d47e78bc-2227-4bc7-90ae-9ec871c52bec English ISO/IEC 8859-1 (also known as Latin 1) dataset dataset NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre Lancaster Environment Centre, Library Avenue, Bailrigg Lancaster LA1 4AP UK info@eidc.ac.uk https://eidc.ac.uk/ EIDC website The Environmental Information Data Centre (EIDC) is the UK's national data centre for terrestrial and freshwater sciences. information pointOfContact 2025-11-13T16:26:24 UK GEMINI 2.3 WGS 84 Lightning strike locations and characteristics in Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda, surveyed in June 2022 and October 2023 2024-12-17 publication 2024-08-12 creation https://catalogue.ceh.ac.uk/id/d47e78bc-2227-4bc7-90ae-9ec871c52bec 10.5285/d47e78bc-2227-4bc7-90ae-9ec871c52bec doi: Sullivan, M., Ngute, A., Batumike, R., Zoletto, B., Petridis, N., Kaplin, B., Cuni-Sanchez, A., Gora, E. (2024). Lightning strike locations and characteristics in Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda, surveyed in June 2022 and October 2023. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre 10.5285/d47e78bc-2227-4bc7-90ae-9ec871c52bec The dataset details the locations and attributes of canopy disturbances in Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda, that were suspected to have been caused by lightning strikes. Disturbances were located by surveying 23 km of trails and assessing whether disturbances (clusters of dead or damaged trees) had damage signatures consistent with lighting. Only disturbances that were thought to potentially have been caused by lightning were recorded. As well as providing a qualitative assessment of the confidence that the damage was caused by lightning, the dataset contains the number of dead and damaged trees in different size classes, as well as the taxonomic identity and degree of crown damage experienced by canopy trees within the putative strike. Photographs of a subset of strikes are also provided. Data were collected as part of the project Lightning in African tropical forests: from tree mortality to carbon dynamics (NE/W003872/1). Full details about this dataset can be found at https://doi.org/10.5285/d47e78bc-2227-4bc7-90ae-9ec871c52bec Sullivan, M. Manchester Metropolitan University martin.sullivan@mmu.ac.uk https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5955-0483 ORCID record ORCID is an open, non-profit, community-driven effort to create and maintain a registry of unique researcher identifiers and a transparent method of linking research activities and outputs to these identifiers. information author Ngute, A. University of the Sunshine Coast kamdoum.senghor@gmail.com author Batumike, R. Manchester Metropolitan University batumikerodrigue59@gmail.com author Zoletto, B. Wageningen University & Research bianca.zoletto@wur.nl author Petridis, N. Wageningen University & Research nikolaos.petridis@wur.nl author Kaplin, B. University of Rwanda EMAIL NOT PROVIDED author Cuni-Sanchez, A. Norwegian University of Life Sciences aida.cuni-sanchez@nmbu.no author Gora, E. Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies EMAIL NOT PROVIDED author Manchester Metropolitan University martin.sullivan@mmu.ac.uk owner NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre info@eidc.ac.uk custodian NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre info@eidc.ac.uk publisher Sullivan, M. Manchester Metropolitan University martin.sullivan@mmu.ac.uk https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5955-0483 ORCID record ORCID is an open, non-profit, community-driven effort to create and maintain a registry of unique researcher identifiers and a transparent method of linking research activities and outputs to these identifiers. information pointOfContact Atmospheric Conditions theme GEMET - INSPIRE themes, version 1.0 2008-06-01 publication photograph tropical forest GEMET - Concepts, version 4.1.3 2019-01-28 creation Climate and climate change Afromontane forest Rwanda Africa African tropical forests otherRestrictions Registration is required to access this data otherRestrictions This resource is available under the terms of the Open Government Licence otherRestrictions If you reuse this data, you should cite: Sullivan, M., Ngute, A., Batumike, R., Zoletto, B., Petridis, N., Kaplin, B., Cuni-Sanchez, A., Gora, E. (2024). Lightning strike locations and characteristics in Nyungwe National Park, Rwanda, surveyed in June 2022 and October 2023. NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre https://doi.org/10.5285/d47e78bc-2227-4bc7-90ae-9ec871c52bec textTable 1 English utf8 climatologyMeteorologyAtmosphere 2022-06-01 2023-10-31 29.1 29.3 -2.5 -2.3 Comma-separated values (CSV) NERC EDS Environmental Information Data Centre info@eidc.ac.uk distributor https://data-package.ceh.ac.uk/data/d47e78bc-2227-4bc7-90ae-9ec871c52bec Download the data Download a copy of this data download https://data-package.ceh.ac.uk/sd/d47e78bc-2227-4bc7-90ae-9ec871c52bec.zip Supporting information Supporting information available to assist in re-use of this dataset information dataset dataset Commission Regulation (EU) No 1089/2010 of 23 November 2010 implementing Directive 2007/2/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council as regards interoperability of spatial data sets and services 2010-12-08 A total of 23.3 km of trails were surveyed in Nyungwe National Park in June 2022, covering the majority of trails accessible from the Uwinka station. Canopy disturbances (i.e. clusters of dead or damaged trees) encountered along these trails were inspected to assess for flashover damage (visually apparent as the defoliation of the two nearest branches of neighbouring trees in a directionally biased pattern). If a tree exhibited potential flashover damage to two or more neighbours, it was selected for more detailed surveys to assess whether patterns of damage were consistent with lightning. The presumptive directly struck tree was identified as the canopy tree at the centre of observed flashover damage. Tree-level surveys of lightning damage were conducted for this tree, along with any other tree with a diameter at breast height > 50 cm within the lightning strike area. A subset of trails was resurveyed in October 2023, revisiting existing strike locations on these trails and surveying new disturbances.