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Question: How many vegetation plot observations (relevés) are available in electronic databases, how are they geographically distributed, what are their properties and how might they be discovered and located for research and application?

Location: Global.

Methods: We compiled the Global Index of Vegetation‐Plot Databases (GIVD; http://www.givd.info), an Internet resource aimed at registering metadata on existing vegetation databases. For inclusion, databases need to (i) contain temporally and spatially explicit species co‐occurrence data and (ii) be accessible to the scientific public. This paper summarizes structure and data quality of databases registered in GIVD as of 30 December 2010.

Results: On the given date, 132 databases containing more than 2.4 million non‐overlapping plots had been registered in GIVD. The majority of these data were in European databases (83 databases, 1.6 million plots …