Towards the Fulfillment of a Knowledge Gap: Wood Densities for Species of the Subtropical Atlantic Forest

Wood density (rho) is a trait involved in forest biomass estimates, forest ecology, prediction of stand stability, wood science, and engineering. Regardless of its importance, data on rho are scarce for a substantial number of species of the vast Atlantic Forest phytogeographic domain. Given that, the present paper describes a dataset composed of three data tables: (i) determinations of rho (kg m(-3)) for 153 species growing in three forest types within the subtropical Atlantic Forest, based on wood samples collected throughout the state of Santa Catarina, southern Brazil; (ii) a list of 719 tree/shrub species observed by a state-level forest inventory and a rho value assigned to each one of them based on local determinations and on a global database; (iii) the means and standard deviations of rho for 477 permanent sample plots located in the subtropical Atlantic Forest, covering similar to 95,000 km(2). The mean rho over the 153 sampled species is 538.6 kg m(-3) (standard deviation = 120.5 kg m(-3)), and the mean rho per sample plot, considering the three forest types, is 525.0 kg m(-3) (standard error = 1.8 kg m(-3)). The described dataset has potential to underpin studies on forest biomass, forest ecology, alternative uses of timber resources, as well as to enlarge the coverage of global datasets. Dataset: Data tables are provided as Supplementary Materials. Dataset License: CC0