Ukraine_SL: A checklist of vascular plants, bryobionts, and lichens of Ukraine for storing vegetation plots in TURBOVEG

Given the critical need for the unification and coordinated use of floristic checklists within the TURBOVEG software environment (Hennekens & Schaminée 2001), we propose a new species list, Ukraine_SL, for Ukrainian flora.

The taxonomic basis for Ukraine_SL (for vascular plants) is the UkrTrait taxonomy (Vynokurov et al. 2024), which is based on the Checklist of vascular plants of Ukraine (Mosyakin & Fedoronchuk 1999) and supplemented with taxa newly recorded or described in Ukraine in the years following its publication. Additionally, corrections have been made to the spelling of some taxon names (see details in Vynokurov 2024). Bryobionts follow the Second checklist of bryobionts in Ukraine (Boiko 2014).

For the vast majority of vascular plants, corresponding names from the Euro+Med database are provided, enabling efficient conversion of phytosociological relevés between different taxonomic systems and facilitating integration with the European Vegetation Archive (EVA) (Chytrý et al. 2016).

Moreover, most vascular plants are linked to the Ukrainian Plant Trait Database (UkrTrait v. 1.0) (Vynokurov et al. 2024), allowing rapid extraction of available traits for vegetation studies (e.g. plant height, life forms, flowering period, etc.).

Ukraine_SL will be regularly updated and published on the Zenodo platform. In addition to the species list for TURBOVEG itself (Ukraine_SL.zip), an Excel file with a taxonomic crosswalk (ukraine_sl_taxonomy.xlsx) is also provided. It includes matches between the UkrTrait taxonomy, the original taxon concepts from Mosyakin & Fedoronchuk (1999), and names from the Euro+Med database (europlusmed.org).

An expert system file (expert_ukraine_sl_euromed.txt) is also available for download, enabling translation of vegetation plots to the Euro+Med floristic list within the JUICE software (Tichý 2002).

Installation Instructions

To install the species list in TURBOVEG (Ukraine_SL.zip), download and unzip the archive into the Turbowin/Species/ directory of your TURBOVEG installation. After unzipping, a folder named Ukraine_SL should appear, containing the file SPECIES.DBF. The list will then be available for use in TURBOVEG.

When working with this list, it is critically important to use only the species already included and not to add new taxa manually, as this would prevent synchronization with future updates and may cause errors during database merging.

If taxa not present in the list are needed, users should contact the authors. The list will then be updated, and a new version made available for download. The full update history, including a list of changes, will be accessible on the Zenodo website. Any newly added taxa will be assigned unique, non-overlapping IDs.

Updating the List

To update the list in TURBOVEG, download the latest version from Zenodo and replace the old version in the Turbowin/Species/ directory by deleting it and unzipping the new archive (Ukraine_SL.zip).

Using the Expert System in JUICE for translation to the Euro+Med taxonomy

To use the expert system file (expert_ukraine_sl_euromed.txt) in JUICE:

Go to Analysis → Expert System Classificator.

Upload the .txt file.

In the window that appears, click "Modify Species Names", followed by "Merge Same Spec. Names".