ReSurveyEurope: A database of resurveyed vegetation plots in Europe

Abstract

AimsWe introduce ReSurveyEurope — a new data source of resurveyed vegetation plots in Europe, compiled by a collaborative network of vegetation scientists. We describe the scope of this initiative, provide an overview of currently available data, governance, data contribution rules, and accessibility. In addition, we outline further steps, including potential research questions.ResultsReSurveyEurope includes resurveyed vegetation plots from all habitats. Version 1.0 of ReSurveyEurope contains 283,135 observations (i.e., individual surveys of each plot) from 79,190 plots sampled in 449 independent resurvey projects. Of these, 62,139 (78%) are permanent plots, that is, marked in situ, or located with GPS, which allow for high spatial accuracy in resurvey. The remaining 17,051 (22%) plots are from studies in which plots from the initial survey could not be exactly relocated. Four data sets, which together account for 28,470 (36%) plots, provide only presence/absence information on plant species, while the remaining 50,720 (64%) plots contain abundance information (e.g., percentage cover or cover–abundance classes such as variants of the Braun‐Blanquet scale). The oldest plots were sampled in 1911 in the Swiss Alps, while most plots were sampled between 1950 and 2020.ConclusionsReSurveyEurope is a new resource to address a wide range of research questions on fine‐scale changes in European vegetation. The initiative is devoted to an inclusive and transparent governance and data usage approach, based on slightly adapted rules of the well‐established European Vegetation Archive (EVA). ReSurveyEurope data are ready for use, and proposals for analyses of the data set can be submitted at any time to the coordinators. Still, further data contributions are highly welcome.

Global Overview of the Application of the Braun-Blanquet Approach in Research

“…This problem is particularly acute in the science of vegetation and in forestry [29]. Various botanical and forest typological schools are active as part of the solution [12,[29][30][31][32][33][34][35]. However, due to the complexity and diversity of forests, grasslands, and other plant communities, this problem has not yet been solved.…”

Land-use impacts on plant functional diversity throughout Europe

“…Along with the need of complementary biodiversity metrics, currently there is a lack of well-established connections between individual local biodiversity assessments and global patterns (Jandt et al 2022), hindering a comprehensive analysis and suggesting the need for replicated local assessments (Knollová et al 2024). These assessments are particularly crucial in understanding the effect of human use of land, which encompasses activities like agriculture and urbanization (hereafter simply referred to as “land use”), compared to natural habitats (Zebisch et al 2004; Dornelas et al 2014; Jandt et al 2022).…”