DOI: 10.5061/dryad.sf7m0cgj9
title: Data from: The post-fire recovery of soil seed banks along a fire severity gradient in an Australian threatened mesic forest

description: Climate change has increased the likelihood of extreme events, increasing
 the number of days with dangerous fire weather conditions, resulting in
 fires with increased severity, frequency, and extent. This can greatly
 impact vegetation communities by reducing diversity and slowing recovery.
 The role of in situ soil seed banks in mediating the impacts of shifting
 fire regimes is often unclear and may vary between different vegetation
 types. In particular, the impact of high fire severity, an increasingly
 common fire regime shift, may increase the likelihood of temperatures
 lethal to seeds in the soil, while higher fire frequencies may reduce
 diversity via increased immaturity risk. Here, we aim to assess how fire
 severity impacts the species and functional group diversity of soil seed
 banks in a threatened mesic forest community. We collected 396 soil
 samples from 12 sites within a wet sclerophyll forest in the Blue
 Mountains of New South Wales, Australia, that had been burnt during the
 2019/2020 Australian megafires at differing fire severities (moderate,
 high, and extreme), as well as from unburnt (control) sites, three years
 post-fire. Soil samples were split into the leaf litter and soil, both
 treated with smoke and heat to break fire-related dormancy, and regularly
 watered in a greenhouse to observe germination for a year. This was
 compared to floristic surveys conducted at each site. Our data showed a
 hump-shaped relationship between species richness and fire severity, both
 in the extant vegetation and in the soil seed bank. The lowest richness
 occurred at unburnt sites increasi, increasing to a peak at moderate
 severity burn sites and declining slightly at high and then extreme
 severity sites. Obligate resprouters generally declined as severity
 increased. A distinct difference in composition between extant vegetation
 and the soil seed bank emphasises that a significant portion of the
 species richness within these communities solely exists in the soil seed
 bank, fluctuating as environmental conditions change. The soil seed bank
 is susceptible to decline in richness when both unburnt and burnt and
 extreme severities, largely impacting the composition within these
 ecosystems.
description: #### Description of the data and file structure The dataset contains all
 raw data used in the manuscript: The post-fire recovery of soil seed banks
 along a fire severity gradient in an Australian threatened mesic forest.
 The data is in the format of a csv. File:\
 Data_for__The_post-fire_recovery_of_soil_seed_banks_along_a_fire_severity_gradient_in_an_Australian_threatened_mesic_forest_.csv ##### **Description:**  ###### *Variables* * ExtantorSSB: ‘Extant vegetation’ indicated plant surveys and ‘soil seed bank’ indicates soil cores. * Severity: Fire severity determined from GEEBAM (Google Earth Engine Burnt Area Map), as outlined in methods of paper (Department of Planning and Environment, 2020). Unburnt, Moderate, High, Extreme. * FireIntervalGroups: Using publicly available online maps supplied by the State Government of NSW and NSW DCCEEW (2010), as outlined in methods of paper. * Site: Unique site codes, equivalent to previous NSW BioNet surveys (NSW Government Environtment and Heritage, 2021). * Quadrat: Plots at each site, 11 2x1m quadrats distributed along a 50 m transect. * Depth: Differing soil depths, Leaf litter (separated from the top of the soil core) and Soil (8cm soil core). Only relevant for soil seed bank. NA = not available. * DateFirstEmergence: Date first seedling emerged for each species for each sample. Only relevant for soil seed bank. NA = not available. * Species: Species name. * FunctionalGroup: No fire response, Serotinous resprouters, Obligate resprouters, Facultative resprouters, Obligate seeders. For species where resprouting or seed storage could not be determined, the functional group was recorded as Undetermined. * Count: Number of seedlings that emerged from soil seed bank during year. Only relevant for soil seed bank. NA = not available. * Cover: Percent of 2x1 metre plot covered by species in extant vegetation aboveground. Only relevant for extant vegetation, NA = not available. ##### **Software** R studio version 4.3.0 was used for all data analysis (RStudio Team, 2015). ##### References Department of Planning and Environment 2020. Google Earth Engine Burnt Area Map (GEEBAM). The Seed Initiative. Nsw Government Environtment and Heritage 2021. BioNet Atlas. Rstudio Team. 2015. RStudio: Integrated development for R [Online]. Boston, MA: RStudio, Inc. Available: [http://www.rstudio.com/](http://www.rstudio.com/) [Accessed 22 March 2020]. State Government of Nsw and Nsw Dcceew 2010. NPWS Fire History - Wildfires and Prescribed Burns, accessed from The Sharing and Enabling Environmental Data Portal.