Connell Rainforest Plot Network: Plot Details - Spatial Coordinates, Dinden National Park and Lamington National Park, Queensland, Australia

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Abstract: This package contains location data for two long-term forest dynamic plots established in 1963 by Professor Joseph H. Connell (University of California, Santa Barbara): one plot in tropical rainforest in Davies Creek in Dinden National Park (1.7 ha, 25 km southwest of Cairns) and the other in subtropical rainforest near O'Reilly's Guest House in Lamington National Park (2 ha, 65 km south of Brisbane). The Davies Creek plot was put in over an existing 0.4-ha plot established by the Queensland Department of Forestry in 1951, so the central part of the Davies Creek Plot has records extending back more than six decades. This plot was originally an untreated 'control' site against which the effects of various silvicultural treatments could be assessed, so this site has never been logged or thinned. The O'Reilly's plot consists of two 1-ha plots spaced approximately 600 m apart, but for analyses they have always been treated as a single unit. This plot has never been logged, but some selective logging has occurred just outside the plot boundary. See Connell Rainforest Plot Network’s full program provided at https://doi.org/10.25911/5c13444388e1b for further details. Sampling method: The Davies Creek Plot is a 1.7 hectare plot. The plot was selected by Prof. Joseph H. Connell in 1963 on the advice of his CSIRO collaborators Dr Len Webb and Mr Geoff Tracey, and was chosen for three reasons; it was accessible, it was unlogged, and a smaller 0.4 ha plot belonging to the Queensland Department of Forestry had already been established there in 1951. The O'Reilly's Plot consists of two 1.0 hectare plots spaced 600 m apart, which have always been treated as a single unit for the purpose of analysis. The same sampling methods are employed at both plots, at intervals of 1-6 years. Study extent: Davies Creek, Dinden National Park, North Queensland and O'Reilly's, Lamington National Park, Southeast Queensland Project funding: The National Science Foundation (USA) was the sole funder of this research between 1963 and 2003. The plots were unfunded from 2003–2011. Between 2012 and 2018 this project was solely 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.