Biodiversity & Ecology

Journal of the Division Biodiversity, Evolution and Ecology of Plants , Institute for Plant Science and Microbiology, University of Hamburg.

Short Database Report Open Access

Namib Desert Region Vegetation Database

Norbert Jürgens & Gerhard Muche*

Article first published online: 24 September 2012

DOI: 10.7809/b-e.00093

*Corresponding author contact: gerhard.muche@uni-hamburg.de

<< Volume 4

Biodiversity & Ecology (Biodivers. Ecol.)

Special Volume: Vegetation databases for the 21st century,
edited by Jürgen Dengler, Jens Oldeland, Florian Jansen, Milan Chytrý, Jörg Ewald, Manfred Finckh, Falko Glöckler, Gabriela Lopez-Gonzalez, Robert K. Peet & Joop H.J. Schaminée

Volume 4, pages 296–296, Sep 12

PDF (205 kB)

Keywords: desert; diversity; global change.

English

Abstract: Since 1980 many observations of the vegetation in the dry regions of Namibia and South Africa have been recorded in the database of Namib Desert Region Vegetation Database (GIVD ID AF-00-007). All relevés were recorded using a standard size of 1000 m² and include spatial reference data, habitat information and all observed species occurrences with cover and (partly) abundance data. Worth mentioning is that the database has been sampled over a period of several years thereby including different seasons as well as dry and wet years. Many relevés do not show the entire local species pool at the time of documentation. The interpretation of therophytic, geophytic and hemicryptophytic species must take this into consideration. Conditions of strongly grazed plant individuals in particular during dry seasons may have resulted in some inconsistencies in plant identifications, e.g. Stipagrostis hirtigluma subsp. hirtigluma versus S. uniplumis var. intermedia.

Suggested citation:
Jürgens, N., Muche, G. (2012): Namib Desert Region Vegetation Database. – In: Dengler, J., Oldeland, J., Jansen, F., Chytrý, M., Ewald, J., Finckh, M., Glöckler, F., Lopez-Gonzalez, G., Peet, R.K., Schaminée, J.H.J. [Eds.]: Vegetation databases for the 21st century. – Biodiversity & Ecology 4: 296–296. DOI: 10.7809/b-e.00093.