Data set published on the change in plant diversity in Germany over the last 100 years

Vegetation-plot resurvey data are a main source of information on terrestrial biodiversity change, with records reaching back more than one century. Although more and more data from re-sampled plots have been published, there is not yet a comprehensive open-access dataset available for analysis. Here, we compiled and harmonised vegetation-plot resurvey data from Germany covering almost 100 years. We show the distribution of the plot data in space, time and across habitat types of the European Nature Information System (EUNIS). In addition, we include metadata on geographic location, plot size and vegetation structure. The data allow temporal biodiversity change to be assessed at the community scale, reaching back further into the past than most comparable data yet available.

With the publication in "Scientific Data", this dataset is thus freely accessible to all interested parties.

Based on these data, changes in the occurrence and distribution of individual species in Germany were analyzed and published in the Nature article "More losses than gains during one century of plant biodiversity change in Germany" by Jandt, Bruelheide et al. 2022. It was found that Germany's plant world has seen a greater number of losers than winners over the past one hundred years. While the frequencies and abundances of many species have shrunk, they have significantly increased in others. This has resulted in a very uneven distribution of gains and losses. It indicates an overall, large-scale loss of biodiversity among plant species in Germany.

Source: partly press release of the MLU Halle-Wittenberg, https://pressemitteilungen.pr.uni-halle.de/index.php?modus=pmanzeige&pm_id=5479

Publication:
Jandt U, Bruelheide H, … von Oheimb G, et al., 2022. ReSurveyGermany: Vegetation-plot time-series over the past hundred years in Germany. Scientific Data 9: 631. DOI: 10.1038/s41597-022-01688-6

Nature study:
Jandt U, Bruelheide H et al., 2022. More losses than gains during one century of plant biodiversity change in Germany. Nature. DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05320-w