danube: Danube Meadow Dataset (Ellenberg)

In zdealveindy/twinspanR: TWo-way INdicator SPecies ANalysis (and its modified version) in R

Description

Vegetation samples of meadow communities, sampled in the wide surrounding of Danube river valley in southern Germany (Ellenberg 1956).

Usage

data (danube)

Format

danube is a structured list with these items:

• spe Compositional matrix of all species (sample x species, % biomass)

• env environmental (header) variables, including calculated mean Ellenberg indicator values

• ell list of species Ellenberg indicator values for all species (species x indicator values, according to Ellenberg et al. 1992)

Details

Dataset represents an example of phytocoenological data of meadow communities, sampled along the gradient of increased biomass of Arrhenatherum elatius. Biomass (not cover) of each species was estimated, using the approach of Knapp (1929) - as a percentage proportion of total biomass, estimated for the whole plot (estimations were checked against real weightings of fresh biomass in the field). Therefore, sum of species values in each plot are close to 100 percent; the percentage proportion of openings within the plots were also recorded, together with plot area and hay yield (see Environmental data).

The original table contains 25 plots (10-25 m2) and 94 species. In the original table, samples are sorted along increasing dominance of Arrhenatherum elatius. In Mueller-Dombois & Ellenberg (1974), three vegetation types are distinguished using manual table sorting (for details see Environmental variables).

This dataset has been used in numerous studies to demonstrate functionality of various methods of analysing community data. Hill (1979) used it as an example dataset for TWINSPAN, Hill & Gauch (1980) used it to demonstrate DCA.

Environmental variables include:

• area Releve area [m2]

• openings Openings in vegetation [% area]

• yield Hay yield [kgx100/ha]

• veg.type Vegetation type (A, B, C or D, see details below)

• Light, Temp, Cont, Moist, React, Nutr Mean Ellenberg indicator values for light, temperature, continentality, moisture, soil reaction and nutrients (calculated as mean of species indicator values not weighted by species biomass)

Vegetation types (variable danube$env$veg.type) are according to Table 9.7 in Mueller-Dombois & Ellenberg (1974). The codes A, B, C and D stands for:

• A - Bromus-Arrhenatherum community

• B - Geum-Arrhenatherum community

• C - Cirsium-Arrhenatherum community

• D - releve 19, which has been deleted from the original Ellenberg's table, since its composition is quite different (contains Arrhenatherum elatius and Festuca pratensis, but other dominant species are Phalaris arundinacea and Glyceria fluitans)

Author(s)

Ellenberg (1956), Mueller-Dombois & Ellenberg (1974). The dataset could be downloaded from http://www.ceh.ac.uk/products/software/cehsoftware-decoranatwinspan.htm as MEADOW.CRN. Data used here come from R package dave written by Otto Wildi (dataset mveg) with source citing also Mueller-Dombois & Ellenberg (1974). Species names have been changed from abbreviations used in dave into full names according to the Mueller-Dombois & Ellenberg (1974).

References

Ellenberg H. (1956): Aufgaben und Methoden in der Vegetationskunde. In: H. Walter, Einfuhrung in die Phytologie IV/1, Stuttgart.

Ellenberg H., Weber H.E., Dull R., Wirth V., Werner W. & Paulissen D. (1992): Zeigerwerte von Pflanzen in Mitteleuropa. Scripta Geobotanica, 18: 1-248.

Hill M.O. (1979): TWINSPAN: A FORTRAN Program for Arranging Multivariate Data in an Ordered Two-way Table by Classification of the Individuals and Attributes. Cornell University, Ithaca, NY.

Hill M.O. & Gauch H.G. (1980): Detrended correspondence analysis: An improved ordination technique. Vegetatio, 42: 47-58.

Mueller-Dombois D. & Ellenberg H. (1974): Aims and Methods of Vegetation Ecology. John Wiley & Sons, New York, Chichester, Brisbane, Toronto.

zdealveindy/twinspanR documentation built on March 13, 2021, 8:35 a.m.