Checklist of trees and shrubs in SouthBusoga forest reserve, Uganda

Study Extent

This data is a checklist dataset of trees and shrubs recorded from South Busoga Forest

Sampling

While following a transect, the botanists observed broad patterns of species composition, so as to compile a ‘day list’ of the trees and shrubs encountered, together with an evaluation of abundance for each species using the DAFOR acronym (where D = Dominant; A = Abundant; F = Frequent; O = Occasional and R = Rare, see box below). Thus, the field records generated by each day’s fieldwork comprised a map showing the transect route taken, a corresponding list of species encountered and an abundance rating for each species. A broad definition of trees and shrubs has been used so as to include sub-shrubs and climbing/scrambling shrubs, but excluding woody climbers and woody herbs. Under this definition, 1251 species are known from Uganda, as listed by Howard (1994).

Quality Control

Using transects, the botanists observed broad patterns of species composition, so as to compile a ‘day list’ of the trees and shrubs encountered, together with an evaluation of abundance for each species using the DAFOR acronym (where D = Dominant; A = Abundant; F = Frequent; O = Occasional and R = Rare, see box below). Thus, the field records generated by each day’s fieldwork comprised a map showing the transect route taken, a corresponding list of species encountered and an abundance rating for each species. A broad definition of trees and shrubs has been used so as to include sub-shrubs and climbing/scrambling shrubs, but excluding woody climbers and woody herbs. Under this definition, 1251 species are known from Uganda, as listed by Howard (1994). The geographic coordinates of sampling locations were recorded during the original fieldwork using the Military Grid Reference System (old version). These were converted to a standard UTM format and then to decimal latitude and longitude using GIS based tools.

Method steps

1. The national survey of Uganda forests collected data in 65 forests. The original field survey results including all data were published in a series of reports by the Forest Department of Uganda (Howard et al. 1996). The current dataset comprises records of trees and shrubs transected during this survey. We selected a sample of forests that had been surveyed in the Central and Eastern Regions of Uganda in order to digitize the data for GBIF. Electronic copies of the written reports and a separate electronic database of records were made available for this purpose by the original authors of the reports (Peter Howard). We extracted the records of trees and shrubs from the electronic database and supplemented these with location data provided in the narrative reports. The location data in the original reports were provided in Military Grid Reference System. These were first converted to standard UTM coordinates, noting that the MGRS was using an old datum (MGRS-AL scheme also called "MGRS old"). UTM coordinates were then converted to decimal degrees using an online conversion spreadsheet (https://giscrack.com/download-excel-template-convert-geographic-coordinates-utm/). The converted locations were then checked against Google Maps imagery to confirm that a satisfactory conversion had been made. Species records from each Forest Reserve were checked against the distribution maps in Carswell et al. (2005) and through expert assessment (J. Lindsell & Mary Namaganda) to ensure that no unsubstantiated or extralimital records were included.

A total of 171 tree and shrub species were recorded and identified to species level.

1. Vepris eggelingii (Kokwaro) Mziray
   rank: species
2. Trema orientalis (L.) Blume
   rank: species

The data was collected from South Busoga Forest Reserve based on observation records.