The Vegetation Database of Montenegro

The Vegetation Database of Montenegro (http://www.givd.info/ID/EU-ME-001) is a national database established in 2019 at the Faculty of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (University of Montenegro) in Podgorica. The database was initiated through the work on PhD thesis of the candidate MSc Milica Stanišić-Vujačić with support of supevisors prof. dr Danijela Stešević and dr Urban Šilc. A digitized collection of vegetation relevés comprises different vegetation types which have been sampled on the territory of Montenegro. So far, 3293 published (50.9%) and unpublished (49.1%) vegetation plots are stored in the Vegetation Database of Montenegro. In total, it contains 2733 taxa (vascular plants, mosses, lichens, algae), while 2612 taxa refer to vascular plants. The largest amount of vegetation data in the field was collected during two periods: from 1960 to 1969 and after the year 2010. The oldest relevé dates from 1940 (Muravjov, the vegetation of Bjelasica mountain). The majority of vegetation plots (63.4%) have a precise date of sampling. All plots are georeferenced; for most of the relevés coordinates were determined a posteriori, because only 35% relevés have originally published coordinates. Range of plot size is from 0.12 m² to 7000 m², while most of the relevés have plot size from 26 to 100 m². For 8.74% of relevés the data on plot size is missing. More than half of vegetation plots were sampled in sub-mountain and mountain areas. Highest number of relevés were originally classified to forest vegetation types (classes Quercetea pubescentis and Carpino-Fagetea sylvaticae) and grasslands (Molinio-Arrhenatheretea and Festuco-Brometea).  The database is part of the European Vegetation Archive (EVA, http://euroveg.org/eva-database-participating-database) and has a semi-restricted access mode.