Ecological Indicator Values for Europe (EIVE) 1.0

By

Dengler, Jürgen
Jansen, Florian
Chusova, Olha
Hüllbusch, Elisabeth
Nobis, Michael P.
Van Meerbeek, Koenraad
Axmanová, Irena
Bruun, Hans Henrik
Chytrý, Milan
Guarino, Riccardo
Karrer, Gerhard
Moeys, Karlien
Raus, Thomas
Steinbauer, Manuel J.
Tichý, Lubomir
Tyler, Torbjörn
Batsatsashvili, Ketevan
Bita-Nicolae, Claudia
Didukh, Yakiv
Diekmann, Martin
Englisch, Thorsten
Fernández Pascual, Eduardo
Frank, Dieter
Graf, Ulrich
Hájek, Michal
Jelaska, Sven
Jimenez-Alfaro, Borja
Julve, Philippe
Nakhutsrishvili, George
Ozinga, Wim A.
Ruprecht, Eszter-Karolina
Šilc, Urban
Theurillat, Jean-Paul
Gillet, François

Type

Article

Date of Publication

2023-1-13

Original Publication

Vegetation classification and survey

Volume

4

Pages

7--29

Subjects

bioindication , ecological indicator value , Ellenberg indicator value , Europe , Light , Moisture , niche position , niche width , Nitrogen , pH , Temperature , vascular plant

Contributed by

Pensoft Publishers

Language

English

Published by

Sofia Pensoft Publishers 2020-

Identifiers

DOI: https://doi.org/10.3897/VCS.98324

 

Abstract

Aims: To develop a consistent ecological indicator value system for Europe for five of the main plant niche dimensions: soil moisture (M), soil nitrogen (N), soil reaction (R), light (L) and temperature (T). Study area: Europe (and closely adjacent regions). Methods: We identified 31 indicator value systems for vascular plants in Europe that contained assessments on at least one of the five aforementioned niche dimensions. We rescaled the indicator values of each dimension to a continuous scale, in which 0 represents the minimum and 10 the maximum value present in Europe. Taxon names were harmonised to the Euro+Med Plantbase. For each of the five dimensions, we calculated European values for niche position and niche width by combining the values from the individual EIV systems. Using T values as an example, we externally validated our European indicator values against the median of bioclimatic conditions for global occurrence data of the taxa. Results: In total, we derived European indicator values of niche position and niche width for 14,835 taxa (14,714 for M, 13,748 for N, 14,254 for R, 14,054 for L, 14,496 for T). Relating the obtained values for temperature niche position to the bioclimatic data of species yielded a higher correlation than any of the original EIV systems (r = 0.859). The database: The newly developed Ecological Indicator Values for Europe (EIVE) 1.0, together with all source systems, is available in a flexible, harmonised open access database. Conclusions: EIVE is the most comprehensive ecological indicator value system for European vascular plants to date. The uniform interval scales for niche position and niche width provide new possibilities for ecological and macroecological analyses of vegetation patterns. The developed workflow and documentation will facilitate the future release of updated and expanded versions of EIVE, which may for example include the addition of further taxonomic groups, additional niche dimensions, external validation or regionalisation.<br> Abbreviations: EIV = Ecological indicator value; EIVE = Ecological Indicator Values for Europe; EVA = European Vegetation Archive; GBIF = Global Biodiversity Information Facility; i = index for taxa; j = index for EIV systems; L = ecological indicator for light; M = ecological indicator for moisture; N = ecological indicator for nitrogen availability; R = ecological indicator for reaction; T = ecological indicator for temperature.