Journal of Vegetation Science 16: 257-260, 2005 © IAVS; Opulus Press Uppsala.

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- EcoPlant: A forest site database -

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REPORT EcoPlant: A forest site database linking floristic data with soil and climate variables Gégout, Jean-Claude1*; Coudun, Christophe1,3; Bailly, Gilles2,4 & Jabiol, Bernard1,5 1LERFoB,

UMR INRA-ENGREF 1092, Ecole Nationale du Génie Rural, des Eaux et des Forêts, 14, Rue Girardet, CS 4216, 54042 Nancy Cedex, France; 2PHYTOLAB, 5, Route des Forges, 39700 Dampierre, France; 3E-mail [email protected]; 4E-mail [email protected]; 5E-mail [email protected] *Corresponding author; Fax +33 383396878; E-mail [email protected]

Abstract A new database is described, named EcoPlant, that currently holds data from 6432 phytosociological relevés of French forests. The aim of the database is to investigate and model the distribution of forest plant species, and their response to ecological factors, i.e. their ecological niche. Unlike other similar databases, a full environmental description is stored with the floristic data of each site. The climatic data at the site are included, and access to direct climatic variables is possible through geographic information system (GIS) modelling. Precise data on the soil are also stored for each site (soil profile and horizon descriptions, physical and chemical analyses of soil samples). The database is designed to enable linkages to existing soil, floristic or plant-trait databases. Keywords: Field survey; France; Geographical Information System; Niche; Nutrient availability; Vegetation.

Introduction Studies of species-environment relationships are of critical importance in vegetation science. Based on field observations, they generally link ecological and floristic information measured at the same sites. During the last decades analyses of coupled floristic and ecological data especially concerned the establishment of ecological response curves, based on the central concept of ecological niche and its modelling procedures (Guisan & Zimmermann 2000). The recent development of large databases is an interesting way to allow the analysis of the ecological behaviour of species or communities over large territories and to improve our knowledge of vegetation (Mucina et al. 1993; Brisse et al. 1995; Lawesson et al. 1997). Large-scale floristic databases have been built during the last years in different countries (Wiser et al. 2001; Chytrý & Rafajova 2003; Knevel et al. 2003;

Pausas et al. 2003; Peet & Wiser 2004) and they are often stored in management systems such as TURBOVEG (Hennekens & Schaminée 2001). The use of large floristic data sets, combined with spatial environmental layers in a geographic information system (GIS), is a recent way to allow the analysis of ecological behaviour of species according to climatic variables (Austin et al. 1990). This approach is difficult to apply to variables that are not modelled spatially, such as soil nutritional factors. We present here EcoPlant, a relational phyto-ecological forest site database, which has been designed to model the response of plant species or communities to both soil resources and climatic variables, that have a direct impact on plant distribution (Gégout et al. 2003; Coudun & Gégout in press). With the integration of variables linked to global warming, acidification or eutrophication, EcoPlant should allow a better understanding of the longterm evolution of forest ecosystems.

Main variables of EcoPlant EcoPlant allows the storage of plots containing both ecological variables and recordings of cover/abundance values for each plant species present in the plot, according to the Braun-Blanquet (1932) scale. Each relevé, in most cases with a size of 400 m2, has been carried out at one point in time and at one localized site. The geographic coordinates of sites are obtained as often as possible by GPS location of plots or estimated from topographic maps. Data acquisition protocols are also described in different fields and principally concern sampling methods of relevés, floristic relevés characteristics and laboratory soil analyses methods (Gégout & Jabiol 2001).

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Climate data from field measurements and derived with GIS Indirect climate variables are measured in the field, such as slope, aspect, topography or elevation. Direct climatic variables are also calculated by GIS manipulations between geo-referenced sites and available climatic layers or digital elevation models (AURELHY model, Benichou & Le Breton 1987). However, only the most important macroclimatic data (annual means of temperature and precipitation, evapotranspiration, water balance) are actually stored in the database, the other variables and indices being calculated specifically for each study.

Key figures of EcoPlant 120 relevé sources and 6 432 phyto-ecological forest relevés Fig. 1. Geographic location of the 6432 forest sites currently integrated into EcoPlant, grouped by relevé source type.

Soil data from field measurements and laboratory analyses Soil description data are stored at the entire profileand horizon-levels. Descriptive data collected in the field for each plot are geological substrate, soil parent material, soil types and humus forms. Additional information is obtained through abundance and depth of calcium carbonate and hydromorphic features that are directly relevant to respectively detect excess of calcium or anaerobic conditions for plant species. Physical analyses such as sand, silt and clay content allow, with information on horizon stoniness and soil depth, the computation of the available water capacity of each profile. Soil laboratory chemical analyses give information on acidity (pH), toxicity status to plants (e.g. excess in Al3+, CaCO3) as well as mineral nutrition: extractable cations Ca, Mg, K, base saturation, nitrogen (C/N ratio) and available phosphorus. These different variables provide information on site nutrient availability.

The plots stored in EcoPlant currently come from 120 studies that have three sources: 20 studies result from Ph.D. and M.Sc. Theses (unpubl. data), two studies come from forest networks, either national (RENECOFOR, Ulrich 1997) or international (European forest soil condition survey level I, Vanmechelen et al. 1997; Badeau 1998), and the remaining 98 studies were performed in the framework of a general forest site classification program in France (Table 1), which started in the 1980s and concerns about a hundred ecological regions, covering 2/3 of the whole territory of France (Fig. 1). For each of these ecological regions, a numerical classification was performed, based on floristic, soil and ecological descriptions of hundreds of sites, to assess 20 to 50 groups of sites for the region, called ‘ecological site types’. For each group of sites, a typical site was chosen and its soil was analysed in the laboratory. Finally, a precise description of all site types and typical sites were provided in a report, called ‘catalogue of forest sites’ (Brêthes 1989). The 4282 typical sites of all 98 reports available in France were integrated into EcoPlant. Complete and accurate bibliographic references of these studies are also stored in the database, accompanied by information on the different authors involved in each study.

Table 1. Features of EcoPlant. Data sources

Studies

Floristic relevés

Catalogues of forest sites Ph.D. dissertations Forest networks Total

98 20 2 120

4 282 1 507 643 6 432

Soil profile descriptions 3 312 736 642 4 690

Soil sample analyses 2 396 1 497 642 4 535

10 m-precision in site location (GPS) 110 562 0 672

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- EcoPlant: A forest site database -

The 120 studies currently stored in EcoPlant contain 6432 complete phyto-ecological relevés scattered all over the territory of France, which represent Mediterranean, oceanic and semi-continental colline and mountainous forest ecosystems (Table 1, Fig. 1). From podzols to calcareous soils and rankers to hydromorphic soils, the range of soil types and characteristics covers a great majority of European soil conditions. The wide range of elevation (from 0 to more than 2000 m) and climatic conditions (from 4 to 18 °C annual mean temperature and from 500 to 2000 mm annual precipitation) is also representative of climatic conditions in a vast European area. 2154 taxa stored with unified coherent nomenclature The Code Informatisé de la Flore de France (CIFF; Brisse & Kerguélen 1994) for vascular plant species, and the checklist of European bryophytes based on the works of Corley & Crundwell (1981) and Grolle (1983), were adopted in EcoPlant as sources for species names. Synonyms allow automatic updates of plant names, and correspondence between CIFF and Flora Europaea (Tutin et al. 2001) systems has been achieved. In total, 2154 different taxa were found in the 6432 relevés; probably this is the vast majority of vascular species present in French forests. Among these taxa, only 364 are present in more than 1 % of all relevés. Fagus sylvatica, Quercus petraea, Carpinus betulus, Q. robur, Corylus avellana and Crataegus monogyna are the most frequent tree and shrub species, present in more than 20% of the relevés. Rubus fruticosus agg., Hedera helix, Lonicera periclymenum, Pteridium aquilinum and Deschampsia flexuosa are the most frequent species in the herbaceous stratum, Polytrichum formosum, Eurhynchium striatum and Thuidium tamariscinum in the moss stratum.

Conclusions and perspectives EcoPlant contains thousands of complete lists of species, scattered over a large national territory. Careful attention to data management and quality control had to be paid at each step of its construction, leading to a low rate of error. The database has been designed to be compatible with the main other phytosociological and pedological databases. It can also easily be linked with species life traits or attributes databases, which could integrate new ecological indicator values based on real measurements. The spatially and temporally referenced information present in EcoPlant, with both climatic and resource variables, is of fundamental importance to supplement current species-climate studies, for predictive geographical modelling of plant species or communities.

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Acknowledgements. The authors wish to thank two providers of forest network data: Vincent Badeau, for data of the European Forest Condition Survey and Erwin Ulrich, for the RENECOFOR network. EcoPlant was financed with research grants from the French Institute of Forestry, Agricultural and Environmental Engineering (ENGREF), the French Ministry of Agriculture (DERF) and the Agency for the Environment and Energy Management (ADEME).

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Received 7 January 2005; Accepted 3 February 2005. Co-ordinating Editor: J.B. Wilson.