European Vegetation Archive (EVA): an integrated database of European vegetation plots

Abstract

The European Vegetation Archive (EVA) has been developed since 2012 by the IAVS Working Group European Vegetation Survey as a centralized database of European vegetation plots. It stores copies of national and regional vegetation-plot databases on a single software platform. Data storage in EVA does not affect the ongoing independent development of the contributing databases, which remain the property of the data contributors. A prototype of the database management software TURBOVEG 3 has been developed for joint management of multiple databases that use different species lists. This is facilitated by the SynBioSys Taxon Database, a system of taxon names and concepts used in the individual European databases and their matches to a unified list of European flora. TURBOVEG 3 also includes procedures for handling data requests, selections and provisions according to the approved EVA Data Property and Governance Rules. By 30 June 2015, 61 databases from all European regions have joined EVA, contributing in total 1 024 236 vegetation plots from 57 countries, 82% of them with geographical coordinates. EVA provides a unique data source for large-scale analyses of European vegetation diversity both in fundamental research and nature conservation applications. Updated information on EVA is available online at http://euroveg.org/eva-database.