AEKOS Subset: Australian Plant Frequency and Cover, 2017 

The dataset contains raw records on the frequency and % cover of Australian plant species stored in TERN's AEKOS as at 23 February 2017. There is information on basal area data in addition.The data includes plant records for the following datasets: [1] Australian Ground Cover Reference Sites Database, [2] Biological Survey of South Australia - Vegetation Survey - Biological Database of South Australia, [3] Atlas of NSW database: VIS flora survey module, [4] Queensland CORVEG Database, [5] TERN AusPlots Rangelands, [6] Transects for Environmental Monitoring and Decision Making (TREND) (2013-present) and the [7] TREND-Biome of Australia Soil Environments (BASE). Soil samples for physical structure and chemical analysis (14 sites) throughout Australia were also incorporated in addition (starting 2013). The sites were: [1] AusCover Supersites SLATS Star Transects, [2] Biological Survey of the Ravensthorpe Range (Western Australia), [3] Biological Survey of South Australia - Roadside Vegetation Survey, [4] Biological Database of South Australia, [5] South-Western Australian Transitional Transect (SWATT), [6] Koonamore Vegetation Monitoring Project (1925-present), [7] Desert Ecology Research Group Plots (1990-2011) and Long Term Ecological Research Network (2012-2015), Simpson Desert, [8] Western Queensland, Australia (plants only) and [9] the TERN AusPlots Forest Monitoring Network - Large Tree Survey - 2012-2015. In total, 97,035 sites were extracted and downloaded for individual and population levels. The download package contains site location files, separate data files for individual and population levels, citation details for individual surveys and notes on how to interpret the download. 

We at TERN acknowledge the Traditional Owners and Custodians throughout Australia, New Zealand and all nations. We honour their profound connections to land, water, biodiversity and culture and pay our respects to their Elders past, present and emerging. 

The data package was generated by TERN in response to a request by Dr. Jens Oldeland, Hamburg to investigate methodological differences in diversity indices using different measures for the parameters. 

AEKOS Data Portal Extraction: The download was achieved by clicking "search" on AEKOS (www.aekos.org.au) home page and clicking "Add all results to data cart" on the 'search results' page. To complete download, the themes "Individual-Plants" and "Vegetation-Populations" were selected. The download package contains site location files, separate data files for individual and population levels, citation details for individual surveys and notes on data themes in the download.