The Polish Vegetation Database: structure, resources and development

The phytosociological database Polish Vegetation Database collects relevés of all vegetation types in Poland. The database was established in 2007 and is located at Department of Biodiversity and Plant Cover Protection, University of Wrocław (http://synbiot.uni.wroc.pl). On March 2012, the database included 40000 relevés collected between 1927 and 2011. Most of relevés was taken from published papers and represents almost all types of habitats of Poland. Large groups of relevés represent meadows and pastures (Molinio-Arrhnehteretrea), broadleaf forests (Querco-Fagetea), arable land communities (Stellarietea), coniferous forests (Vaccinio-Piceetea) and eutrophic reed communities (Phragmitetea). In comparison to other countries in Central Europe, Polish Vegetation Database currently belongs to medium-sized databases, with full functionality and accessibility. The present article describes its development, basic operational information and how it can be used in analysis of vegetation in Poland.