Point_intercept2 **Description:** Instructions to interpret **Point_intercept2** - data frame used for analysis of species count data | Column name | Description | | :--------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | ANUSiteName | Site Name/ TSR Block | | Transectdistance | Location of plot (0m or 200m) on transect/site | | Transectposition | 1,2,3. Position of transect on each transect/site | | Transect | transect/site - two per TSR Block. One burned, one control. | | Treatment | Burn or Control  | | BurnCoverCat | Burn severity index based on burn cover for burn sites only | | TSR\_FVS\_rank2 | Floristic Value score of TSR block (Alow= Low, ModHigh = Moderate or High) | | TimePeriod | Pre burn or Post burn survey | | Asteraceae | Sum of counts (abundance) of species in the Asteraceae family | | Fabaceae | Sum of counts (abundance) of species in the Fabaceae family | | Hypericaceae | Sum of counts (abundance) of species in the Hypericaceae family | | Poaceae | Sum of counts (abundance) of species in the Poaceae family | | Lamiaceae | Sum of counts (abundance) of species in the Lamiaceae family | | Araliaceae | Sum of counts (abundance) of species in the Araliaceae family | | Asparagaceae | Sum of counts (abundance) of species in the Asparagaceae family | | Plantaginaceae | Sum of counts (abundance) of species in the Plantaginaceae family | **3.Sheet Name:** README_SpRichness **Description:** Instructions to interpret SpRichness - data frame used for analysis of species richness data | Column | Description | | :-------------------- | :-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | ANUSiteName | Site Name/ TSR Block | | Transect | transect/site - two per TSR Block. One burned, one control. | | Treatment | Burn or Control  | | BurnCoverCat | Burn severity index based on burn cover for burn sites only | | TSR\_FVS\_rank2 | Floristic Value score of TSR block (Alow= Low, ModHigh = Moderate or High) | | TimePeriod | Pre burn or Post burn survey | | Asteraceae | Number of unique species in the Asteraceae family | | Fabaceae | Number of unique species in the Fabaceae family | | Poaceae | Number of unique species in the Poaceae family | | A | Number of unique species ranked as "A" floristic value | | B | Number of unique species ranked as "B" floristic value | | C | Number of unique species ranked as "C" floristic value | | Y | Number of unique species ranked as "Y" floristic value | | Z | Number of unique species ranked as "Z" floristic value | | X | Number of unique species ranked as "X" floristic value | | graminoid.C | Number of graminoid species ranked as "C" floristic value | | NativeTotal | Number of unique species ranked as "A","B" or "C" floristic value | | ABGrass | Number of unique graminoid species ranked as "A" or "B" | | ExoticTotal | Number of unique species ranked as "X","Y" or "Z" | | ExoticGrass | Number of unique graminoid species ranked as "X", "Y", "Z" | | AB | Number of unique species ranked as "A" or "B" | | Rare\_herbs\_shrubs | Number of unique herb or shrub species ranked as "A" or "B" floristic value | | Common\_herb\_shrub | Number of unique herb or shrub species ranked as "C" floristic value | | native\_herbs\_shrubs | Number of unique herb or shrub species ranked as "A" , "B" or "C" floristic value | | ABCGraminoid | Number of unique graminoid species ranked as "A" , "B" or "C" floristic value | | ExoticHerb+Shrub | Number of unique herb or shrub species ranked as "X" , "Y" or "Z" floristic value | **4.Sheet Name:** README_Seedlings **Description:** Instructions to interpret Seedlings - data frame used for analysis of seedlings data | Column name | Description | | :-------------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | ANUSiteName | Site Name/ TSR Block | | Survey | Survey period 1,2,3 | | Transect | transect/site - two per TSR Block. One burned, one control. | | Treatment | Burn or Control  | | SurveyType | Seeded or Unseeded | | TSR\_FVS\_rank2 | Floristic Value score of TSR block (Alow= Low, ModHigh = Moderate or High) | | Native-Fabaceae | Count of native Fabaceae seedlings | | Native-Poaceae | Count of native Poaceae seedlings | | Native-Asteraceae | Count of native Asteraceae seedlings | | Exotic-Fabaceae | Count of exotic Fabaceae seedlings | | Native-Asparagaceae | Count of native Asparagaceae seedlings | | Exotic-Poaceae | Count of exotic Poaceae seedlings | | Exotic-Hypericaceae | Count of exotic Hypericaceae seedlings | | Exotic-Asteraceae | Count of exotic Asteraceae seedlings | | Exotic-Plantaginaceae | Count of exotic Plantaginaceae seedlings | | Native | Count of native seedlings | | Exotic | Count of exotic seedlings | | Sensitive | Count of "A" and "B" floristic value ranked seedlings | | Fabaceae | Count of Fabaceae seedlings | | Poaceae | Count of Poaceae seedlings | | Hypericaceae | Count of Hypericaceae seedlings | | Asteraceae | Count of Asteraceae seedlings | | Asparagaceae | Count of Asparagaceae seedlings | | TotalSeedlings | Count of seedlings | **5.Sheet Name:** README_Raw_species_richness **Description:** Instructions to interpret Raw_species_richness- Raw data from species richness surveys in centre 20m2 plot. | Column | Description | | :------------- | :------------------------------------------------------ | | SurveyID | ANUSiteName + transect 0 unique site level identifier | | TimePeriod | Pre burn or Post burn survey | | ScientificName | Plant species name | | Lifeform | Lifeform | | FVS | Floristic value rank natives (A,B,C) or exotics (X,Y,Z) | **6.Sheet Name:** README_Raw_species_point_int1 **Description:** Instructions to interpret Raw_species_point_int1- Raw data from point intercept surveys located in two 50 x 20m plots in each site | Column | Description | | :--------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | SurveyID\_Dist | Concatenation of ANU site name, transect (T1 or T2), survey location (0, 200m), and time of survey (pre or post burn) | | Transectposition | 1,2,3. Position of transect on each transect/site | | ScientificName | Plant name | | Lifeform | Plant lifeform | | FVS | Floristic value rank natives (A,B,C) or exotics (X,Y,Z) | | Family | Plant Family | | Cover | Abundance (count) | Raw_species_point_int1 - Nil/NA values for point intercepts are not included (where no species was on a single step point (bare ground)). **7.Sheet Name:** README_Raw_seedlings **Description:** Instructions to interpret Raw_seedlings- Raw data from seedling surveys | Column | Description | | :------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | SurveyID | Concatenation of ANU site name, transect (T1 or T2), survey location (0, 200m) and time of survey (pre or post burn) | | Survey | Survey period 1,2,3 | | SurveyType | Seeded or Unseeded | | ScientificName | Plant species name | | Lifeform | Lifeform | | FVS | Floristic value rank natives (A,B,C) or exotics (X,Y,Z) | | Total\_Count | Number of seedlings |