sPlotOpen – An environmentally balanced, open‐access, global dataset of vegetation plots
Authors: Sabatini Francesco Maria , Lenoir Jonathan , Hattab Tarek , Arnst Elise Aimee , Chytrý Milan , Dengler Jürgen , De Ruffray Patrice , Hennekens Stephan M. , Jandt Ute , Jansen Florian , Jiménez‐Alfaro Borja , Kattge Jens , Levesley Aurora , Pillar Valério D. , Purschke Oliver , Sandel Brody , Sultana Fahmida , Aavik Tsipe , Aćić Svetlana , Acosta Alicia T. R. , Agrillo Emiliano , Alvarez Miguel , Apostolova Iva , Arfin Khan Mohammed A. S. , Arroyo Luzmila , Attorre Fabio , Aubin Isabelle , Banerjee Arindam , Bauters Marijn , Bergeron Yves , Bergmeier Erwin , Biurrun Idoia , Bjorkman Anne D. , Bonari Gianmaria , Bondareva Viktoria , Brunet Jörg , Čarni Andraž , Casella Laura , Cayuela Luis , Černý Tomáš , Chepinoga Victor , Csiky János , Ćušterevska Renata , De Bie Els , de Gasper André Luis , De Sanctis Michele , Dimopoulos Panayotis , Dolezal Jiri , Dziuba Tetiana , El‐Sheikh Mohamed Abd El‐Rouf Mousa , Enquist Brian , Ewald Jörg , Fazayeli Farideh , Field Richard , Finckh Manfred , Gachet Sophie , Galán‐de‐Mera Antonio , Garbolino Emmanuel , Gholizadeh Hamid , Giorgis Melisa , Golub Valentin , Alsos Inger Greve , Grytnes John‐Arvid , Guerin Gregory Richard , Gutiérrez Alvaro G. , Haider Sylvia , Hatim Mohamed Z. , Hérault Bruno , Hinojos Mendoza Guillermo , Hölzel Norbert , Homeier Jürgen , Hubau Wannes , Indreica Adrian , Janssen John A. M. , Jedrzejek Birgit , Jentsch Anke , Jürgens Norbert , Kącki Zygmunt , Kapfer Jutta , Karger Dirk Nikolaus , Kavgacı Ali , Kearsley Elizabeth , Kessler Michael , Khanina Larisa , Killeen Timothy , Korolyuk Andrey , Kreft Holger , Kühl Hjalmar S. , Kuzemko Anna , Landucci Flavia , Lengyel Attila , Lens Frederic , Lingner Débora Vanessa , Liu Hongyan , Lysenko Tatiana , Mahecha Miguel D. , Marcenò Corrado , Martynenko Vasiliy , Moeslund Jesper Erenskjold , Monteagudo Mendoza Abel , Mucina Ladislav , Müller Jonas V. , Munzinger Jérôme , Naqinezhad Alireza , Noroozi Jalil , Nowak Arkadiusz , Onyshchenko Viktor , Overbeck Gerhard E. , Pärtel Meelis , Pauchard Aníbal , Peet Robert K. , Peñuelas Josep , Pérez‐Haase Aaron , Peterka Tomáš , Petřík Petr , Peyre Gwendolyn , Phillips Oliver L. , Prokhorov Vadim , Rašomavičius Valerijus , Revermann Rasmus , Rivas‐Torres Gonzalo , Rodwell John S. , Ruprecht Eszter , Rūsiņa Solvita , Samimi Cyrus , Schmidt Marco , Schrodt Franziska , Shan Hanhuai , Shirokikh Pavel , Šibík Jozef , Šilc Urban , Sklenář Petr , Škvorc Željko , Sparrow Ben , Sperandii Marta Gaia , Stančić Zvjezdana , Svenning Jens‐Christian , Tang Zhiyao , Tang Cindy Q. , Tsiripidis Ioannis , Vanselow Kim André , Vásquez Martínez Rodolfo , Vassilev Kiril , Vélez‐Martin Eduardo , Venanzoni Roberto , Vibrans Alexander Christian , Violle Cyrille , Virtanen Risto , von Wehrden Henrik , Wagner Viktoria , Walker Donald A. , Waller Donald M. , Wang Hua‐Feng , Wesche Karsten , Whitfeld Timothy J. S. , Willner Wolfgang , Wiser Susan K. , Wohlgemuth Thomas , Yamalov Sergey , Zobel Martin , Bruelheide Helge 
Published: June 2021

Motivation

Assessing biodiversity status and trends in plant communities is critical for understanding, quantifying and predicting the effects of global change on ecosystems. Vegetation plots record the occurrence or abundance of all plant species co‐occurring within delimited local areas. This allows species absences to be inferred, information seldom provided by existing global plant datasets. Although many vegetation plots have been recorded, most are not available to the global research community. A recent initiative, called ‘sPlot’, compiled the first global vegetation plot database, and continues to grow and curate it. The sPlot database, however, is extremely unbalanced spatially and environmentally, and is not open‐access. Here, we address both these issues by (a) resampling the vegetation plots using several environmental variables as sampling strata and (b) securing permission from data holders of 105 local‐to‐regional datasets to openly release data. We thus present sPlotOpen, the largest open‐access dataset of vegetation plots ever released. sPlotOpen can be used to explore global diversity at the plant community level, as ground truth data in remote sensing applications, or as a baseline for biodiversity monitoring.

Main types of variable contained

Vegetation plots (n = 95,104) recording cover or abundance of naturally co‐occurring vascular plant species within delimited areas. sPlotOpen contains three partially overlapping resampled datasets (c. 50,000 plots each), to be used as replicates in global analyses. Besides geographical location, date, plot size, biome, elevation, slope, aspect, vegetation type, naturalness, coverage of various vegetation layers, and source dataset, plot‐level data also include community‐weighted means and variances of 18 plant functional traits from the TRY Plant Trait Database.

Spatial location and grain

Global, 0.01–40,000 m².

Time period and grain

1888–2015, recording dates.

Major taxa and level of measurement

42,677 vascular plant taxa, plot‐level records.

Software format

Three main matrices (.csv), relationally linked.