Work package no 1: Spatial distribution of vegetation and soils in the experimental sites

The large-scale mapping of vegetation and soils will be the basis for scaling up the results of the detailed ecosystem analyses to the landscape level. Furthermore the maps will serve for calibrating and verifying the remote sensing data (see work package no 11). The mapping of vegetation and soil will be done with the aid of a satellite navigation system, which permits the precise recording of coordinates of the mapped area. In addition altitude, inclination, exposure and topography will be recorded for each of the coordinates in a GIS-compatible way (see work package no 10).

	For phytosociological investigations the relevé method will be used. The syntaxonomical classification will be made with the classification programme Twinspan and the ordination programme Decorana. A further ecological characterization will be made on the basis of the ecological indicator values and an estimation of total vegetation cover.
	For the mapping and characterization of soils besides soil type classification complete profile descriptions will be made in the field including information on geology, soil water regime, soil horizon depths, soil moisture, soil colour, consistency, soil texture, amount and type of humus, pH, soil structure, maculation, concretation, rooting density.

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