Being a member in the sPlot Consortium comes with many benefits, most importantly the access to a globally unique dataset, and the possibilities to participate in international research projects using the sPlot database. According to the sPlot Rules, one can only become a member of the sPlot Consortium upon invitation from the sPlot Steering Committee.

If you feel that you could contribute a significant amount of vegetation-plot data from a region that is otherwise poorly covered in sPlot (see sPlot Database), you are welcome to contact the sPlot Coordinator Gabriella Damasceno. We particularly seek data from Africa, South and East Asia, Oceania, Latin America and Canada as well as from tropical, subtropical and boreal biomes. Since preparation of every single database is time-consuming, we will normally only consider databases that contribute a significant number of plots and/or cover a larger geographic extent. Only in countries that are not represented at all, we will accept even small databases. All contributing databases should be registered in the meta-database Global Index of Vegetation-Plot Databases (GIVD).

Note that data from Europe cannot directly contributed to sPlot but only via our partner, the European Vegetation Archive (EVA) (contact: Milan Chytrý).

In exceptional cases, also additional researchers without own data might be invited to join if they offer outstanding analytical expertise that is relevant to fulfil the sPlot aims. If you consider yourself belonging to this group, you can contact the Chair of the sPlot Steering Committee Helge Bruelheide.