4 research outputs found
The Braun-Blanquet project: evaluating and characterizing European vegetation alliances
No full textEuropean tradition on vegetation classification provides an extraordinary legacy for understanding biodiversity. However, this classification lacks explicit data on vegetation attributes, especially if we extend national or regional concepts to a continental perspective. An additional effort for evaluating and characterizing European vegetation types is therefore needed, and the data contained in vegeta tion databases are probably the main tool for these purposes. The BraunBlanquet project is an initiative of the European Vegetation Survey for characterizing veg etation alliances across Europe. By analyzing more than 500,000 vegetation plots from 22 European countries, we developed a framework consisting of: (1) evaluat ing the consistency and robustness of alliances using the information provided by vegetation plot databases, (2) calibrating assignment rules for classifying, at least partially, the plots not assigned to alliances and (3) characterizing vegeta tion types by providing lists of diagnostic species and major distributional pat terns. The BraunBlanquet project represents the first attempt for extrapolating European vegetation information into a comprehensive definition of vegetation types. Furthermore, the outputs of the project are expected to improve biodiversity assessment and the conservation management of natural habitats. As a study case, we illustrate how our framework can be used to characterize different forest types across Europe
The Braun-Blanquet project: evaluating and characterizing European vegetation alliances
No full textEuropean tradition on vegetation classification provides an extraordinary legacy for understanding biodiversity. However, this classification lacks explicit data on vegetation attributes, especially if we extend national or regional concepts to a continental perspective. An additional effort for evaluating and characterizing European vegetation types is therefore needed, and the data contained in vegeta tion databases are probably the main tool for these purposes. The BraunBlanquet project is an initiative of the European Vegetation Survey for characterizing veg etation alliances across Europe. By analyzing more than 500,000 vegetation plots from 22 European countries, we developed a framework consisting of: (1) evaluat ing the consistency and robustness of alliances using the information provided by vegetation plot databases, (2) calibrating assignment rules for classifying, at least partially, the plots not assigned to alliances and (3) characterizing vegeta tion types by providing lists of diagnostic species and major distributional pat terns. The BraunBlanquet project represents the first attempt for extrapolating European vegetation information into a comprehensive definition of vegetation types. Furthermore, the outputs of the project are expected to improve biodiversity assessment and the conservation management of natural habitats. As a study case, we illustrate how our framework can be used to characterize different forest types across Europe
EuPPollNet: A European Database of Plant-Pollinator Networks
No full textMotivation: Pollinators play a crucial role in maintaining Earth's terrestrial biodiversity. However, rapid human-induced environmental changes are compromising the long-term persistence of plant-pollinator interactions. Unfortunately, we lack robust, generalisable data capturing how plant-pollinator communities are structured across space and time. Here, we present the EuPPollNet (European Plant-Pollinator Networks) database, a fully open European-level database containing harmonised taxonomic data on plant-pollinator interactions referenced in both space and time, along with other ecological variables of interest. In addition, we evaluate the taxonomic and sampling coverage of EuPPollNet, and summarise key structural properties in plant-pollinator networks. We believe EuPPollNet will stimulate research to address data gaps in plant-pollinator interactions and guide future efforts in conservation planning.Main Types of Variables Included: EuPPollNet contains 1,162,109 interactions between plants and pollinators from 1864 distinct networks, which belong to 52 different studies distributed across 23 European countries. Information about sampling methodology, habitat type, biogeographic region and additional taxonomic rank information (i.e. order, family, genus and species) is also provided.Spatial Location and Grain: The database contains 1214 different sampling locations from 13 different natural and anthropogenic habitats that fall in 7 different biogeographic regions. All records are geo-referenced and presented in the World Geodetic System 1984 (WGS84).Time Period and Grain: Species interaction data was collected between 2004 and 2021.Major Taxa and Level of Measurement: The database contains interaction data at the species level for 94% of the records, including a total of 1411 plant and 2223 pollinator species. The database includes data on 6% of the European species of flowering plants, 34% of bees, 26% of butterflies and 33% of syrphid species at the European level.Software Format: The database was built with R and is stored in '.rds' and '.csv' formats. Its construction is fully reproducible and can be accessed at: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.14747448
European Vegetation Archive (EVA): an integrated database of European vegetation plots
No full textThe European Vegetation Archive (EVA) is a centralized database of European vegetation plots developed by the IAVS Working Group European Vegetation Survey. It has been in development since 2012 and first made available for use in research projects in 2014. It stores copies of national and regional vegetation- plot databases on a single software platform. Data storage in EVA does not affect on-going independent development of the contributing databases, which remain the property of the data contributors. EVA uses a prototype of the data- base management software TURBOVEG 3 developed for joint management of multiple databases that use different species lists. This is facilitated by the Syn- BioSys Taxon Database, a system of taxon names and concepts used in the indi- vidual European databases and their corresponding names on a unified list of European flora. TURBOVEG 3 also includes procedures for handling data requests, selections and provisions according to the approved EVA Data Property and Governance Rules. By 30 June 2015, 61 databases from all European regions have joined EVA, contributing in total 1 027 376 vegetation plots, 82% of them with geographic coordinates, from 57 countries. EVA provides a unique data source for large-scale analyses of European vegetation diversity both for fundamental research and nature conservation applications. Updated informa- tion on EVA is available online at http://euroveg.org/eva-database
