Corresponding author: Iris de Ronde ( iris.deronde@wur.nl ) Academic editor: Florian Jansen
© 2020 Iris de Ronde, Rense Haveman, Anja van der Berg, Tom van Heusden.
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Citation:
de Ronde I, Haveman R, van der Berg A, van Heusden T (2020) DUMIRA – a management related vegetation plot database of Dutch military ranges. Vegetation Classification and Survey 1: 155-161. https://doi.org/10.3897/VCS/2020/59869
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In this paper we describe the historical background and contents of the DUMIRA vegetation plot database (GIVD-code EU-NL-003). It contains 13,046 relevés, collected between 1995 and 2018 at military ranges in the Netherlands, and it is updated regularly with new data. Historical circumstances led to the placement of military ranges at the most nutrient poor, dry, sandy soils, and as a result, the database is built up mainly by plots of Calluno-Ulicetea and Nardetea heathlands, Koelerio-Corynephoretea grasslands, and Quercetea robori-petraeae woodlands. These classes account for more than 50% of the database. Coastal communities (e.g. from the Juncetea maritimae and the Therosalicornietea) and scrubs (e.g. the Lonicero-Rubetea plicati and Salicetea arenariae) are other important sources. Notably, throughout the database, Rubus species are identified to species level. Although the DUMIRA database was initially used for management related vegetation mapping projects, the data gave rise to several more scientific studies and papers.
Taxonomic reference:
Syntaxonomic reference:
Abbreviations: DUMIRA = Vegetation plot database of Dutch Military Ranges; GIVD = Global Index of Vegetation-plot Databases; MoD = Ministry of Defence.
Coastal vegetation, database, DUMIRA, grassland, heathland, management, military ranges, Netherlands, relevé, Rubus, scrub, TURBOVEG
Vegetation research has a long tradition in the Netherlands, as was described in the long database report of The Dutch National Vegetation Database (
Most Dutch military areas were acquired between 1850 and 1920, when, mainly as a result of ongoing mechanisation and the development of larger and heavier equipment, the need for larger areas for field exercises for the Dutch army increased. For obvious reasons, the most suitable areas were extensive and uncultivated common lands, consisting mainly of heath- and woodlands, and open dune areas, which coincidentally became available at that time (
In the nineteen-seventies, growing environmental awareness led to the sentiment that the army, with its intensified exercises, was partly responsible for the decline of species and ecosystems. This awareness eventually led to a more leading role of the national government in environmental and nature conservational policy. In 1994, a collaboration between the former Ministry of Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) resulted in a project aiming at the survey of nature in military areas (
The basis for the vegetation monitoring is formed by the sequential mapping of the vegetation, in scale ranging mostly from 1:2,500 to 1:10,000. The mapped vegetation types are based on a set of local vegetation plot data (relevés). Practically from the beginning of the project, the relevé data is stored in a TURBOVEG-database (
As of November 2020, the vegetation plot database of Dutch Military Ranges (DUMIRA, registered in the GIVD as EU-NL-003) consists of 13,046 relevés, all from military areas in the Netherlands (Figure
As pointed out in the introduction, the military areas are not a reflection of the average Dutch landscape and its corresponding vegetation. Most training areas are found on dry, nutrient poor, sandy soils, which were not suitable for agriculture (see Figure
Not included in the 5 largest classes in the database are the coastal communities of the Therosalicornietea Tx. 1958, Juncetea maritimi Br.-Bl. & Tx. 1952, Honckenyo-Elymetea arenarii Tx. 1966 (sub nomine Ammophiletea Br.-Bl et Tx. ex Westhoff et al. 1946), Saginetea maritimae Westhoff et al. 1962 and Caricion viridulo-trinervis Julve ex Hájek & Mucina 2015, but summarised these classes are represented with 1459 relevés. The majority of these relevés originate from two large training areas at the Wadden islands of Texel and Vlieland, located in highly dynamic young coastal landscapes. Another key characteristic of the DUMIRA database is the attention paid to shrub communities of the Salicetea arenariae Weber 1999, Lonicero-Rubetea plicati Haveman et al. 1999, Rhamno-Prunetea Rivas Goday & Borja Carbonell ex Tüxen1952, and Franguletea Doing ex Westhoff 1969 (1294 relevés). Associated with this, but not limited to the scrub communities, Rubus apomicts are named at species level in the relevés; we think this is a unique feature of the DUMIRA database in comparison to most other vegetation databases. In the DUMIRA database, 1797 relevés contain 96 brambles species from Rubus subgen. Rubus; Rubus plicatus (n = 911) and Rubus gratus (n = 713) are the most frequently recorded species, again affirming the poor nutrient status of most soils in Dutch military areas.
Number of relevés in the DUMIRA vegetation plot database for the five most sampled vegetation classes in the database per alliance. Dark grey bars represent the number of relevés assigned to the given alliance, light grey bars (n.c.= not classified) could not be assigned to one of the alliances.
From 1995 onward, vegetation maps are made of more than 60 military areas, ranging from a few to several thousand hectares, and some of these areas have been mapped for the third time already. Most of the maps are published as internal reports, but they are also made available for external organisations (mostly the provincial administration) for the monitoring of the area and quality of Natura 2000 habitats, and the article 17 reporting to the EU. The DUMIRA database has further been the basis for many broad to very specialised studies, mostly published as internal reports, e.g. large overviews concerning the contribution of the MoD areas to the nature in the Netherlands, recommendations on the management of airfield grasslands, the habitat requirements of endangered species in Natura 2000 areas, and a landscape ecological analysis of the large military range at the Wadden Island of Texel.
Although the DUMIRA database has a very practical basis, with its main use in the daily mapping practise of military ranges, the data also gave rise to papers on a wide range of subjects, some of which we mention here. One category of published papers is dealing with rare species or species of special (nature conservation) interest, like Mibora minima (
Occasionally, the data in the DUMIRA database is used to describe the habitat of rare animal species in the Netherlands. An example is given by the description of the species composition of the plant communities at the Oldebroekse Heide, a large heathland remnant harbouring the westernmost population of Gampsocleis glabra (Orthoptera) in Europe (
The DUMIRA database is an active database which is complemented regularly with new relevés from military areas. As before, most relevés will be collected for mapping purposes, but more specific studies will probably be carried out. As is shown in the above, the database was built in a period of 25 years in a project aiming at subsequent vegetation mapping of the military ranges in the Netherlands. The first goal has never been the scientific study of the synsystematics of one or more biomes, formations or classes, but the database merely grew as a by-product of the mapping of the vegetation, in service of practical conservation questions. Comprising over 13,000 relevés, it has shown to be of important value however, even for more (descriptive) scientific questions. Although a rather recent branch on the phytosociological tree, large databases can contribute to our understanding of the vegetation, especially of large scale patterns (e.g.
I.R. and R.H. conceived the idea and outline of the text, I.R. wrote the first concept. R.H. and I.R. edited several text versions and all authors checked and improved the final concept of the manuscript. All authors contributed to the database.
We express our gratitude to Nathan Churm (Wyverstone, UK) for the linguistic proof-reading of the manuscript.