Biodiversity & Ecology

English

Abstract: The German Vegetation Reference Database (GVRD; GIVD ID EU-DE-014) was established in 2008 as a reference vegetation database for vegetation records of the German Biodiversity Exploratories (http://www.biodiversity-exploratories.de/). Initially, the database had a focus on forest and grassland vegetation but is currently undergoing a continuous broadening of scope. Relevés were digitized and compiled from published and unpublished sources and from various thematic, regional or local databases with the ambition to cover the whole territory of Germany. The database is hosted at the Martin-Luther University Halle-Wittenberg at the Institute of Biology in the Department of Geobotany and is one of the database platforms of the German Centre of Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv, http://www.idiv-biodiversity.de). The functionality of the database is increasingly enhanced, currently comprising links to Germany’s trait databases and GIS. At present, the database is used to test current theories in community assembly rules (http://www.biodiversity-exploratories.de/1/projects/weitere-projekte/botany-related-studies/berich/). Further current analyses are the temporal and geographical distribution of species and of vegetation types and the assessment of biodiversity.