RanVegDunes - A random plot database of Italian coastal dunes

We introduce RanVegDunes (GIVD ID EU-IT-020), the first Italian database gathering standardized, randomly- sampled vegetation data in coastal dune environments. RanVegDunes currently consists of 979 original georeferenced relevés randomly collected over about 160 km of Holocenic dune systems of central Italy between 2002 and 2015. Plots were located in five Italian administrative regions (Lazio, Campania, Abruzzo, Molise and Puglia), where sandy vegetation was randomly recorded in standardized 4-m2plots across the whole coastal zonation, thus including upper beach, embryo dunes, shifting dunes, dune grasslands, wooded dunes and Mediterranean forests. Each plot was georeferenced with a high level of accuracy using a GPS unit. For each plot, a list of vascular plant species based on updated nomenclature was compiled, and an estimate of abundance was calculated for each species using a percentage cover scale ranging from 1 to 10 (1 = 1-10%; 2 = 10-20%; ...; 10 = 90-100%). Two habitat classification systems were used for the description of collected plots: specifically, each vegetation plot was classified according to the Interpretation Manual of the 92/43/EEC Habitats Directive and also to the hierarchical structure of the EUNIS habitat classification. Currently, RanVegDunes includes vegetation plots belonging to nine EU Habitats (1210, 2110, 2120, 2210, 2230, 2250, 2260, 2270, 9340), which in turn correspond to five EUNIS Habitats (B1.1, B1.3, B1.4, B1.6, B1.7). RanVegDunes is a powerful tool for a variety of studies addressing topics such as temporal trends in coastal vegetation, ecological modeling, re-visitation studies, spatio-temporal patterns of invasion and will therefore greatly benefit from further collection of data.