Cassia Species Abundance in Koonamore Reserve Since 1940

26 instances from 1940 to 2014 record the abundance and life stages of Cassia (Senna artemesioides) plants in a 7150 m2 area of the TGB Osborn Vegetation Reserve. The data was digitized from field sheets and computer records by Russell Sinclair, then later cleaned and organized by Alison Specht and Arun Singh Ramesh for the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN). This is version 2.1 of the data release, updated in February 2026.

Use Cases

• Analyze population trends of Cassia species from 1940 to 2014 using the recorded date and individual count columns.
• Model the relationship between environmental factors and plant life stage (adult or juvenile) over the 74-year observation period.
• Assess recruitment and mortality rates by comparing counts of adult and juvenile individuals across the 26 sampling instances.
• Conduct time-series analysis on species abundance data collected at the Koonamore Vegetation Reserve site.

Strengths

• 74-year temporal coverage from 1940 to 2014 provides a long-term ecological perspective.
• Data includes 26 distinct sampling instances over the study period.
• Records include specific biological metrics: individual counts and life stage (adult/juvenile) for the species.

Limitations

• Sample size is limited to 26 instances over 74 years, which may not support high-frequency temporal analysis.
• Data is confined to a single 7150 m2 plot, limiting geographic generalizability.
• The dataset focuses on a single plant species (Cassia), restricting broader community ecology studies.

Provenance

Source

Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) Data Discovery portal.

Collection Method

Digitized from historical field data sheets and computer records, then cleaned and organized to comply with FAIR standards.

Time Range

1940 to 2014

Freshness

Data was last updated and versioned in February 2026.

Geography

TGB Osborn (Koonamore) Vegetation Reserve, Australia.