Abstract

Long-term vegetation plot datasets, including historical data and repeated surveys, are essential tools for detecting and understanding spatial and temporal changes in community diversity, structure, and functioning. Here, we present the central ADRIAtic coastal VEGetation database (AdriaVeg), a georeferenced database comprising 1,000 vegetation plots, both published and unpublished, including re-surveyed and single-survey records, collected between 1985 and 2025 along the sandy coasts of Abruzzo, Molise, and northern Apulia (Italy). The database encompasses the main coastal dune habitats, with shifting dunes representing 42.3% of plots, followed by fixed dunes (29.2%), transitional dunes (20.9%), and salt marshes (7.6%). In total, AdriaVeg includes 301 vascular plant taxa (species and subspecies), of which 286 are native or archaeophytes and 15 are neophytes (86.7% invasive and 13.3% naturalized). In AdriaVeg, each taxon is linked with 21 standardized attributes, including taxonomic classification, vernacular names (Italian and English), alien status and residence time in Italy, chorology for native species and area of origin for alien species, growth habit, life form, growth form, lifespan, European ecological indicator values, and disturbance indicator values. The dataset structure enhances data interoperability and can support comparative ecological research. AdriaVeg provides an open and scalable framework for monitoring coastal dune habitats across protected, unprotected, and restored areas. It offers sound support for the analysis of long-term vegetation dynamics, restoration effectiveness, and changes in species composition and community structure under anthropogenic and climatic pressures.

Keywords

Coastal dune habitats, EUNIS habitats, georeferenced vegetation plots, Natura 2000 habitats, open ecological data, plant traits

Introduction

Coastal ecosystems are biodiversity hotspots, hosting a highly specialized flora and fauna (van der Maarel 2003; Walker et al. 2003; Acosta et al. 2009; Sperandii et al. 2021; de Francesco et al. 2025; Rasino et al. 2026). In addition, they provide a wide range of ecosystem services (Drius et al. 2019), such as water purification and coastal defense (Drius et al. 2013; Rhymes et al. 2015), protection from wind and salt spray (Liquete et al. 2013), climate regulation at both local and global scales (Drius et al. 2016), and recreation and tourism opportunities (Palombo et al. 2013; Mastronardi et al. 2015). However, coastal dunes are recognized as one of the most threatened ecosystems worldwide (Defeo et al. 2009), with the Mediterranean region being particularly vulnerable (Malavasi et al. 2018). The main pressures are related to human activities, including urban expansion (Carranza et al. 2020), agricultural practices (Pontieri et al. 2025), habitat degradation, and pollution (Seitz et al. 2014; de Francesco et al. 2019; Di Febbraro et al. 2021; Marzialetti et al. 2021; Sperandii et al. 2021; Gennai et al. 2022). Furthermore, ongoing climate change is exacerbating these threats through both direct and indirect impacts, such as coastal erosion, sea-level rise, and the expansion of alien and ruderal species (Jones et al. 2013; Prisco et al. 2013; Tozzi et al. 2021; de Francesco et al. 2023).

Understanding vegetation dynamics and spatiotemporal patterns of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning is fundamental for assessing ecosystem resilience under accelerating environmental change (Heberling et al. 2021). Georeferenced, standardized, and well-documented vegetation datasets, enhanced with consistent taxonomic resolution and detailed plant trait information, can contribute to a reliable evaluation of these processes. Such data infrastructures enable not only ecological interpretation but also reproducibility, comparability, and cross-scale integration (Feng et al. 2022).

In this context, vegetation plot databases represent core infrastructures for ecological research, as they allow the quantification of plant diversity patterns and the detection of spatiotemporal changes in community composition, ecology, and structure (Landucci et al. 2012; Knollová et al. 2024).

In Italy, some vegetation databases have been developed for coastal dune systems at regional and national scale (e.g., Acosta et al. 2025), contributing significantly to the documentation of floristic composition and vegetation patterns. However, no existing database integrates long-term vegetation resurveys in shifting, transitional, and fixed dunes, as well as salt marshes, with standardized trait data for the central Adriatic coastal region. In addition, such datasets may provide valuable multitemporal information on these highly dynamic coastal environments, enabling the assessment of global change impacts on their structure and functioning.

In this paper, we present the central ADRIAtic coastal VEGetation database (AdriaVeg), which contains 1,000 published and unpublished georeferenced vegetation plots collected between 1985 and 2025 in the Italian sandy coast of Abruzzo, Molise, and northern Apulia, including both single- and re-surveyed plots. By providing standardized and interoperable vegetation data, complemented by detailed taxonomic, chorological, ecological, and functional plant traits, AdriaVeg represents a robust data infrastructure for long-term ecological research. The dataset supports the ecological monitoring of coastal habitats in protected, unprotected, and restored sites, enabling the assessment of temporal trends, the evaluation of restoration effectiveness, and the analysis of changes in plant community composition, diversity, structure, and functioning over time (Prisco et al. 2021; Tozzi et al. 2022; de Francesco et al. 2023).

Study area

AdriaVeg includes vegetation plots sampled in Abruzzo, Molise, and northern Apulia (Italy), across about 200 km of coastal dunes, encompassing 15 sites of high conservation value, including 9 Natura 2000 sites, 1 Regional Natural Reserve, and 5 non-protected sites.

The study area is characterized by a Mediterranean bioclimate with meso- and thermo-Mediterranean thermo-types and dry and humid ombrotypes (Pesaresi et al. 2014).

Climatic data obtained from two meteorological stations located within the study area, Pescara (42.436975°N, 14.186808°E) and Termoli (42.004294°N, 14.996316°E), for the period 1970–2020 indicate mean annual temperatures of 14.7 °C and 16.7 °C, and mean annual precipitation totals of 702 mm and 361 mm, respectively (de Francesco et al. 2023).

Database structure

The AdriaVeg dataset contains published (Taffetani and Biondi 1989; Stanisci and Conti 1990; Adamoli et al. 1997; Pirone et al. 2001; Taffetani 2011) and unpublished data for a total of 1,000 vegetation plots surveyed in three Adriatic Italian regions (Abruzzo, Molise, and northern Apulia) over a forty-year period, from 1985 to 2025. The historical surveys were conducted using the phytosociological approach (Pignatti 1995); the more recent plots were sampled using a stratified random method based on EU habitat or vegetation maps, with random designs aimed at studying vegetation by habitat (Kapfer et al. 2017). Species cover and abundance values follow the Braun-Blanquet scale (Braun-Blanquet 1964). The phytosociological relevés, representing 17% of the total dataset, range in size from 2 to 200 m², whereas the plots sampled using the stratified random design, accounting for 83% of the dataset, have areas of 4 or 16 m². For plots revisited over time, at least one observer remained the same to minimize potential bias (Vittoz et al. 2007).

AdriaVeg database is harmonized and standardized in terms of species nomenclature and includes 301 vascular plant species and subspecies based on the scientific name according to Flora d’Italia (Portal to the Flora of Italy 2025), and for each taxon 21 attributes are reported. These attributes include information about: i) vernacular name in Italian (Portal to the Flora of Italy 2025) and in English (IPNI 2025; IUCN 2025); ii) taxonomic family (Bartolucci et al. 2024); iii) residence time (Galasso et al. 2024; EASIN 2025) and status (Galasso et al. 2024) of alien species in Italy; iv) chorology for native species (Pignatti 1982); v) origin area for alien species (WFO 2025); vi) plant habit (Chytrý et al. 2024); vii) plant life form (Pignatti et al. 2017); viii) plant growth form (Pignatti et al. 2017); ix) plant lifespan (Chytrý et al. 2024); x) ecological indicator values for Europe (EIVE 1.0) (Dengler et al. 2023); and xi) disturbance indicator values (Midolo et al. 2023).

Taxa are categorized in either native (including strict natives and archaeophytes—allochthonous taxa introduced before 1492) or alien (neophytes, i.e., taxa introduced after 1492) (Galasso et al. 2018, 2024).

The AdriaVeg database was compiled through extensive data collection, rigorous digitization, georeferencing, and structuring. The database is structured to incorporate additional vegetation surveys within the same areas (resurveys), as well as the inclusion of new surveys in other areas. Furthermore, the database is designed to accommodate supplementary information for each recorded taxon.

Database content

The sampled area encompasses eight EUNIS habitat types (Chytrý et al. 2020) and 13 Natura 2000 habitats (Perrino et al. 2013; Prisco et al. 2013; Pirone et al. 2014; Stanisci et al. 2014; Del Vecchio et al. 2015; Tozzi et al. 2022), including embryonic and shifting dunes (EU habitats 1210, 2110, 2120; EUNIS habitats N12, N14), transitional dunes with annual grasslands (EU habitats 2130*, 2230; EUNIS habitat N16), fixed dunes with Mediterranean maquis and pine forests (EU habitats 2250*, 2260, 2270*, 9340; EUNIS habitats N1B, N1G, T21), and salt meadows and marshes (EU habitats 1410, 1420, 1510*, 3170*; EUNIS habitats N1J, MA251) (Table 1).

Table 1.

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For each coastal vegetation zone represented in the AdriaVeg plots, the corresponding EUNIS habitat code and name are reported, together with the code, name, and a brief description of the habitat of Community interest (Acosta and Ercole 2015; Biondi et al. 2009), as well as the number of plots.

Vegetation zone	EUNIS Habitat code and name	EU Habitat code and name	EU Habitat description	Number of plots
Shifting dunes	N12 – Mediterranean and Black Sea sand beach	1210 – Annual vegetation of drift lines	Pioneer vegetation of sandy and slightly gravelly shores, characterized by rapidly growing halo-nitrophilous therophytes.	81
	N 14 – Mediterranean, Macaronesian and Black Sea shifting coastal dune	2110 – Embryonic shifting dunes	Perennial psammophilous plants that allow the first processes of construction of coastal dunes.	234
		2120 – Shifting dunes along the shoreline with Ammophila arenaria (white dunes)	Dunes consolidated by the Calamagrostis arenaria species which allows the deposition of sand and the stabilization of coastal dunes.	101
Transitional dunes	N 16 – Mediterranean and Macaronesian coastal dune grassland (grey dune)	2130* – Fixed coastal dunes with herbaceous vegetation (grey dunes)	Herbaceous plant communities developing on stabilized coastal dunes no longer directly influenced by shoreline processes.	7
Transitional dunes		2230 – Malcolmietalia dune grasslands	Annual-dominated communities developing in interdunal hollows and xeric clearings.	209
Fixed dunes	N1B – Mediterranean and Black Sea coastal dune scrub	2250* – Coastal dunes with Juniperus spp.	Fixed dunes with juniper thickets and shrubs of Mediterranean maquis.	41
	N1B – Mediterranean and Black Sea coastal dune scrub	2260 – Cisto-Lavanduletalia dune sclerophyllous scrubs	Sclerophyllous Mediterranean scrub vegetation of the internal dune areas.	167
	N1G – Mediterranean coniferous coastal dune forest	2270* – Wooded dunes with Pinus pinea and/or Pinus pinaster	Inner, stable dune sector dominated by pine forests—both natural and planted—with a Mediterranean scrub understory.	80
	T21 – Mediterranean evergreen Quercus forest	9340 – Quercus ilex and Quercus rotundifolia forests	Holm oak–dominated forest with a sclerophyllous shrub layer.	4
Salt Marshes	N1J – Mediterranean and Black Sea moist and wet dune slack	1410 – Mediterranean salt meadows (Juncetalia maritimi)	Coastal meadows dominated by rushes or other hygrophilous species that grow in back dune wetlands.	23
	MA251 – Mediterranean upper saltmarsh	1420 – Mediterranean and thermo-Atlantic halophilous scrubs (Sarcocornetiea fruticosi)	Perennial halophytic vegetation of marine saline muds, mainly structured as shrub communities with a Mediterranean–Atlantic chorological range.	27
		1510* – Mediterranean salt steppes (Limonietalia)	Perennial grass-rich communities on soils temporarily permeated by saline water and experiencing pronounced summer drought	19
		3170* – Mediterranean temporary ponds	Ephemeral, very shallow ponds persisting from winter to late spring, supporting a flora dominated by Mediterranean therophytes and geophytes.	7

The majority of plots in the AdriaVeg database are located in shifting dunes (423 plots; 42.3%), followed by fixed dunes (292 plots; 29.2%), and transitional dunes (209 plots; 20.9%). Salt marshes account for the remaining 76 plots (7.6%) and occur exclusively within the SAC IT7222216 Foce Biferno–Litorale di Campomarino (Fig. 1).

Figure 1.

Localization of sampling sites and visualization of the number of surveyed plots along the dune vegetation zonation. The size of the circles is proportional to the total number of plots, and the slices represent the number of surveys in each zone along the dune gradient. Site numbers refer to sampling locations ordered from north to south, and colors indicate different vegetation zones. 1. Biotope of Martinsicuro; 2. Oasis of the Kentish Plover and the Sea Chamomile; 3. Borsacchio Natural Reserve; 4. Scerne di Pineto beach; 5. SAC IT7120215 Torre del Cerrano; 6. SCI IT7140217 Ripari di Giobbe–Foce Fiume Foro; 7. SAC IT7140107 Lecceta litoranea di Torino di Sangro e foce del Fiume Sangro; 8. Le Morge beach Torino di Sangro; 9. Finis Terrae beach Casalbordino; 10. SAC IT7140108 Punta Aderci–Punta Penna; 11. SAC IT7140109 Marina di Vasto; 12: SAC IT7228221 Foce Trigno–Marina di Petacciato; 13: SAC IT7282216 Foce Biferno–Litorale di Campomarino; 14. SAC IT7222217 Foce Saccione–Bonifica Ramitelli; 15. SAC IT9110015 Duna e Lago di Lesina–Foce del Fortore.

Sites 12, 14, and 15 (Fig. 1) are included in the European Long-Term Ecological Research network (eLTER), a research infrastructure that promotes repeated observations to document biodiversity trends and inform adaptive conservation and restoration strategies (Paolinelli Reis et al. 2024). The LTER Europe network contributes to methodological harmonization and data standardization, fostering interoperability and facilitating integrated analyses at different scales (Hughes et al. 2017; Haase et al. 2018).

Most plots (46.4%) were surveyed in the current decade (2020–2029), followed by 2010–2019 period (40.4%) (Fig. 2A). Nearly half of the plots (45.1%) were sampled only once, whereas the remainder were resurveyed two (31.2%) to nine (9.9%) times (Fig. 2B). Across decades, the most intensively monitored site was SAC IT7228221 Foce Trigno–Marina di Petacciato, accounting for 38.9% of the total plots, followed by SAC IT7222216 Foce Biferno–Litorale di Campomarino (12.8%), SAC IT7140109 Marina di Vasto (10.4%), and SAC IT7222217 Foce Saccione–Bonifica Ramitelli (10.1%) (Fig. 2C).

Figure 2.

Bar plots showing the proportional distribution of sampling plots by decade (A), the frequency (%) of repetitions per plot (B), and the number of plots for site by decade (C); site locations are shown in Fig. 1.

AdriaVeg contains 286 native or archeophyte taxa (95%) and 15 neophyte taxa (5%), of which 86.7% are invasive and 13.3% are naturalized non-invasive, belonging to 67 taxonomic families (65 for natives and 9 for aliens). Among native species, the most represented families are Poaceae (21%), Asteraceae (11%), and Fabaceae (11%). By contrast, among alien species, Asteraceae is the most represented family (1.8%), while all other families each contribute less than 1% (Fig. 3A). Overall, the most frequent species are Lotus creticus (58.2%), Thinopyrum junceum (45.8%), Silene colorata (39.9%), and Rostraria litorea (36.4%). The most frequent alien species are Xanthium orientale (18.9%), Oenothera stucchii (14.6%), Acacia saligna (12.3%), and Cenchrus longispinus (11.3%), all of which are classified as invasive (Suppl. material 1).

Figure 3.

The triple donut chart shows the relative abundance (%) of taxonomic families for native (violet) and alien (green) taxa. For native taxa only, families with a relative abundance of less than 2.0% were grouped under “Other Families”.

Among the native species, Euro-mediterranean (30.3%), Steno-mediterranean (21.6%), and Euroasiatic (12%) ones prevail. Among alien species, the prevalent origin areas are North America (1.4%) and South Africa (1%).

Future perspectives

The AdriaVeg database is a key resource for studying long-term vegetation dynamics in central Adriatic coastal dune systems. It comprises a set of georeferenced vegetation plots designed for repeated surveys, enabling the analysis of temporal and spatial trends in plant community diversity and structural patterns.

The standardized structure guarantees interoperability with national and international vegetation databases, facilitating data sharing and large-scale ecological analyses across Mediterranean and European coastal systems. Furthermore, its structure allows the continuous integration of future data.

Moreover, in line with comparable datasets (Bagella et al. 2024; Knollová et al. 2024; Acosta et al. 2025; Denaro et al. 2025; Gholizadeh et al. 2025), this database provides a foundation for identifying conservation priority areas aligned with the objectives of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030 and for assessing the impacts of anthropogenic pressures and climate change, as well as the effectiveness of management actions.

Acknowledgements

We thank the Italian LTER (Long-Term Ecological Research) network for its continued support of this research. We are grateful to Dr Lucia Antonietta Santoianni, Dr Francesco Pio Tozzi, Dr Ludovico Frate, Dr Francesco Iannotta, and Dr Francesca Tantalo for their collaboration in fieldwork activities. We also thank the Le Marinelle Forestry Nursery (Petacciato Marina), Antonio Del Vecchio, and Francesco Ricci for logistical support, and Dr Sergio Guccione of the Marine Protected Area “Torre del Cerrano”.

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Additional information

Conflict of interest

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Ethical statement

No ethical statement was reported.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) use

The authors accept full responsibility for the content of the manuscript, including the disclosure of any use of AI.

No AI tools were used in the preparation of this manuscript.

Funding

The work is funded under the RICONNECTO project – MPA Torre del Cerrano. Co-financed by: ABRUZZO REGION, Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Parks Service. PR FESR Abruzzo 2021-2027, ACTION 2.7.1. Protection of biodiversity and improvement of natural ecosystems within and outside Natura 2000 sites. Intervention 2.7.1.2 “Protection of biodiversity and improvement of natural ecosystems, strengthening ecological connections.”

Author contributions

MCdF, MV, AS: Conceptualization. MCdF, MV, AS: Methodology. MCdF, MV: Formal Analysis. MCdF, MDVR, MLC, MV, AS: Investigation. MCdF, MV: Data Curation. MCdF, MV, AS: Writing – Original Draft. AS, MLC: Funding Acquisition. All authors: Writing – Review & Editing.

Author ORCIDs

M.C. de Francesco https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5238-1154

M.L. Carranza https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5753-890X

M.D.V. Rasino https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6266-0392

M. Varricchione https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4716-6609

A. Stanisci https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5302-0932

Data availability

AdriaVeg database is recorded in the Global Index Vegetation-Plot Database (GIVD) under the code EU-IT-024 (http://www.givd.info/ID/EU-IT-024). Furthermore, vegetation data will be stored in the European Vegetation Archive (EVA). The data sharing will be fully accessible upon request to the database custodians (maria.defrancesco@unimol.it; marco.varricchione@unimol.it).

Topical Collection: “Vegetation databases: enhancing data integration and accessibility for ecological research”.

Supplementary material

Supplementary material 1

Checklist of AdriaVeg database

Maria Carla de Francesco, Maria Laura Carranza, Micaela Del Valle Rasino, Marco Varricchione, Angela Stanisci

Data type: docx

Explanation note: Checklist of AdriaVeg database along with the scientific name (Portal to the Flora of Italy 2025), vernacular name in Italian (IT) (Portal to the Flora of Italy 2025) and in English (EN) (IPNI 2025; IUCN 2025), taxonomic family (Bartolucci et al. 2024), resident time (Galasso et al. 2024; EASIN 2025) and relative frequency in the plots (%).

This dataset is made available under the Open Database License (http://opendatacommons.org/licenses/odbl/1.0). The Open Database License (ODbL) is a license agreement intended to allow users to freely share, modify, and use this Dataset while maintaining this same freedom for others, provided that the original source and author(s) are credited.

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