Vegetation Database of Deciduous Forests on Acidic Soils in NW Europe

Abstract

The database of mixed oak and beech forests (Quercion roboris, Luzulo-Fagion) in NW Europe (DE, B, NL, PL) comprises 4,430 releves, both from the lowlands and the adjacent hilly regions up to approximately 800 m a.s.l. It was created in the early 1990s in order to re-evaluate the syntaxonomy of deciduous forests of acidic soils in the lowlands of NW and Central Europe based on ± all available vegetation data. Only original releves (Braun-Blanquet method) from 75 sources, published in local ecological journals or monographs, or unpublished material from diploma theses, are included. Plot sizes, complete structural data and exact geographic localisation are mostly not included in the electronic repository, but may be gained from the original publications in many cases. Beyond phytosociological classification and analysis of large-scale geographic patterns within plant communities, parts of the database have been intensively used to evaluate site characteristics of plant communities and the influence of historical land use patterns on present-day vegetation. Hosted by the department of biodiversity research and botany of the University of Potsdam, the data are available for collaborative research. This report describes the available content in the Vegetation Database of Deciduous Forests on Acidic Soils in NW Europe (GIVD ID EU-00-008).