Observer-driven pseudoturnover in vegetation surveys

Description

This dataset was used to analyze the inter-observer error (i.e. pseudoturnover) in vegetation surveys for the publication Boch S, Küchler H, Küchler M, Bedolla A, Ecker KT, Graf UH, Moser T, Holderegger R, Bergamini A (2022) Observer-driven pseudoturnover in vegetation monitoring is context dependent but does not affect ecological inference. Applied Vegetation Science. In the framework of the project "Monitoring the effectiveness of habitat conservation in Switzerland", we double-surveyed a total of 224 plots that were marked once in the field and then sampled by two observers independently on the same day. Both observers conducted full vegetation surveys, recording all vascular plant species, their cover, and additional plot information. We then calculated mean ecological indicator values and pseudoturnover. The excel file contains two sheets:

1. Raw species lists of the 224 plots conducted by two different observers. Woody species are distinguished in three layers: H (herb layer; woody species <0.5 m in height), S (shrub layer; woody species 0.5–3 m in height) and T (tree layer; woody species >3 m in height). "cf." indicates uncertain identification, "aggr." indicates that the plant was identified only to the aggregate level. Cover was estimated for each species using a modified Braun-Blanquet scale (r ≙ <0.1%, + ≙ 0.1% to <1%, 1 ≙ 1% to <5%, 2 ≙ 5% to <25%, 3 ≙ 25% to <50%, 4 ≙ 50% to <75%, 5 ≙ 75% to <100%).
2. File used for the linear mixed effects model.