Database Report

Nordic-Baltic Grassland Vegetation Database (NBGVD)

Jürgen Dengler & Lukasz Kozub

GIVD Database ID: EU-00-002	Last update: 2024-05-14
Nordic-Baltic Grassland Vegetation Database (NBGVD)	Web address: https://edgg.org/databases/Regional-databases
Database manager(s): Jürgen Dengler (dr.juergen.dengler@gmail.com); Lukasz Kozub (lkozub@uw.edu.pl)
Owner: Consortium of the Nordic-Baltic Grassland Vegetation Database (NBGVD Consortium)
Scope: The former name of this database was "Database Dry Grasslands in the Nordic and Baltic Region" (with a narrower scope). Now all available relevés of grasslands and other open habitats from the study region (Iceland, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Faroe Islands, Norway, Sweden, Finland, Denmark, N Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Belarus, NW Russia) are collected.
Abstract: The Nordic-Baltic Grassland Vegetation Database (NBGVD) (GIVD-code EU-00-002) is the EDGG-associated collaborative vegetation-plot database that collects vegetation-plot data of grasslands and other open habitats (except segetal and deep aquatic) from the Nordic-Baltic region, except Germany, namely Belarus, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, N Poland, NW Russia, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, Sweden. Target vegetation types are lowland grasslands and heathlands, arctic-alpine communities, coastal communities, non-forested mires and other wetlands, rocky, tall-herb and ruderal communities. As of January 2024, it included 12,694 relevés, collected between 1910 and 2023, which were mainly digitised from literature sources (79%), while the remainder comes from individual unpublished sources (21%). The data quality is high, with bryophytes and lichens being treated in 95% of all plots and measured environmental variables such as topography and soil characteristics often available in standardised form. A peculiarity of the Nordic-Baltic region are the relatively small plot sizes compared to other regions (median: 4 m2). The available data stem from 35 vegetation classes, with Koelerio-Corynephoretea, Festuco-Brometea, Sedo-Scleranthetea, Molinio-Arrhenatheretea and Scheuchzerio-Caricetea being most frequent. We conclude that NBGVD provides valuable data, allowing interesting analyses at the regional scale and filling gaps in continental to global analyses. Still, there are many more data around, and we thus ask interested readers to contribute own data or help with finding and digitising old data from the literature.
Availability: according to a specific agreement	Online upload: no	Online search: no
Database format(s): TURBOVEG	Export format(s): TURBOVEG, Excel
Plot type(s): normal plots	Plot-size range (m²): 0.04 to 600
Non-overlapping plots: 12694	Estimate of existing plots: 50000	Completeness: 25%	Status: ongoing capture
Total no. of plot observations: 12694	Number of sources (biblioreferences, data collectors): 124	Valid taxa: 1750
Countries (%): BY: 12.9; DK: 1.7; EE: 10.3; FI: 1.7; LV: 2.2; LT: 1.0; NO: 10.2; PL: 24.8; RU: 1.2; SE: 24.6
Formations: Non Forest: 60% = Terrestrial: 60% (Non arctic-alpin: 60% [Semi-natural: 60%])
Guilds: all vascular plants: 100%; bryophytes (terricolous or aquatic): 86%; lichens (terricolous or aquatic): 83%
Plot size categories (%): < 1 m2: 11.2%; 1-10 m2: 53.1%; 10-100 m2: 31.2%; 100-1000 m2: 3.8%; 1000-10000 m2: 0%; >= 10000 m2: 0%; unknowmn: 0.6%;
Environmental data (%): altitude: 27.9; slope aspect: 33.9; slope inclination: 29.4; microrelief: 1.9; surface cover other than plants (open soil, litter, bare rock etc.): 21.9; other soil attributes: 10.4; soil pH: 26.2; land use categories: NA; soil depth: 15.3; other attributes: Cation exchange capacity, base saturation, soil organic matter, CaCO3 content
Performance measure(s): presence/absence only: 0%; cover: 100%; number of individuals: 0%; measurements like diameter or height of trees: 0%; biomass: 0%; other: 0%
Geographic localisation: GPS coordinates (precision 25 m or less): 26.9%; point coordinates less precise than GPS, up to 1 km: 40.9%; small grid (not coarser than 10 km): 28.5%; political units or only on a coarser scale ( above 10 km): 3.7%
Sampling periods: before 1920: 0.5%; 1920-1929: 6.0%; 1930-1939: 2.0%; 1940-1949: 4.9%; 1950-1959: 2.6%; 1960-1969: 7.1%; 1970-1979: 4.2%; 1980-1989: 8.4%; 1990-1999: 26.3%; 2000-2009: 21.0%; 2010-2019: 13.6%; after 2020: 3.4%; unknown: 0.0%
Information as of 2026-05-14; further details and future updates available from http://www.givd.info/ID/EU-00-002

Jürgen Dengler* (dr.juergen.dengler@gmail.com)
Institute of Natural Resource Sciences (IUNR), Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Grüentalstr. 14, 8820 Wädenswil, GERMANY
Lukasz Kozub (lkozub@uw.edu.pl)
Department of Ecology and Environmental Conservation, University of Warsaw, POLAND
* corresponding author