EUNIS-ESy: Expert system for automatic classification of European vegetation plots to EUNIS habitats

EUNIS-ESy is an expert system for automatic classification of European vegetation plots to habitat types of the EUNIS Habitat Classification. The EUNIS classification and the principles of the expert system are described by Chytrý et al. (2020). The classification of a set of vegetation plots can be run using the JUICE program (Tichý 2002; https://www.sci.muni.cz/botany/juice/), TURBOVEG 3 program (Hennekens 2015) and an R script (Bruelheide et al. 2021).

This dataset contains two parts: (1) the expert system and related files necessary for running it; (2) characterization of EUNIS habitats based on the results of the expert system classification.

1. Expert system and related files necessary to run it

1.1. EUNIS-ESy-2021-06-01.txt – a file containing the script for the classification of vegetation plots by EUNIS-ESy. This version contains tested definitions for the revised classification vegetated Marine (coastal saltmarshes), Coastal, Wetland, Grassland, Shrubland, Forest, Inland sparsely vegetated and Man-made habitats, and preliminary non-tested definitions of the older classification of Marine, Aquatic and Inland sparsely vegetated habitats.

1.2. Nomenclature-translation-from-Turboveg-2-databases.zip – an archive containing the scripts for automatic translation of taxon concepts and names used in individual European Turboveg 2 databases (Hennekens & Schaminée 2001; https://www.synbiosys.alterra.nl/turboveg/) to the nomenclature that can be used as an input for EUNIS-ESy.

1.3. EUNIS-ESy-User-Guide.pdf – a brief user guide to the classification of vegetation plots by EUNIS-ESy using the JUICE program. Please read this guide carefully before running the expert system to avoid misclassifications.

2. Characterization of the EUNIS habitats based on the results of the EUNIS-ESy classification

2.1. EUNIS-habitats-2021-06-01.xlsx – the current list of EUNIS habitats.

2.2. Habitat-factsheets-EUNIS-habitats-2021-06-01.pdf – a summary of data on EUNIS vegetated Marine (coastal saltmarshes), Coastal, Wetland, Grassland, Shrubland, Forest, Inland sparsely vegetated and Man-made habitats. These data were extracted from vegetation plots from the European Vegetation Archive (EVA; Chytrý et al. 2016; http://euroveg.org/eva-database) and other databases classified by EUNIS-ESy v2021-06-01. Each habitat is described in a factsheet that includes a brief habitat description, distribution map, corresponding alliances of EuroVegChecklist (Mucina et al. 2016; https://www.synbiosys.alterra.nl/evc/) and characteristic species combination divided into diagnostic, constant and dominant species.

2.3. Characteristic-species-combinations-EUNIS-habitats-2021-06-01.xlsx – a database of habitats' characteristic species combinations in a spreadsheet format.

2.4. Data-sources-EUNIS-classification-2021-06-01.pdf – a list of data sources used to produce the distribution maps and characteristic species combinations.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Differences from the previous version (2020-06-08)

Vegetated Marine (coastal saltmarshes) and Inland sparsely vegetation habitats were added to the expert system. New vegetation-plot records added to the EVA database by 7 April 2021 were used to characterize habitat types.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Recommended citation of this version of the EUNIS-ESy expert system

Chytrý et al. (2020), version 2021-06-01

Chytrý M., Tichý L., Hennekens S.M., Knollová I., Janssen J.A.M., Rodwell J.S., Peterka T., Marcenò C., Landucci F., Danihelka J., Hájek M., Dengler J., Novák P., Zukal D., Jiménez-Alfaro B., Mucina L., Abdulhak S., Aćić S., Agrillo E., Attorre F., Bergmeier E., Biurrun I., Boch S., Bölöni J., Bonari G., Braslavskaya T., Bruelheide H., Campos J.A., Čarni A., Casella L., Ćuk M., Ćušterevska R., De Bie E., Delbosc P., Demina O., Didukh Y., Dítě D., Dziuba T., Ewald J., Gavilán R.G., Gégout J.-C., Giusso del Galdo G.P., Golub V., Goncharova N., Goral F., Graf U., Indreica A., Isermann M., Jandt U., Jansen F., Jansen J., Jašková A., Jiroušek M., Kącki Z., Kalníková V., Kavgacı A., Khanina L., Korolyuk A.Yu., Kozhevnikova M., Kuzemko A., Küzmič F., Kuznetsov O.L., Laiviņš M., Lavrinenko I., Lavrinenko O., Lebedeva M., Lososová Z., Lysenko T., Maciejewski L., Mardari C., Marinšek A., Napreenko M.G., Onyshchenko V., Pérez-Haase A., Pielech R., Prokhorov V., Rašomavičius V., Rodríguez Rojo M.P., Rūsiņa S., Schrautzer J., Šibík J., Šilc U., Škvorc Ž., Smagin V.A., Stančić Z., Stanisci A., Tikhonova E., Tonteri T., Uogintas D., Valachovič M., Vassilev K., Vynokurov D., Willner W., Yamalov S., Evans D., Palitzsch Lund M., Spyropoulou R., Tryfon E. & Schaminée J.H.J. (2020) EUNIS Habitat Classification: expert system, characteristic species combinations and distribution maps of European habitats. Applied Vegetation Science, 23, 648–675. https://doi.org/10.1111/avsc.12519