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 in the JUICE program (Tichý 2002; https://www.sci.muni.cz/botany/juice/), TURBOVEG 3 program (Hennekens 2015) and an R script developed by H. Bruelheide et al. (submitted). 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-2020-06-08.txt is a file containing the script for classification of vegetation plots by EUNIS-ESy. This version contains tested definitions for the revised classification Coastal, Wetland, Grassland, Shrubland, Forest 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 is 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 contains 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. Habitat-Factsheets.pdf contains a summary of data on EUNIS Coastal, Wetland, Grassland, Shrubland, Forest 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 v2020-05-19. 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. 2.2. Characteristic-species-combinations.xlsx includes the database of habitats' characteristic species combinations in a spreadsheet format. 2.3. Data-sources.pdf contains a list of data sources used to produce the distribution maps and characteristic species combinations. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recommended citation of this version of the EUNIS-ESy expert system Chytrý et al. (2020), version 2020-06-08 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.12519The expert system and related reports were produced within a contract from the European Environment Agency to Wageningen Environmental Research and Masaryk University. The opinions expressed are those of the contractor and do not represent the Agency's official position. EVA data management and preparation of the publication of the EUNIS-ESy expert system and its outputs were supported by the Czech Science Foundation (project no. 19-28491X to MC, LT, IK, TP, CM, JDa, MH, PN, DZ, GB, AJ, AKu, ZL and DV). IB and JAC were supported by the Basque Government (project no. T936-16). TB, ET, and LK were supported by the Ministry of Science and Higher Education of the Russian Federation (TB and ET project no. AAAA-A18-118052590019-7; LK project no. AAAA-A19-119012490096-2)