Vegetation Classification and Survey (VCS) (Dec 2020)

Balkan Vegetation Database (BVD) – updated information and current status

  • Kiril Vassilev,
  • Hristo Pedashenko,
  • Alexandra Alexandrova,
  • Alexandar Tashev,
  • Anna Ganeva,
  • Anna Gavrilova,
  • Armin Macanović,
  • Assen Assenov,
  • Antonina Vitkova,
  • Beloslava Genova,
  • Borislav Grigorov,
  • Chavdar Gussev,
  • Ermin Masic,
  • Eva Filipova,
  • Gana Gecheva,
  • Ina Aneva,
  • Illona Knolova,
  • Ivaylo Nikolov,
  • Georgi Georgiev,
  • Georgi Gogushev,
  • Georgi Tinchev,
  • Ivan Minkov,
  • Kalina Pachedzieva,
  • Katerina Mincheva,
  • Koycho Koev,
  • Mariyana Lyubenova,
  • Marius Dimitrov,
  • Media Gumus,
  • Momchil Nazarov,
  • Nadezhda Apostolova-Stoyanova,
  • Nikolay Nikolov,
  • Nikolay Velev,
  • Petar Zhelev,
  • Plamen Glogov,
  • Rayna Natcheva,
  • Rossen Tzonev,
  • Senka Barudanović,
  • Sofia Kostadinova,
  • Steffen Boch,
  • Stephan Hennekens,
  • Stoyan Georgiev,
  • Stoyan Stoyanov,
  • Todor Karakiev,
  • Tijana Ilić,
  • Veronika Kalníková,
  • Veselin Shivarov,
  • Vladimir Vulchev

DOI
https://doi.org/10.3897/VCS/2020/61348
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 1
pp. 151 – 153

Abstract

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The Balkan Vegetation Database (BVD; GIVD ID: EU-00-019) is a regional database, which was established in 2014. It comprises phytosociological relevés covering various vegetation types from nine countries of the Balkan Peninsula (Albania – 153 relevés, Bosnia and Herzegovina – 1715, Bulgaria – 12,282, Greece – 465, Croatia – 69, Kosovo – 493, Montenegro – 440, North Macedonia – 13 and Serbia – 2677). Currently, it contains 18,306 relevés (compared to 9.580 in 2016), and most of them (82.8%) are geo-referenced. The database includes both digitized relevés from the literature (65.6%) and unpublished data (34.5%). Plot size is available for 84.7% of all relevés. During the last four years some “header data information” was improved e.g. elevation (now available for 83.4% of all relevés), aspect (67.7%), slope (66%), total cover of vegetation (54.3%), cover of tree, shrub, herb, bryophyte and lichen layers (27.1%, 20.1%, 40.2%, 11.5% and 2.1%), respectively. Data access is either semi-restricted (65.6%) or restricted (34.4%). Most relevés (84.6%) are classified to syntaxa of different levels. The database has been used for numerous studies with various objectives from floristic, vegetation and habitat-related topics, to macroecological studies at the local, regional, national, continental and global levels. During the last four years, BVD data were requested from 111 different projects via the EVA and sPlot databases.