Biodiversity & Ecology

English

Abstract: The Swiss Forest Vegetation Database (GIVD ID EU-CH-005) contains roughly 14,800 relevés located in all parts of Switzerland, and ranging from 200 to 2,480 m a.s.l. Relevés were assessed between 1904 and 1995 by 320 different activities with one or more persons involved. A majority of the relevés were published in papers, monographs or served for regional mapping projects. A first consistent classification into 71 Swiss forest communities derived from 2,533 of these relevés (17%) and equalled the starting point of this collection. During the 1980s and ‘90s, the database was largely extended in order to establish a basis for a revised classification. Meanwhile, many cantons of Switzerland commissioned local forest classifications, which also resulted in an evolution of local expertise on the one hand, and in the difficulty of synthesizing this expertise by means of formal analyses. Eventually, the revision of Ellenberg & Klötzli’s old classification failed. To date, there is no new analysis-based classification of Swiss forests. In contrast, a pragmatic system was established that largely corresponds to the old Ellenberg & Klöztli numbers and may translate between the differing cantonal forest community systems.