In 1955, some young
Myoporum seedlings were located in the reserve and it was decided to measure and record their progress. The plants are individually labelled with metal tags and given a unique alphanumeric identity.
On each occasion, species ID, height, crown diameter N-S, crown diameter E-W, basal circumference, and comments on tree health are noted.The geolocation of each individual is recorded. Most of the records range from 1975 – 2011 with a maximum of 21 measurements between those years.
This is version 2.1 of the Koonamore
Myoporum assessment data release and supersedes any previous versions.
/br> Change log for Myoporum Assessment:
- V2.1, 2026-02-16; Specht, Miranda Fittock and Arun Singh Ramesh; Updated dates to comply with ISO standards (YYYY-MM-DD). Replaced reserve geolocation for plant a1 with NA. Updated vocabulary to comply with TERN standards.
- V2, 2025-06-19; Alison Specht; Separated, cleaned and organised data files to comply with FAIR standards, aligning vocabularies with the TERN vocabularies and created comprehensive metadata. Locations verified with David Ladd.
- V1, 2008-2014; Russell Sinclair; digitised field data sheets and computer records to be delivered to the AEKOS TERN portal. Added required V1 metadata in the AEKOS portal
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. Acknowledgement is due to all the students, staff and researchers who have collected data at the site since its establishment, to those who have entered the data, and to the support of funders and interested parties, including the Adelaide University. Without the vision, tenacity, and diligence of many past researchers, these unique data could not have been made openly available.
Purpose
In the mid-1920's Professor Theodore George Bentley Osborn, Professor of Botany in the University of Adelaide, put forward strong scientific arguments concerning the lack of knowledge of the ecology of arid zone vegetation, and the effect of grazing on it. In 1925, a parcel of land of around 390 ha was identified in Koonamore Station in South Australia and fenced to exclude rabbits and other stock, and Mr Wilcox, one of the directors, had a three-roomed house erected to serve as a field laboratory. The area was originally referred to as the Arid Region Flora Reserve but later was named the TGB Osborn Vegetation Reserve after its founder. For simplicity it is commonly referred to as the Koonamore Vegetation Reserve. There have been some unwanted animal incursions over the years, but these have been rare. In 1931, for example, rabbits were able to enter due to fence damage. Kangaroos and emus are not fully excluded. As is clear from the objectives stated by TGB Osborn, the reserve was to provide the basis for systematic measurements of the now-protected vegetation. Osborn and his team (including Prof. J.G. Wood and Mr Terry Paltridge) set up a series of quadrats (square plots) and photopoints within the reserve. A series of transects was later added. All of the foregoing were permanently marked, and observations on species occurrence (presence and abundance) and physical measurements of the plants were made repeatedly, but at varying intervals.
Lineage
Method Summary:
In 1955, some young Myoporum platycarpum seedlings were located in the reserve and it was decided to measure and record their progress. The plants are individually labelled with metal tags and given a unique alphanumeric identity.
Attribute information about the data set
On each occasion, individual ID, geolocation of the individual (latitude and longitude), crown diameter N-S, crown diameter E-W, stem (basal) circumference, height, and field notes are noted. As several of the monitored individuals occur on Q100 (vegetation quadrat measurements), the measurements appear in two data sets. The geolocation of each individual, the time frame over which the data are available, and the number of measurements within that time frame is shown in Table 1 in the preview file in the data package, available under 'Access Data'.
