Since 2001 the German Working Group on Vegetation Databases is dedicated to the development of phytosociological databases. In the face of rampant biodiversity loss, the care for native species and the restoration of communities and ecosystem functions has become an important tool for nature conservation. Interfering with ecological complexity, restoration has to be informed by profound knowledge of species and their interactions in communities. To anticipate actionism, its success has to be carefully measured. Vegetation databases must play a crucial role in the planning, monitoring and readjustment of restoration measures. As comprehensive archives of species co-occurrence vegetation databases allow to define target species and forecast interactions with their competitors and facilitators. For given target species, they allow to identify habitats and communities most suited for re-establishment. Monitoring data stored in databases are readily accessible to statistical analysis of effects and trajectories. The German working group on vegetation databases has therefore chosen ecological restoration as the focal topic of its 13th workshop to be held at the Federal Institute of Hydrology (BFG) in Koblenz from 24 - 26 February 2014. ... [Information of the supplier]
Vegetation databases have proven an irreplaceable medium to store and maintain the vast volume of data produced by vegetation scientists worldwide. They do not only protect data and the laborious work invested to produce them from getting lost, but also enable scientists to analyse large datasets in order to answer current research questions. A major task of present research is to find underlying ecological, temporal and spatial processes that shape plant communities. In this context, databases can serve as important tools supplementing experimental approaches. Inference of processes requires e.g. linkages to environmental data at adequate temporal and spatial scales and plant functional data, but also advanced statistical methods like path analysis techniques. The next meeting of the German Working Group on Vegetation Databases is dedicated to the role databases are playing in detecting ecological processes from various vegetation-related data. We encourage presentations (talks and posters) focussing on questions and methods with special emphasis on the analysis of vegetation data with respect to underlying ecological processes and cause and effect relationships. Besides, more general contributions on other technical or scientific advances in vegetation databanking are welcome. The workshop will be hosted by the Landscape Ecology Group of the University of Oldenburg from 4th to 6th of March 2015. We will start the workshop by giving an introduction to path analysis and structural equation modelling (Wednesday, 4th of March). These statistical analyses are well suited to identify causal relationships between parameters, test ecological hypotheses for their significance and are able to deal with large datasets. The following two days will we dedicated to talks and posters presenting ecological research questions inferred from vegetation databases. ... [Information of the supplier]
