ReSurveyEurope : A database of resurveyed vegetation plots in Europe

Aims: We introduce ReSurveyEurope — a new data source of resurveyed vegetation
plots in Europe, compiled by a collaborative network of vegetation scientists. We de-
scribe the scope of this initiative, provide an overview of currently available data,
governance, data contribution rules, and accessibility. In addition, we outline further
steps, including potential research questions.
Results: ReSurveyEurope includes resurveyed vegetation plots from all habitats.
Version 1.0 of ReSurveyEurope contains 283,135 observations (i.e., individual sur-
veys of each plot) from 79,190 plots sampled in 449 independent resurvey projects.
Of these, 62,139 (78%) are permanent plots, that is, marked in situ, or located with
GPS, which allow for high spatial accuracy in resurvey. The remaining 17,051 (22%)
plots are from studies in which plots from the initial survey could not be exactly
relocated. Four data sets, which together account for 28,470 (36%) plots, provide
only presence/absence information on plant species, while the remaining 50,720
(64%) plots contain abundance information (e.g., percentage cover or cover–abun-
dance classes such as variants of the Braun- Blanquet scale). ... mehrThe oldest plots were
sampled in 1911 in the Swiss Alps, while most plots were sampled between 1950
and 2020.
Conclusions: ReSurveyEurope is a new resource to address a wide range of re-
search questions on fine-scale changes in European vegetation. The initiative is de-
voted to an inclusive and transparent governance and data usage approach, based
on slightly adapted rules of the well-established European Vegetation Archive (EVA).
ReSurveyEurope data are ready for use, and proposals for analyses of the data set
can be submitted at any time to the coordinators. Still, further data contributions are
highly welcome