Abstract
The phytosociological database as a tool for synthetic and comprehensive study of semi-natural meadows in the Polish part of the Carpathians is presented. It has been developed in the Institute of Nature Conservation of the Polish Academy of Sciences since 2007. All accessible phytosociological relevés were digitalized and stored in a TURBOVEG database. As of January 2013, 4620 relevés have been collected in the database, chiefly from mesic meadows of <em>Arrhenatherion</em> alliance (76%) and mat-grass swards of <em>Nardo-Callunetea</em> class (18%). They were recorded between 1923 and 2012 at an altitude range of 195–2000 m above sea level. For improving territorial coverage of the region by vegetation sampling, since 2009 an extensive field survey has been carried out to collect data from previously unexplored areas and record the actual stage of semi-natural grasslands. As a result 1146 recent unpublished relevés were collected. The statistics of available resources, discussion on the data quality and the application prospects of the database are outlined. The database “Grasslands in the Polish Carpathians” is an intrinsic part of the research on the diversity of vegetation in the Polish Carpathian grasslands, as well as a record of the changes it undergoes.
Highlights
Phytosociological relevés provide an important source of information on vegetation, as they contain basic data on species co-occurrence in a particular time and space
Owing to the simple standard procedure of data acquisition and a longstanding tradition of phytosociology in Western and Central Europe, it was possible for those regions to collect resources estimated at approximately 4300000 records [1]
5% of the database resources are relevés from doctoral dissertation manuscripts, studies on the vegetation cover in protected areas and natural science expert reports prepared as part of the agri-environmental program
Summary
Phytosociological relevés provide an important source of information on vegetation, as they contain basic data on species co-occurrence in a particular time and space. Vegetation-plot databases are used, above all, in studies concerning the variability of species and habitats, as well as their relationships with environmental conditions [5,6], the assessment of biodiversity, macro-scale studies in vegetation ecology and global change research [3,7]. They are mostly designed for vegetation classification, especially on a large spatial scale [8,9,10,11]. Tab. 1 Most frequently represented authors of the relevés stored in the base
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