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Department of Biology
Institute of Plant Science and Microbiology
    Division BEE  >  Biodiversity & Ecology  >  Vol.4 >  Article 42

Biodiversity & Ecology

Short Database Report    Open Access 

SWEA-Dataveg – vegetation of small wetlands in East Africa


Miguel Alvarez*, Bodo Maria Möseler, Matthias Josko, Mathias Becker, Matthias Langensiepen, Gunter Menz, Beate Böhme, Helida Oyieke, Collins Handa, Hellen Kamiri, Salome Misana, Emiliana Mwita, Mogha Neema & Nomé Sakané

Article first published online: 24 September 2012

DOI: 10.7809/b-e.00092

*Corresponding author contact: malvarez@uni-bonn.de

Biodiversity & Ecology  (Biodivers. Ecol.)

Special Volume: Vegetation databases for the 21st century,
edited by Jürgen Dengler, Jens Oldeland, Florian Jansen, Milan Chytrý, Jörg Ewald, Manfred Finckh, Falko Glöckler, Gabriela Lopez-Gonzalez, Robert K. Peet & Joop H.J. Schaminée
Volume 4, pages 294–295, Sep 12
  PDF  (247 kB)

Keywords: Aquatic plant; bio-indicator; land use; resilience; wetland ecology.

English

Abstract: SWEA (agricultural use and vulnerability of small wetlands in East Africa) is a multidisciplinary project which task is to evaluate the effects of land use on the ecological and socio-economical functions of small wetlands in Kenya and Tanzania. In order to allow the availability of the collected data for further studies we stored them into SWEA-Dataveg (GIVD ID AF-00-006), a database stored in Microsoft Access (mdb-format). Because this project is dealing not only with vegetation science but also with geography, soil science, hydrology and socio-economy, the database also contains information related to these research fields. Additionally, some functional traits of the plant species occurring in the relevés are included in the species list. The sampling areas are concentrated in four localities, two of them in Kenya (Karatina and Rumuruti) and two in Tanzania (Malinda and Lukozi). The vegetation ecology group is dealing in the project with the classification of the vegetation according to species composition, the correlation of plant communities with environmental factors and land uses, and the survey of potential indicator species for the determination of the resilience of wetlands. Once finished the storage, we are considering an adaptation of SWEA-Dataveg into a TURBOVEG-format as well as its extension to further projects (e.g. SWEA phase II) and relevés collected from publications.

Suggested citation:
Alvarez, M., Möseler, B.M., Josko, M., Becker, M., Langensiepen, M., Menz, G., Böhme, B., Oyieke, H., Handa, C., Kamiri, H., Misana, S., Mwita, E., Neema, M., Sakané, N. (2012): SWEA-Dataveg – vegetation of small wetlands in East Africa. – In: Dengler, J., Oldeland, J., Jansen, F., Chytrý, M., Ewald, J., Finckh, M., Glöckler, F., Lopez-Gonzalez, G., Peet, R.K., Schaminée, J.H.J. [Eds.]: Vegetation databases for the 21st century. – Biodiversity & Ecology 4: 294–295. DOI: 10.7809/b-e.00092.