Silas Little Experimental Forest biometric database

This data publication includes long-term biometric data collected at forest census plots installed by the USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station Silas Little Experimental Forest (SLEF) for forest productivity, fire management, and forest disturbance research in eastern oak and pine forests. The data in this publication reflect conditions at three field sites in the New Jersey Pinelands National Reserve that typify a range of pine, oak, and mixed pine oak conditions: Silas Little (oak/pine forest), Cedar Bridge (pine/oak forest) and Fort Dix (pine/scrub oak forest). Installation and early observations of these data (2004-2012) were collected in support of carbon flux observations at or around each of the three sites, and as part of a broader multi-tier forest monitoring network of long-term monitoring sites. The early data have been summarized in other publications, with several sites across the country that were a part of the broader network; however, because all sites did not follow the same sampling protocols, only SLEF sites are included here. As that project came and went and sites progressed independently, the Silas Little program continued periodically censusing the plot network in response to new forest research needs and objectives (e.g., forest fuels, impacts and recovery of prescribed fire and invasive insect disturbances, ecosystem processes, LiDAR relationships with traditional observations) using primarily Forest Inventory and Analysis (FIA) standard protocol unless otherwise specified. This data publication includes all biometric field measurements collected at the New Jersey sites between 2004 and 2024 and is comprehensive of multiple forest types and environmental disturbances that occurred during that 20-year period. Biometric measurements include tree, sapling, seedling, shrub, down wood material, litter, soil, forest floor and understory cover. Measurement frequency varied between items sampled and locations depending on varying research objectives at the time and site accessibility. The data are provided in three formats: database, spreadsheet, and tabular digital data. This package also includes shapefiles locating plot, subplot and areas of interest and detailed sampling protocol information for soil, down woody material, and understory sampling as well as the FIA Northeast Field Guide version 1.6, which was used to obtain these data.<br>The purpose of this study was to create a long-term biometric dataset that can be used to (1) support long-term quantitative measurements of fluxes, sources, and sinks of atmospheric CO2 and CH4, and develop forecasts for future trends; and (2) and compare and contrast the short and long-term effects of forest disturbances and their management on forest composition, productivity, and cycles (e.g., prescribed fire, invasive insect infestations, extreme weather); and (3) to support the development of physical and remote sensing approaches to improve forest observations and prediction of key conditions for manager decision making (e.g., forest fuel hazard detection and fuel modeling, impacts and recovery of prescribed fire and invasive insect disturbances, ecosystem processes, LiDAR relationships with traditional observations).<br>Early data collected at SLEF as a part of a broader multi-tier forest monitoring network are provided and summarized in Cole et al. (2013, https://doi.org/10.2737/NRS-GTR-119) and Cole et al. (2015, https://doi.org/10.2737/RDS-2013-0008-2).