The term coverage comes from plant sociology and indicates the proportion of area colonized by an individual plant species per unit area.
Tags: dominance, proportion of plant species, plant sociological vegetation survey, proportion of plant population, Braun-Blanquet scale, species richness, inventory of a plant community.
In a plant sociological vegetation survey, first head data such as the survey site, data on the terrain situation and vegetation cover/stratification to soil and use are recorded.
The survey area is examined, all represented plant species are documented with the help of the cover ratio and specific values (species richness, sociability) are evaluated for each species according to scales. A well-known scale is the so-called Braun-Blanquet scale. Other data are collected, such as the vitality of the plant or the phenological condition. For plant species with low cover, the number of individuals (abundance) is estimated.