Swedish National Forest Inventory: Presence-absence vegetation data (1995-current)

Data Records

The data in this sampling event resource has been published as a Darwin Core Archive (DwC-A), which is a standardized format for sharing biodiversity data as a set of one or more data tables. The core data table contains 35,238 records.

2 extension data tables also exist. An extension record supplies extra information about a core record. The number of records in each extension data table is illustrated below.

This IPT archives the data and thus serves as the data repository. The data and resource metadata are available for download in the downloads section. The versions table lists other versions of the resource that have been made publicly available and allows tracking changes made to the resource over time.

Versions

The table below shows only published versions of the resource that are publicly accessible.

Rights

Researchers should respect the following rights statement:

The publisher and rights holder of this work is Swedish National Forest Inventory, Department of Forest Resource Management, SLU. To the extent possible under law, the publisher has waived all rights to these data and has dedicated them to the Public Domain (CC0 1.0). Users may copy, modify, distribute and use the work, including for commercial purposes, without restriction.

GBIF Registration

This resource has been registered with GBIF, and assigned the following GBIF UUID: d59ccafb-251e-46cf-9319-37b58d88e7c5.  Swedish National Forest Inventory, Department of Forest Resource Management, SLU publishes this resource, and is itself registered in GBIF as a data publisher endorsed by GBIF Sweden.

Keywords

sampling event; forest land; mires; rock surface; subalpine woodland; pasture land; alpine areas; survey; standardised inventory; forest statistics; stratified sampling; presence; absence; field layer; bottom layer; coverage; Samplingevent

Contacts

Geographic Coverage

Data is collected across the whole of Sweden.

Taxonomic Coverage

Approximately 240 species or species groups of vascular plants, lichen and mosses occurring in the Swedish landscape.

Temporal Coverage

Project Data

The Swedish National Forest Inventory has the task of describing the state and changes in Sweden's forests. The information collected is used, for example, as a basis for forestry, energy and environmental policy in Sweden. Data from the Swedish National Forest Inventory is part of Sweden's official statistics. At the heart of the Swedish National Forest Inventory is the annual inventory which is undertaken by ca 50 field workers during the snow free period. Every year an inventory is carried out on ca 12 000 sample plots with measurements collected from ca 95 000 trees and a large range of other variables describing the stand, site and history of the sample plot.

The personnel involved in the project:

Sampling Methods

The Swedish National Forest Inventory sample plots are circular and are, for practical reasons, grouped into clusters (tracts). The tracts are square or rectangular in shape and are of different dimensions in different parts of the country. The density of tracts and the number of sample plots per tract also varies among different parts of the country, with a higher sample density in southern Sweden. Two thirds of the sample consist of permanent tracts and one third are temporary tracts. Sampling is done annually for a subsample of tracts. The permanent tracts are revisited every 5th year and the temporary tracts are only visited once. The true coordinates of the permanent sample plots are protected. The coordinates in this dataset are generalized (randomly obfuscated with 200-1000 m). Vegetation survey on permanent field plots: This dataset consists of presence/absence data for 242 species/species groups (18 ground layer species, 187 field layer species and 37 tree/shrub layer species). Registration of coverage is performed in a separate inventory for 71 species/species groups including “no coverage” (this data is not included in this dataset). The vegetation inventory is undertaken every 10th year on permanent plots. The plot can be divided into smaller parts if it’s crossed by edges between different types of land use classes or forest stand categories. The sample population for presence/absence registration is all forest land (landuse classes Productive forest land, Mires, Rock surface, Subalpine woodland, Pasture land and, since year 2016, Alpine areas). The sample size (number of permanent sample plots where presence/absence registrations are performed) was reduced by 50% from year 2018 and onwards. This dataset consists of the reduced sample. The supplement data from the discontinued sample for the period 1995-2017 is available in the related dataset 'Swedish National Forest Inventory: Presence-absence vegetation data (1995-2017, supplement sample)'. Descriptions of the survey scheme can be found on https://www.slu.se/centrumbildningar-och-projekt/riksskogstaxeringen/om-riksskogstaxeringen/om-inventeringen/ (detailed information available in Swedish only).

Method step description:

1. Sample plots are visited by qualified field personal who survey a number of forest parameters and sample vegetation by recording presence/absence for a specified list of species of vascular plants, mosses and lichens. Species that were detected are recorded as present, species that were not detected are recorded as 'absent'. Coverage is record for a subset of the species. The circular samling plot (radius=5.64 m) can be divided into smaller parts if it is crossed by edges between different types of land use classes or forest stand categories. The sample population for presence/absence registration is all forest land (landuse classes Productive forest land, Mires, Rock surface, Subalpine woodland, Pasture land and, since year 2016, Alpine areas).

Collection Data

Bibliographic Citations

1. Fridman J., Holm S., Nilsson M., Nilsson P., Ringvall A. H., Ståhl G. (2014). Adapting National Forest Inventories to changing requirements the case of the Swedish National Forest Inventory at the turn of the 20th century. Silva Fennica vol. 48 no. 3 article id 1095. http://dx.doi.org/10.14214/sf.1095

Additional Metadata