DOI: 10.5061/dryad.rjdfn2zn3
title: Data for: Understanding post-fire vegetation recovery in Southern California ecosystems with the aid of pre-fire observations from long term monitoring

description: Aims Post-fire vegetation recovery is often determined by the similarity
 of post-burn with unburned sites due to a lack of in
 situ information on pre-fire communities. The inclusion of
 pre-fire data can help account for pre-existing differences and explore
 recovery also in terms of return to pre-fire conditions. We used long-term
 monitoring data in coastal sage scrub and grasslands to: (1) examine
 vegetation cover recovery of different functional groups and (2) determine
 whether vegetation composition in burned areas has recovered in four years
 after fire with burned to unburned and pre- to post-fire comparisons.
 Location Orange County, California, USA Methods We analyzed long-term
 vegetation monitoring (2007-2021) data from 39 grassland and 58 coastal
 sage scrub transects in southern California, including observations before
 and after the 2017 Canyon 2 fire. Linear mixed effect models were used to
 determine whether forb, grass, and shrub covers differed between burned
 and unburned sites while considering the effects of year and repeated
 monitoring. We used Canonical Analysis of Principal coordinates (CAP) to
 analyze vegetation composition based on burn status and time of sampling.
 Results While vegetation cover in grassland recovered quickly, native
 vegetation cover in burned coastal sage scrub remained lowered four years
 after fire, though forb and non-native grass cover were higher in some
 post-fire years. Community composition in burned coastal sage scrub was
 still in recovery four years after fire when compared with unburned or
 pre-fire composition. Although burned and unburned grassland differed
 post-fire in dominant grass species, inclusion of pre-fire data showed
 that this was a pre-existing difference. Conclusions Coastal sage scrub
 had not recovered pre-fire vegetation cover and composition by four years
 after fire, while grassland cover rebounded quickly, albeit with shifts in
 composition over time; patterns that were detected only by having pre- and
 post-fire data from long-term monitoring efforts.
description: This data was collected from coastal sage scrub and grassland
 transects across Orange County, California, between 2007-2021. It includes
 monitoring that took place both before and after a wildfire in 2017.
 Intercept data was generated using a point-intercept method every 1m along
 a linear 50m transect line, while quadrat data was generated from visual
 estimations of vegetation cover in1x1m quadrats spaced every 5m,
 alternating left and right, along the 50m transect line.
description: # Data for: Understanding post-fire vegetation recovery in Southern
 California ecosystems with the aid of pre-fire observations from long term
 monitoring
 [https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rjdfn2zn3](https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rjdfn2zn3) ## Description of the data and file structure The dataset contains long term (2007-2021) vegetation monitoring data from sites located around Orange county, and accompanying metadata, including whether sites were burned in recent wildfires. Each site is a 50m long linear transect, and vegetation data was collected via two methods (1) point-intercept on 1m spaced points, used for vegetation cover and community composition analyses, and (2) visual estimations of vegetation cover in 1x1m quadrats, spaced 5m apart, and alternating left and right of the transect line, used for diversity analyses.  ### Files and variables #### File: SpeciesInfo.csv **Contains information about vegetation species found in the dataset** *N/As indicate instances of unknown or not applicable categorizations for the variable type corresponding to the species code. | Variable | Definition | Notes | | :-------------- | :-------------------------------------------------- | :---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | spCode | Species code | Shortened codes representing the species name in spName | | spName | Species name | Full species name | | gHabit | Growth habit | Forb, Shrub, Grass | | Categorization2 | Combined variable of native status and growth habit | Concatenated strings of Native or NN\_ (non-native) + growth habit type, Standing\_Dead = dead plant matter | | Nat\_Non | Natvie status | NATIVE = native species, NONNATIVE = non-native species | | covertype | Cover type | Plant = type of vegetation cover, Gcover = type of ground cover | #### File: FireMeta.csv **Contains information about transects and their burn status from recent fires in the region** | Variable | Definition | Notes | | :---------- | :---------------------------------------------------------------------- | :-------------- | | Transect | Full transect names |   | | Santiago | Whether site was located within the 2007 Santiago fire perimeter | N = no, Y = yes | | Canyon2Fire | Whether site was located within the 2017 Canyon 2 Fire perimeter | N = no, Y = yes | | Silverado | Whether site was located within the 2020 Silverado/Bond fire perimeters | N = no, Y = yes | #### File: Plotmeta.csv | Variable | Definition | Notes | | :------------- | :--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :--------------------------------------------------------- | | Transect\_Year | Transect name concatenated with year of particular datapoint | Final four numeric digits designate year | | Transect | Transect name |   | | Community | Type of vegetation community. Only coastal sage scrub and grassland was included in our study. | CSS = Coastal Sage Scrub, GL = Grassland, CHAP = chapparal | | Region | Inland or coastal orange county. Only inland sites were used in our study. | Inland = inland, Coastal = coastal | | Year | Year this Transect\_Year data point was taken |   | | JM\_ppt | Total precipitation (inches) from the preceding June- current year March |   | #### File: LATLONG.csv | Variable | Definition | Notes | | :-------- | :---------------------------------------------------------------------- | :----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | Transect | Full transect names | Section of transect names are not broken up with underscores, unlike in all other files. Transect name structure is as follows: OC\_name of sub location\_community type (CSS, GL, CHAP)\_number | | Latitude |   |   | | Longitude |   |   | | Position | Whether site was in the more inland or coastal regions of Orange county | Coastal = coastal, Inland = inland | #### File: quad\_spwide.csv **Contains vegetation data from quadrat method** | Variable | Definition | Notes | | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | :----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Transect\_Year | Transect name concatenated with year of particular datapoint | Final four numeric digits designate year | | Other columns = Species codes indicating individual vegetation species. Refer to SpeciesInfo file | Average cover of vegetation species across all 1x1m quadrats spaced 5m apart, alternating left and right of 50m linear transect line | Columns which end with spp indicate vegetation that could only be identified to genus level. “UNK” species were unable to be identified in field, but could still be included in diversity calculations | #### File: spWide.csv **Contains vegetation data from point-intercept method** | Variable | Definition | Notes | | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | :-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | :------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ | | Transect\_Year | Transect name concatenated with year of particular datapoint | Final four numeric digits designate year | | Other columns = Species codes indicating individual vegetation species. Refer to SpeciesInfo file | Cover of vegetation species, generated by a point-intercept method with 1m points across the 50m linear transect line | Columns which end with spp indicate vegetation that could only be identified to genus level | ## Code/software Data is stored in .csv format, and can be read using widespread spreadsheet programs and text editors such as Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets.