Structural characteristics of mangrove forests: Compilation of LAI and other variables for experimental and survey sites

Overview These data describe structural characteristics of mangrove forests at known locations. Some of the data is from sites where trees have been fertilized with nitrogen or phosphorus, while other data are from point centre quarter transects which were used to characterize the site.

The data includes information on the:

• Method used

• Geographic position and name

• Salinity (extracted from 30 cm depth using a suction device (McKee, 1993; see link at bottom of page)

• Category (mangrove, tidal marsh, cyanobacterial mat or non vegetation

• Species (typically dominant species but noted if a mix of species)

• Mean tree height (measured with a hand held refractometer)

• Leaf area index (LAI; measured with a hemispherical camera (Nikon) and processed with Hemiview software (Delta T, UK)

• Basal area (estimated as the mean of basal area of four individuals multiplied by stem density. Derived from measurements of circumference (mean DBH)

• Stem density (estimated by the Point Centre Quarter method) and as the inverse of the mean distance of the four nearest trees to the GPS point

Sites have been maintained since as early as 2000 from various funding sources including the Smithsonian Institution and the Australian Research Council. Please contact Catherine Lovelock for details.

http://portal.tern.org.au/structural-characteristics-mangrove-survey-sites/19473