The Vegetation Database Forests and Grasslands of the Lower Werra Region (GIVD ID EU-DE-011) includes vegetations releves made within the scope of a project dealing with statistical distribution modelling of land-use types, plant communities and species. The study covers a 10 x 4 km landscape gradient in Northern Hesse. The plots were chosen with a stratified-random design and have a uniform plot size of 100 m2 (forests) and 25 m2 (grassland), respectively. Apart from numerous site parameters measured in the releve plots, comprehensive information derived from GIS maps are also available.

In Turkey, approximately 20,000 vegetation releves do exist in total. However, there is no central database for Turkish vegetation releves at present (2011). I started building the Vegetation Database of Oak Communities in Turkey (GIVD ID AS-TR-002) from published and unpublished data such as master and PhD theses, reports and articles in local and international journals. In total, 1,181 releves were entered in TURBOVEG format for oak vegetation releves, including woodlands and forests. Plots were georeferenced using the Google Earth plugin integrated in the TURBOVEG software. Typical header data, such as altitude or aspect were entered when available. Most of the releves belong to the vegetation classes Quercetea ilicis and Quercetea pubescentis.

AuVeg (GIVD ID EU-DE-028) is a database containing phytosociological releves of German floodplain vegetation including key environmental variables such as hydrological and soil data. It provides essential information to further understand ecological interactions in floodplain habitats. Furthermore, it provides baseline data for the development of habitat models of plant species and vegetation types. Such models will be used to assess the effect of climate change-induced alterations of the riverine flow regime on plant habitats. They are also used in practice supporting the environmental impact assessment in case of riverine construction or maintenance works.

The Vegetation Database of Central New Mexico (GIVD ID NA-US-011) is part of a long-term study to monitor net primary production across three distinct ecosystems in central New Mexico, United States: creosote dominant shrubland, black grama dominant grassland, and blue grama dominant grassland. Since 1999, sampling of permanent 1m x 1m plots has been performed twice per year (spring/autumn) within black grama grassland and three times per year (spring/autumn/winter) within creosote shrubland. Since 2002, sampling has also been performed twice per year (spring/autumn) within blue grama grassland. This sampling of 120 plots (40 per ecosystem) remains ongoing at the Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge, Socorro County, New Mexico. Species are later harvested from adjacent areas to determine biomass and results have documented vegetation dynamics within and between these ecosystems.

Since 1968 an experimental study site on old-field succession in Gottingen (Lower Saxony, Germany) has delivered continuous data on vegetation development on permanent plots. The 23 plots (125–200 m2) cover a range of undisturbed sites since the beginning of the experiment or since 1983 differing in their initial treatment, to plots undergoing a certain yearly treatment like mowing intensities (with and without fertilizer treatment) or ploughing. Beside continuous species lists and cover values, soil chemical properties, biomass data, measurement of PAR or seed bank analysis are available whether continuous or as interval data. Such longterm permanent plot studies, in particular in comparison with similar case studies from all over the world, may enlarge our knowledge on patterns and processes of vegetation dynamics. This report describes the available content in the Vegetation Database of Successional Permanent Plots in Gottingen (GIVD ID EU-DE-015).

The Israel Nature and Parks Authority Biological Databases (GIVD ID AS-IL-001) are the repository of records dating from the early 1980's until the present date. These include casual observations of vascular plants and vertebrate animals, and an assortment of survey and monitoring projects both within and outside protected areas. There are approximately one million records accumulated in the databases. All records include species name (in Latin and Hebrew), coordinates (in the New Israel Grid system), date, and observer name. These are presence-only data, e.g. the absence of a record for an area in Israel does not imply the absence of the species. There is no national inventory for vascular plants and vertebrates in Israel. Despite these handicaps, the databases form the larges single source of electronic species-level information for the Middle East. The data are accessible to the public in several interfaces, including the query system of the Global Biodiversity Information Facility at http://www.gbif.org.

This paper describes the vegetation database created as part of the Countryside Survey (CS) of Great Britain (GIVD ID EU-GB-003) which was established to monitor ecological and land use change in 1978 (http://www.countrysidesurvey.org.uk). The sample design is based on a series of stratified, randomly selected 1 km squares, which numbered 256 in the 1978 survey, 500 in the 1990 survey, 569 in the 1998 survey and 591 in the 2007 survey. Stratification of sample squares was based on predefined strata (called land classes) which have been derived from a classification of all 1 km squares in Britain based on their topographic, climatic and geological attributes obtained from published maps. A series of vegetation plots were located within each 1 km square using a restricted randomisation procedure designed to reduce aggregation. Linear features (road verges, watercourse banks, hedges, arable margins and field boundaries) and areal features (fields, unenclosed land and small semi-natural biotope patches) were sampled. Linear plots were 1 x 10 m laid out along a feature whilst unenclosed land and small biotopes were sampled using 2 m x 2 m plots. Larger randomly-placed plots were nested 14 m² plots with an inner nest of 2 m x 2 m. Within each 1 km Countryside Survey sample square the land cover and all landscape features were mapped and each parcel of land (and vegetation plot) has been assigned to a Broad Habitat/EUNIS habitat type. This database of vegetation plots is a very useful resource. The data is freely available from the website, however, there are restrictions on the release of the spatial location of the plots. There is now a considerable time-series of plots within the database going back to 1978 representing different habitat types and landscape features that can be analysed to determine changes in vegetation metrics (e.g. Ellenberg scores) and individual species. Vegetation changes can be linked to environmental drivers and the spatial scale (across GB) is sufficiently large to analyse gradients in most driving variables.

Dry meadows and pastures are habitats which are very rich in species. As they are also highly endangered, the Federal Council has recorded them in an inventory, as required under article 18a of the Federal Act on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage (NCHA; SR 451). The Database Dry Meadows and Pastures of Switzerland (GIVD ID EU-CH-006) contains 13,724 releves (28 sq. meters) from whole Switzerland, ranging from 200 to 2,800 m. Releves were assessed between 1995 and 2009 from 45 different people.