Database Report

Vegetation Plot Database - Sapienza University of Rome -- VPD-Sapienza

Emiliano Agrillo, Fabio Attorre, Nicola Alessi, Marco Massimi, Michele De Sanctis & Vito Emanuele Cambria

GIVD Database ID: EU-IT-011	Last update: 2019-12-10
Vegetation Plot Database - Sapienza University of Rome	Web address:
Database manager(s): Emiliano Agrillo (emiliano.agrillo@gmail.com); Fabio Attorre (fabio.attorre@uniroma1.it)
Owner: Department of Environmental Biology, “Sapienza” University of Roma, Botanical Garden Largo Cristina di Svezia 24, 00165 Roma, Italy
Scope: The data-set aims at storing vegetation plots from published/unpublished sources, in order to support large scale vegetation classification and ecological analyses on the Italian territory.
Abstract: In Italy, many research groups are aimed to establish and encourage the development of a national “Geobotanical Archive”, based on floristic and vegetation plots recorded relying upon the European phytosociological tradition (e.g Braun-Blanquet’s approach). Recently, several initiatives have been finalized to the fulfillment of a global vegetation-plot database repository (i.e. EVA and GIVD). As part of this process here we present the “Georeferenced Vegetation Database - Sapienza University of Roma” project. It is an ongoing vegetation-plots database, which collects relevés sampled in the whole Italian territory. Most the data stored in the GVD-Sapienza are phytosociological relevés (72.67 %), the database contains also plots where data have been collected using other sampling methods (27.34 %). At present, the 21.917 vegetation plots encompassed in GVD-Sapienza come from multiple scientific sources: 15.430 plots from published contributions on plant-communities; 6.487 from unpublished field research. The time span of the database covers the period from 1935 to 2015, all are geographically referred with an accuracy scale. This archive was based on the need to go beyond a more consistent support to the coenological information. It explicitly raises the issue of the requirement of a general, geographically exhaustive geobotanical survey for the country.
Availability: according to a specific agreement	Online upload: no	Online search: no
Database format(s): TURBOVEG, other, ArcGis database and Google Earth/KML Files	Export format(s): TURBOVEG, MS Access, Excel, CSV file, plain text file, other, ArcGis database and Google Earth/KML Files
Plot type(s): normal plots	Plot-size range (m²): 0.25 to 2000
Non-overlapping plots: 50512	Estimate of existing plots: 50512	Completeness: 100%	Status: completed and continuing
Total no. of plot observations: 50512	Number of sources (biblioreferences, data collectors): 360	Valid taxa: 0
Countries (%): IT: 99.99; SM: 0.01
Formations: Forest: 0% // Non Forest: 0%
Guilds: all vascular plants: 24%; only trees and shrubs: 52%
Plot size categories (%): < 1 m2: 0.2%; 1-10 m2: 8.6%; 10-100 m2: 33.6%; 100-1000 m2: 33.0%; 1000-10000 m2: 0%; >= 10000 m2: 0%; unknowmn: 35.2%;
Environmental data (%): altitude: 54.45; slope aspect: 50.56; slope inclination: 49.47; microrelief: 0; surface cover other than plants (open soil, litter, bare rock etc.): 0; other soil attributes: 0; soil pH: 0; land use categories: 0; soil depth: 0
Performance measure(s): presence/absence only: 0.01%; cover: 99.99%; 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): 30.30%; point coordinates less precise than GPS, up to 1 km: 67.07%; small grid (not coarser than 10 km): 0.47%; political units or only on a coarser scale ( above 10 km): 0.21%
Sampling periods: before 1920: 0%; 1920-1929: 0%; 1930-1939: 0.032%; 1940-1949: 0%; 1950-1959: 0.014%; 1960-1969: 0.475%; 1970-1979: 1.533%; 1980-1989: 32.678%; 1990-1999: 16.997%; 2000-2009: 40.767%; 2010-2019: 6.292%; unknown: 1.212%
Information as of 2026-05-16; further details and future updates available from http://www.givd.info/ID/EU-IT-011

Emiliano Agrillo* (emiliano.agrillo@gmail.com)
Dept. Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Roma, ITALY
Fabio Attorre (fabio.attorre@uniroma1.it)
Dept. Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Roma, ITALY
Nicola Alessi (nicolaalessi87@gmail.com)
Dept. Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Roma, ITALY
Marco Massimi (marco.massimi@hotmail.com)
Dept. Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Roma, ITALY
Michele De Sanctis (michedes@gmail.com)
Dept. Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Roma, ITALY
Vito Emanuele Cambria (cambriavito@yahoo.it)
Dept. Environmental Biology, Sapienza University of Roma, ITALY
* corresponding author