Nicola Arndt und Matthias Pohl - Neobiota

(2) Already in 1994, the computer program TURBOVEG (HENNEKENS 1995; cf. HENNEKENS &
SCHAMINÉE 2001) was accepted as a standard for the management of vegetation data in Europe within
the framework of the above-mentioned ‘European Vegetation Survey’. Today, the programme is in
use in more than 25 countries, some of them outside Europe. How many relevés have been entered
since that time is not known, but certainly it will be more than several hundred thousand, in addition to
the Netherlands. In a survey conducted five years ago, a number of 61,000 was estimated from outside
the Netherlands, distributed over only five countries (SCHAMINÉE & HENNEKENS 1996). Many
countries work together, such as for instance Norway, Sweden, Denmark and the Faeroe Islands,
which built up a database together, or the Czech Republic and Slovakia, which use the same database
structure and the same species list. There are however also countries, such as Germany, where several
individual and separate databases are used. As each particular database uses its own (national) species
lists, a cross-reference must be compiled to make the relevés comparable. The basis of this crossreference
will be the Flora Europaea (TUTIN et al. 1964-1980).
(3) For the categorisation of landscape types, the recently published Map of the Natural Vegetation of
Europe (BOHN et al. 2000/2003) will serve as a basis. The map, which is available in digital format,
can be used in different ways, for example to elucidate the distribution of a particular formation, subformation
or mapping unit. The map and its underlying data will serve as a basis for defining the
current vegetation types and vegetation complexes of each landscape type.
After the meeting on Vilm, an international workshop was organised in Wageningen, the Netherlands,
which was attended by invited experts in the field of European vegetation and representatives from
international organisations: the European Vegetation Survey, the Bundesamt für Naturschutz in Bonn
and the European Topic Centre on Nature Protection & Biodiversity in Paris, and several meetings
took place between representatives of Alterra (where the Dutch version of SYNBIOSYS was
developed) and the Bundesamt für Naturschutz. At this workshop a demonstration version of
SYNBIOSYS EUROPE was presented and discussed. The results of the workshop in Wageningen and
subsequent meetings may be summarized here:
• SYNBIOSYS EUROPE is an initiative of the European Vegetation Survey and will be
coordinated from Alterra in Wageningen, the Netherlands. The project is managed by a scientific
steering committee headed by Dr Joop Schaminée (the Coordinator of the Dutch National
Vegetation Classification), and including Stephan Hennekens (the programmer at Alterra),
Professor John Rodwell (Lancaster), Professor Sandro Pignatti (Rome), Dr Milan Chytrý (Brno),
Dr Odd Eilertsen (Troms), Dr Udo Bohn (Bonn), Dr Erwin Bergmeier (Göttingen), and Dr Dorian
Moss (Huntingdon) and Doug Evans (Paris), both representatives of the European Topic Centre
on Nature Protection & Biodiversity.
• SYNBIOSYS EUROPE is an information system for the evaluation and management of
biodiversity of plant species, vegetation types and landscapes. Whereas the Dutch version of
SYNBIOSYS is concentrated on two levels, the European version will deal with three levels
(including the species level). A standard species list for the European vascular and cryptogam
flora is being developed for SYNBIOSYS EUROPE, and the system will use the newly
completed conspectus of European vegetation types while incorporating the European Natural
Vegetation Map coordinated by the German Bundesamt für Naturschutz.
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