TERN Surveillance Monitoring Program: Plant Community

This dataset lists the plant communities from Rangeland sites across Australia described by the TERN Surveillance Monitoring team, using standardised AusPlots methodologies.

For each plant community, vegetation condition as well as the spatial extent of the community, are described using AusPlots Plot and physical descriptions, and Structural summary and homogeneity methods.
Plant specimen, soil, basal area and structural information are also assessed at each site and form part of the TERN Surveillance Monitoring Program data collection.

Credit
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.
TERN is supported by the Australian Government through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy, NCRIS.

Purpose
Collation of data from Australian rangelands will: increase understanding of the dynamics of plant species and soils; provide input into DNA barcoding of Australian vegetation; help understand the biogeography underpinning and threatening processes impacting Australian rangeland ecosystems; assist state and federal agencies to meet their monitoring and reporting obligations;
enable researchers and land managers to assess current land 'state' for a variety of purposes depending on how the data is used; identify the climate zones, bioregions, land types and ecosystems where changes are occurring and the management regimes and/or pressures contributing to these changes.