Vegetation Database of the Volga and the Ural Rivers Basins

Abstract

In 2004, researchers from the Department of phytodiversity of the Institute of the Ecology of the Volga River Basin of the Russian Academy of Sciences (Togliatti), the chair of botany of Samara State Academy of Social Sciences and Humanities (Samara) and the Department of the biogeography and biodiversity monitoring of the Institute of Steppe UB RAS (Orenburg) started working on the development of the Vegetation Database of the Volga and the Ural Rivers Basins (GIVD ID EU-RU-003). This database uses TURBOVEG. At present the database contains data on plant communities of forest-steppe and steppe zones within Ulyanovsk, Samara, Saratov, Orenburg, Saratov and Astrachan regions. Information is collected in two groups with separate data on geobotanical releves and on the syntaxa uniting these releves. In the first case, each geobotanical releve includes the following parameters: the species composition with projective cover for each species of plants; total projective cover; plot size; ecotope and location, where the releve was made; information on publication of the releve (the reference, table number, releve number in the table); syntaxon which the releve belongs to; its position in the SynBioSys Europe syntaxa system; geographical coordinates. In the second case, each syntaxon is provided with its name, position in the SynBioSys Europe syntaxa system, number of releves and the permanence of each species. Currently, the database has information of halophytic (Thero-Salicornietea, Festuco-Puccinellietea), steppe (FestucoBrometea), meadow (Phragmito-Magnocaricetea, Molinio-Arrhenetheretea) vegetation and karst relief vegetation (Festuco-Brometea, Querco-Fagetea, Galio-Urticetea, Trifolio-Geranietea sanguinei) in the Volga and the Ural River Basins within forest-steppe and steppe zones, and includes results of our own research activities (since 1994) and data from literature sources (since 1968). The data is collected in each of the institutions mentioned above, and then the data is exchanged and summarized. The database is connected toEuropean Syntaxonomical Biological System SynBioSys Europe (http://www.synbiosys.alterra.nl/synbiosyseu) where the data on 917 published releves and 127 syntaxa has been currently sent to.