Abstract
The checklist of the habitats of South Tyrol has become an important tool in the biodiversity documentation of South Tyrol as well as in nature conservation practice. 15 years of application experience with the first edition of the list made it necessary to incorporate new findings and requirements into it. The present second edition builds directly on the first one and keeps the hierarchical structure and the habitat coding basically unchanged. Changes compared to the first edition primarily concern the addition of new habitats, especially in the lower hierarchical levels, but also adjustments in content. The latter prove to be particularly useful for a possible crosslink to Natura 2000 habitats - a declared goal of the working group. The second edition now includes 340 habitats of all hierarchy levels, which is 77 more than in the first edition. One habitat, the oak-elm-ash hardwood forests, has been removed from the list because there is no evidence of its existence in South Tyrol so far and in order to avoid erroneous assignments to this habitat.