This is the CSP4all file, the initial overview data file for the first CSP paper. This research is designed to collect data on diversity in subtropical forest ecosystems and relate it to ecosystem services such as primary productivity, carbon storage, prevention of soil erosion, and invasion resistance to exotic plants. This data describes the Comparative Study Sites (CSPs), used to compare the planted diversity experiment with naturally grown forests. The plots have a size of 30x30m and are situated in the Gutianshan Nature reserve, Zhejiang Province, China. Data were collected in 2008. They comprise geographical locations, elevation, inclination, exposition of the plots, an estimated age of the plot, height and cover of two tree layers, the shrub layer and the herb layer, and cover of bare soil. This data set includes environmental measures on the CSPs that are of interest for all researchers. It additionally includes important aggregated data as for example diversity measures of tree, shrub and herb layer.

Gutianshan National Nature Reserve, CSPs 29°08'-29°17'N 118°02'-118°11'E