2023

Tessa Elliott, Amibeth Thompson, Alexandra-Maria Klein, Christian Albert, Nico Eisenhauer, Florian Jansen, Andrea Schneider, Martin Sommer, Tanja Straka, Josef Settele, Maria Sporbert, Franziska Tanneberger, Anne-Christine Mupepele (2023)

Abandoning grassland management negatively influences plant but not bird or insect biodiversity in Europe

Conservation Science and Practice

https://doi.org/10.1111/csp2.13008

Abstract: Grasslands are globally distributed and naturally occurring; however, in Europe, most grasslands are anthropogenically created or altered by livestock grazing or mowing. Low-intensity use and management have led to species-rich communities in European grasslands. The intensification of crop production and livestock farming with stabling throughout the year has led to an abandonment of grasslands that are no longer economically profitable. In this study, we looked at the influence of grassland abandonment on biodiversity. We hypothesized that abandonment of grasslands decreases the overall biodiversity, but has different effects depending on the focal taxonomic group (i.e., vascular plants, insects, or birds). We also hypothesized that the type of management before abandonment, the type of grassland, and the time after abandonment would influence grassland biodiversity. We conducted a Web of Science search, with pre-defined terms, to find articles that compared biodiversity of managed and abandoned grasslands in Europe. We screened the articles and included 39 studies in a subsequent meta-analysis. We found that overall biodiversity was reduced after abandonment; however, the biodiversity reduction in the grasslands differed among taxonomic groups. Plant species diversity was significantly lower after abandonment (plant summary effect size: −0.25 [−0.34; −0.16]), whereas the diversity of insects and birds showed no significant trend, but a visual trend toward an increase. None of the other environmental variables (type of management, type of grassland, or the time after abandonment) had a significant influence on the biodiversity of the grasslands. We conclude that maintaining grassland management is crucial to support biodiversity conservation in European grasslands.

Thore Engel, Helge Bruelheide, Daniela Hoss, Francesco M. Sabatini, Jan Altman, Mohammed A. S. Arfin-Khan, Erwin Bergmeier, Tomáš Černý, Milan Chytrý, Matteo Dainese, Jürgen Dengler, Jiri Dolezal, Richard Field, Felícia M. Fischer, Dries Huygens, Ute Jandt, Florian Jansen, Anke Jentsch, Dirk N. Karger, Jens Kattge, Jonathan Lenoir, Frederic Lens, Jaqueline Loos, Ülo Niinemets, Gerhard E. Overbeck, Wim A. Ozinga, Josep Penuelas, Gwendolyn Peyre, Oliver Phillips, Peter B. Reich, Christine Römermann, Brody Sandel, Marco Schmidt, Franziska Schrodt, Eduardo Velez-Martin, Cyrille Violle, Valério Pillar (2023)

Traits of dominant plant species drive normalized difference vegetation index in grasslands globally

Global Ecology and Biogeography

https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13644

Abstract:Aim: Theoretical, experimental and observational studies have shown that biodiversity–ecosystem functioning (BEF) relationships are influenced by functional community structure through two mutually non-exclusive mechanisms: (1) the dominance effect (which relates to the traits of the dominant species); and (2) the niche partitioning effect [which relates to functional diversity (FD)]. Although both mechanisms have been studied in plant communities and experiments at small spatial extents, it remains unclear whether evidence from small-extent case studies translates into a generalizable macroecological pattern. Here, we evaluate dominance and niche partitioning effects simultaneously in grassland systems world-wide. Location: Two thousand nine hundred and forty-one grassland plots globally.Time period: 2000–2014. Major taxa studied: Vascular plants. Methods: We obtained plot-based data on functional community structure from the global vegetation plot database “sPlot”, which combines species composition with plant trait data from the “TRY” database. We used data on the community-weighted mean (CWM) and FD for 18 ecologically relevant plant traits. As an indicator of primary productivity, we extracted the satellite-derived normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) from MODIS. Using generalized additive models and deviation partitioning, we estimated the contributions of trait CWM and FD to the variation in annual maximum NDVI, while controlling for climatic variables and spatial structure.Results: Grassland communities dominated by relatively tall species with acquisitive traits had higher NDVI values, suggesting the prevalence of dominance effects for BEF relationships. We found no support for niche partitioning for the functional traits analysed, because NDVI remained unaffected by FD. Most of the predictive power of traits was shared by climatic predictors and spatial coordinates. This highlights the importance of community assembly processes for BEF relationships in natural communities. Main conclusions: Our analysis provides empirical evidence that plant functional community structure and global patterns in primary productivity are linked through the resource economics and size traits of the dominant species. This is an important test of the hypotheses underlying BEF relationships at the global scale.

Jürgen Dengler, Idoia Biurrun, Florian Jansen, Wolfgang Willner (2023)

Vegetation Classification and Survey in the third year

Vegetation Classification and Survey 4: 1–6

https://doi.org/10.3897/VCS.100394

Abstract: We report on the completed third volume of Vegetation Classification and Survey (VCS). VCS has been included in the Scopus bibliometric database and will receive its first CiteSore in mid-2023. We announce the 2022 Editors’ Award for a paper selected from the four papers nominated for Editors’ Choice during 2022. We selected Liu et al. (2022; Vegetation Classification and Survey 3: 121–144) for the Editors’ Award. This author team developed a comprehensive hierarchical classification system for the steppe vegetation over China. We present five Special Collections (two concluded and three ongoing) which form a backbone for VCS. Apart from Research Papers, Long and Short Database Reports were the prevailing article category in 2022. By contrast, there were no VCS Methods paper in 2022, and thus we encourage submissions particularly in this category. Finally, we welcome new members to the Editorial Board and open a call for free applications for our Editorial Review Board or as a Linguistic Editor.

Abbreviations: APC = article processing charge; IAVS = International Association for Vegetation Science; VCS = Vegetation Classification and Survey.

Jürgen Dengler, Florian Jansen, Olha Chusova, Elisabeth Hüllbusch, Michael P. Nobis, Koenraad Van Meerbeek, Irena Axmanová, Hans Henrik Bruun, Milan Chytrý, Riccardo Guarino, Gerhard Karrer, Karlien Moeys, Thomas Raus, Manuel J. Steinbauer, Lubomir Tichý, Torbjörn Tyler, Ketevan Batsatsashvili, Claudia Bita-Nicolae, Yakiv Didukh, Martin Diekmann, Thorsten Englisch, Eduardo Fernández-Pascual, Dieter Frank, Ulrich Graf, Michal Hájek, Sven D. Jelaska, Borja Jiménez-Alfaro, Philippe Julve, George Nakhutsrishvili, Wim A. Ozinga, Eszter-Karolina Ruprecht, Urban Šilc, Jean-Paul Theurillat, François Gillet (2023)

Ecological Indicator Values for Europe (EIVE) 1.0

Vegetation Classification and Survey 4: 7–29.

https://doi.org/10.3897/VCS.98324

Abstract: Aims: To develop a consistent ecological indicator value system for Europe for five of the main plant niche dimensions: soil moisture (M), soil nitrogen (N), soil reaction (R), light (L) and temperature (T). Study area: Europe (and closely adjacent regions). Methods: We identified 31 indicator value systems for vascular plants in Europe that contained assessments on at least one of the five aforementioned niche dimensions. We rescaled the indicator values of each dimension to a continuous scale, in which 0 represents the minimum and 10 the maximum value present in Europe. Taxon names were harmonised to the Euro+Med Plantbase. For each of the five dimensions, we calculated European values for niche position and niche width by combining the values from the individual EIV systems. Using T values as an example, we externally validated our European indicator values against the median of bioclimatic conditions for global occurrence data of the taxa. Results: In total, we derived European indicator values of niche position and niche width for 14,835 taxa (14,714 for M, 13,748 for N, 14,254 for R, 14,054 for L, 14,496 for T). Relating the obtained values for temperature niche position to the bioclimatic data of species yielded a higher correlation than any of the original EIV systems (r = 0.859). The database: The newly developed Ecological Indicator Values for Europe (EIVE) 1.0, together with all source systems, is available in a flexible, harmonised open access database. Conclusions: EIVE is the most comprehensive ecological indicator value system for European vascular plants to date. The uniform interval scales for niche position and niche width provide new possibilities for ecological and macroecological analyses of vegetation patterns. The developed workflow and documentation will facilitate the future release of updated and expanded versions of EIVE, which may for example include the addition of further taxonomic groups, additional niche dimensions, external validation or regionalisation.

Abbreviations: EIV = Ecological indicator value; EIVE = Ecological Indicator Values for Europe; EVA = European Vegetation Archive; GBIF = Global Biodiversity Information Facility; i = index for taxa; j = index for EIV systems; L = ecological indicator for light; M = ecological indicator for moisture; N = ecological indicator for nitrogen availability; R = ecological indicator for reaction; T = ecological indicator for temperature.

2022

Lubomír Tichý, Irena Axmanová, Jürgen Dengler, Riccardo Guarino, Florian Jansen, Gabriele Midolo, Michael P. Nobis, Koenraad Van Meerbeek, Svetlana Aćić, Fabio Attorre, Erwin Bergmeier, Idoia Biurrun, Gianmaria Bonari, Helge Bruelheide, Juan Antonio Campos, Andraž Čarni, Alessandro Chiarucci, Mirjana Ćuk, Renata Ćušterevska, Yakiv Didukh, Daniel Dítě, Zuzana Dítě, Tetiana Dziuba, Giuliano Fanelli, Eduardo Fernández-Pascual, Emmanuel Garbolino, Rosario G. Gavilán, Jean-Claude Gégout, Ulrich Graf, Behlül Güler, Michal Hájek, Stephan M. Hennekens, Ute Jandt, Anni Jašková, Borja Jiménez-Alfaro, Philippe Julve, Stephan Kambach, Dirk Nikolaus Karger, Gerhard Karrer, Ali Kavgacı, Ilona Knollová, Anna Kuzemko, Filip Küzmič, Flavia Landucci, Attila Lengyel, Jonathan Lenoir, Corrado Marcenò, Jesper Erenskjold Moeslund, Pavel Novák, Aaron Pérez-Haase, Tomáš Peterka, Remigiusz Pielech, Alessandro Pignatti, Valerijus Rašomavičius, Solvita Rūsiņa, Arne Saatkamp, Urban Šilc, Željko Škvorc, Jean-Paul Theurillat, Thomas Wohlgemuth, Milan Chytrý (2022)

Ellenberg-type indicator values for European vascular plant species

Journal of Vegetation Science

https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.13168

Abstract: Aims: Ellenberg-type indicator values are expert-based rankings of plant species according to their ecological optima on main environmental gradients. Here we extend the indicator-value system proposed by Heinz Ellenberg and co-authors for Central Europe by incorporating other systems of Ellenberg-type indicator values (i.e., those using scales compatible with Ellenberg values) developed for other European regions. Our aim is to create a harmonized data set of Ellenberg-type indicator values applicable at the European scale. Methods: We collected European data sets of indicator values for vascular plants and selected 13 data sets that used the nine-, ten- or twelve-degree scales defined by Ellenberg for light, temperature, moisture, reaction, nutrients and salinity. We compared these values with the original Ellenberg values and used those that showed consistent trends in regression slope and coefficient of determination. We calculated the average value for each combination of species and indicator values from these data sets. Based on species’ co-occurrences in European vegetation plots, we also calculated new values for species that were not assigned an indicator value. Results: We provide a new data set of Ellenberg-type indicator values for 8908 European vascular plant species (8168 for light, 7400 for temperature, 8030 for moisture, 7282 for reaction, 7193 for nutrients, and 7507 for salinity), of which 398 species have been newly assigned to at least one indicator value.Conclusions: The newly introduced indicator values are compatible with the original Ellenberg values. They can be used for large-scale studies of the European flora and vegetation or for gap-filling in regional data sets. The European indicator values and the original and taxonomically harmonized regional data sets of Ellenberg-type indicator values are available in the Supporting Information and the Zenodo repository.

Ute Jandt, Helge Bruelheide, Florian Jansen, Aletta Bonn, Volker Grescho, Reinhard A. Klenke, Francesco Maria Sabatini, Markus Bernhardt-Römermann, Volker Blüml, Jürgen Dengler, Martin Diekmann, Inken Doerfler, Ute Döring, Stefan Dullinger, Sylvia Haider, Thilo Heinken, Peter Horchler, Gisbert Kuhn, Martin Lindner, Katrin Metze, Norbert Müller, Tobias Naaf, Cord Peppler-Lisbach, Peter Poschlod, Christiane Roscher, Gert Rosenthal, Sabine B. Rumpf, Wolfgang Schmidt, Joachim Schrautzer, Angelika Schwabe, Peter Schwartze, Thomas Sperle, Nils Stanik, Christian Storm, Winfried Voigt, Uwe Wegener, Karsten Wesche, Burghard Wittig & Monika Wulf (2022)

More losses than gains during one century of plant biodiversity change in Germany

Nature  (2022)

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-022-05320-w

Abstract: Long-term analyses of biodiversity data highlight a ‘biodiversity conservation paradox’: biological communities show substantial species turnover over the past century, but changes in species richness are marginal^. Most studies, however, have focused only on the incidence of species, and have not considered changes in local abundance. Here we asked whether analysing changes in the cover of plant species could reveal previously unrecognized patterns of biodiversity change and provide insights into the underlying mechanisms. We compiled and analysed a dataset of 7,738 permanent and semi-permanent vegetation plots from Germany that were surveyed between 2 and 54 times from 1927 to 2020, in total comprising 1,794 species of vascular plants. We found that decrements in cover, averaged across all species and plots, occurred more often than increments; that the number of species that decreased in cover was higher than the number of species that increased; and that decrements were more equally distributed among losers than were gains among winners. Null model simulations confirmed that these trends do not emerge by chance, but are the consequence of species-specific negative effects of environmental changes. In the long run, these trends might result in substantial losses of species at both local and regional scales. Summarizing the changes by decade shows that the inequality in the mean change in species cover of losers and winners diverged as early as the 1960s. We conclude that changes in species cover in communities represent an important but understudied dimension of biodiversity change that should more routinely be considered in time-series analyses.

Lina Lüttgert, Samuel Heisterkamp, Florian Jansen, Reinhard Klenke, Kerstin-Angelika Kreft, Gunnar Seidler, Helge Bruelheide (2022)

Repeated habitat mapping data reveal gains and losses of plant species

Ecosphere

https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.4244

Abstract: Detecting species trends across different habitat types and larger regions is required to generate a general and reliable foundation for conservation planning. While direct monitoring data covering a large spatial and temporal extent are mostly lacking, data collected for other purposes than monitoring can be considered to detect trends. Here we analyzed both habitat type and plant species trends over several decades (1979–2017), using repeated habitat survey data from the habitat mapping program of the city and federal state of Hamburg. Next to transitions between habitat types, we looked for differences between winner and loser species, considering also their habitat type preference, red list, and non-native status. Furthermore, we assessed the consistency between trends of habitat types and species that are characteristic of those habitat types. We found declines in habitat area of semi-natural (semi-)dry grasslands and semi-ruderal vegetation and increases in habitat area of species-poor grasslands, pioneer forests, and human settlements. More species showed positive than negative trends over time, with winners including many forest and scrub as well as non-native species, while losers were represented mostly by endangered and ruderal species. Most habitat types included a mixture of both winner and loser species. Habitat type trends were mostly not reflected in trends of species that were characteristic of a particular habitat, such as semi-natural (semi-)dry grasslands. This can be explained, on the one hand, by species extinction debts, and on the other hand, by a low habitat specificity of some species that find refuges also in secondary habitats. Our study not only shows the difficulties but also offers methods on how to use repeated habitat mapping data to detect trends for habitat types and plant species. In contrast to monitoring programs focusing on individual endangered habitats, results from repeated habitat surveys allow the identification of those secondary habitats of a species that might contribute the most to preserving populations of their primary habitat.

Ute Jandt, Helge Bruelheide, Christian Berg, Markus Bernhardt-Römermann, Volker Blüml, Frank Bode, Jürgen Dengler, Martin Diekmann, Hartmut Dierschke, Inken Doerfler, Ute Döring, Stefan Dullinger, Werner Härdtle, Sylvia Haider,, Thilo Heinken, Peter Horchler, Florian Jansen, Thomas Kudernatsch, Gisbert Kuhn, Martin Lindner, Silvia Matesanz, Katrin Metze, Stefan Meyer, Frank Müller, Norbert Müller, Tobias Naaf,Cord Peppler-Lisbach, Peter Poschlod, Christiane Roscher, Gert Rosenthal, Sabine B. Rumpf, Wolfgang Schmidt, Joachim Schrautzer, Angelika Schwabe, Peter Schwartze, Thomas Sperle, Nils Stanik, Hans-Georg Stroh, Christian Storm, Winfried Voigt, Andreas von Heßberg, Goddert von Oheimb, Eva-Rosa Wagner, Uwe Wegener, Karsten Wesche, Burghard Wittig & Monika Wulf  (2022)

ReSurveyGermany: Vegetation-plot time-series over the past hundred years in Germany

Scientific Data, 9(1), 631. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-022-01688-6

Abstract: Vegetation-plot resurvey data are a main source of information on terrestrial biodiversity change, with records reaching back more than one century. although more and more data from re-sampled plots have been published, there is not yet a comprehensive open-access
dataset available for analysis. Here, we compiled and harmonised vegetation-plot resurvey data from Germany covering almost 100 years. We show the distribution of the plot data in space, time and across habitat types of the European Nature Information System (EUNIS). In addition, we include metadata on geographic location, plot size and vegetation structure. the data allow temporal biodiversity change to be assessed at the community scale, reaching back further into the past than most comparable data yet available. they also enable tracking changes in the incidence and distribution of individual species across Germany. In summary,
the data come at a level of detail that holds promise for broadening our understanding of the mechanisms and drivers behind plant diversity change over the last century

Francesco Maria Sabatini, Borja Jiménez-Alfaro, Ute Jandt, Milan Chytrý, Richard Field, Michael Kessler, Jonathan Lenoir, Franziska Schrodt, Susan K. Wiser, Mohammed A. S. Arfin Khan, Fabio Attorre, Luis Cayuela, Michele De Sanctis, Jürgen Dengler, Sylvia Haider, Mohamed Z. Hatim, Adrian Indreica, Florian Jansen, Aníbal Pauchard, Robert K. Peet, Petr Petřík, Valério D. Pillar, Brody Sandel, Marco Schmidt, Zhiyao Tang, Peter van Bodegom, Kiril Vassilev, Cyrille Violle, Esteban Alvarez-Davila, Priya Davidar, Jiri Dolezal, Bruno Hérault, Antonio Galán-de-Mera, Jorge Jiménez, Stephan Kambach, Sebastian Kepfer-Rojas, Holger Kreft, Felipe Lezama, Reynaldo Linares-Palomino, Abel Monteagudo Mendoza, Justin K. N’Dja, Oliver L. Phillips, Gonzalo Rivas-Torres, Petr Sklenář, Karina Speziale, Ben J. Strohbach, Rodolfo Vásquez Martínez, Hua-Feng Wang, Karsten Wesche & Helge Bruelheide (2022)

Global patterns of vascular plant alpha diversity

Nature Communications  13, Article number: 4683

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-32063-z

Abstract: Global patterns of regional (gamma) plant diversity are relatively well known, but whether these patterns hold for local communities, and the dependence on spatial grain, remain controversial. Using data on 170,272 georeferenced local plant assemblages, we created global maps of alpha diversity (local species richness) for vascular plants at three different spatial grains, for forests and non-forests. We show that alpha diversity is consistently high across grains in some regions (for example, Andean-Amazonian foothills), but regional ‘scaling anomalies’ (deviations from the positive correlation) exist elsewhere, particularly in Eurasian temperate forests with disproportionally higher fine-grained richness and many African tropical forests with disproportionally higher coarse-grained richness. The influence of different climatic, topographic and biogeographical variables on alpha diversity also varies across grains. Our multi-grain maps return a nuanced understanding of vascular plant biodiversity patterns that complements classic maps of biodiversity hotspots and will improve predictions of global change effects on biodiversity.

Diana E. Bowler, Netra Bhandari, Lydia Repke, Christoph Beuthner, Corey T. Callaghan, David Eichenberg, Klaus Henle, Reinhard Klenke, Anett Richter, Florian Jansen, Helge Bruelheide, Aletta Bonn (2022)

Decision-making of citizen scientists when recording species observations

Scientific reports 12, Article number: 11069 (2022)

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-15218-2

Abstract: Citizen scientists play an increasingly important role in biodiversity monitoring. Most of the data, however, are unstructured—collected by diverse methods that are not documented with the data. Insufficient understanding of the data collection processes presents a major barrier to the use of citizen science data in biodiversity research. We developed a questionnaire to ask citizen scientists about their decision-making before, during and after collecting and reporting species observations, using Germany as a case study. We quantified the greatest sources of variability among respondents and assessed whether motivations and experience related to any aspect of data collection. Our questionnaire was answered by almost 900 people, with varying taxonomic foci and expertise. Respondents were most often motivated by improving species knowledge and supporting conservation, but there were no linkages between motivations and data collection methods. By contrast, variables related to experience and knowledge, such as membership of a natural history society, were linked with a greater propensity to conduct planned searches, during which typically all species were reported. Our findings have implications for how citizen science data are analysed in statistical models; highlight the importance of natural history societies and provide pointers to where citizen science projects might be further developed.

Helge Bruelheide, Florian Jansen, Ute Jandt, Reinhard Klenke,Thomas Sperle, Volker Grescho, Aletta Bonn und Marten Winter (2022)

Mindestanforderungen an ein Monitoring von Gefäßpflanzenarten auf den bundesweit repräsentativen Stichprobenflächen

Natur und Landschaft, 97 (6), 2022

DOI: 10.19217/NuL2022-06-03

Abstract: The article summarises basic requirements for a future monitoring programme for vascular plant species in Germany using the existing nationwide representative network of 1 km2 sample areas (BRS areas). We evaluate the consequences of the originally applied stratification for the survey design and present options for subsampling with permanent or non-permanent subplots or transects. Based on this, the core recommendations are to carry out sampling on subplots and to dispense with renewed stratification within the sample areas. The subplots should be established permanently and should not be newly selected at random at each monitoring date. We recommend using squares and not transects for subsampling. In addition, permanent vegetation plots should be established and remote sensing data should be included. With a monitoring set up in this way, it will be possible to perform a representative assessment of the frequency of vascular plant species and of changes in these frequencies over time for the whole of Germany and to provide evidence-based decision support for political action and nature conservation management.

Bruelheide H, Jansen F, Klenke R (2022)

Zu den Eigenschaften der bundesweit repräsentativen Stichprobenflächen.

Natur und Landschaft 97 (1)

Diana E. Bowler, Corey T. Callaghan, Netra Bhandari, Klaus Henle, M. Benjamin Barth, Christian Koppitz, Reinhard Klenke, Marten Winter, Florian Jansen, Helge Bruelheide, Aletta Bonn (2022)

Temporal trends in the spatial bias of species occurrence records

Ecography

https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.06219

Abstract: Large-scale biodiversity databases have great potential for quantifying long-term trends of species, but they also bring many methodological challenges. Spatial bias of species occurrence records is well recognized. Yet, the dynamic nature of this spatial bias – how spatial bias has changed over time – has been largely overlooked. We examined the spatial bias of species occurrence records within multiple biodiversity databases in Germany and tested whether spatial bias in relation to land cover or land use (urban and protected areas) has changed over time. We focused our analyses on urban and protected areas as these represent two well-known correlates of sampling bias in biodiversity datasets. We found that the proportion of annual records from urban areas has increased over time while the proportion of annual records within protected areas has not consistently changed. Using simulations, we examined the implications of this changing sampling bias for estimation of long-term trends of species' distributions. When assessing biodiversity change, our findings suggest that the effects of spatial bias depend on how it affects sampling of the underlying land-use change drivers affecting species. Oversampling of regions undergoing the greatest degree of change, for instance near human settlements, might lead to overestimation of the trends of specialist species. For robust estimation of the long-term trends in species' distributions, analyses using species occurrence records may need to consider not only spatial bias, but also changes in the spatial bias through time.

Josep Padullés Cubino, Irena Axmanová, Zdeňka Lososová, Martin Večeřa, Ariel Bergamini, Helge Bruelheide, Jürgen Dengler, Ute Jandt, Florian Jansen, Ricarda Pätsch, Milan Chytrý (2022)

The effect of niche filtering on plant species abundance in temperate grassland communities

Functional Ecology

https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.13994

Abstract:

1. Niche filtering predicts that abundant species in communities have similar traits that are suitable for the environment. However, niche filtering can operate on distinct axes of trait variation in response to different ecological conditions. Here, we use a trait-based approach to infer niche filtering processes and (a) test if abundant and rare species in grassland communities are differently positioned along distinct axes of trait variation, (b) determine if these trait variation axes, as well as phylogenetic and functional similarities, drive species relative abundance (above-ground cover) within communities, and (c) explore whether these relationships vary across grassland types and macro-climatic gradients.
2. We analysed species abundance in vegetation plots from temperate grasslands in Central Europe as a function of species position along three axes of trait variation: the ‘Plant Size Spectrum’ (PSS), the ‘Leaf Economics Spectrum’ (LES) and the ‘Life span/Clonality Spectrum’ (LCS). We also used phylogenetic and functional similarities in the multi-dimensional trait space as predictors of species abundance. We compared our results among alpine, wet, mesic and dry grasslands and tested whether the effect of the predictors on species abundance was significant across macro-climatic gradients.
3. Compared to abundant species, rare species in grassland communities were more commonly annual and non-clonal, had lower stature and smaller leaves and seeds, and relied on more acquisitive leaf economics. Our predictors significantly explained species abundance in approximately one-third of the plots. LES was the most important predictor across all plots, with the most prominent effect in alpine and dry grasslands and areas with more extreme temperatures. In contrast, in mesic and wet grasslands and grasslands located in warmer and less seasonal regions, species abundance was best predicted by phylogenetic similarities between species, with Poaceae species becoming more abundant.
4. Our study explored trait–abundance relationships for different community types across a large area and broad macro-climatic gradients. We conclude that niche filtering, and particularly resource-acquisition trade-offs, drives species abundance in temperate grassland communities of Central Europe. Our findings emphasize the interaction between local environmental conditions and plant function in determining community assembly.

Jana Bürger, Filip Küzmič, Urban Šilc, Florian Jansen, Erwin Bergmeier, Milan Chytrý, Alicia Cirujeda, Silvia Fogliatto, Guillaume Fried, Denise F. Dostatny, Bärbel Gerowitt, Michael Glemnitz, José L. González-Andújar, Eva Hernández Plaza, Jordi Izquierdo, Michaela Kolářová, Zdeňka Lososová, Helen Metcalfe, Jevgenija Ņečajeva, Sandrine Petit, Gyula Pinke, Valerijus Rašomavičius, Christoph von Redwitz, Matthias Schumacher, Lena Ulber, Francesco Vidotto (2022)

Two sides of one medal: Arable weed vegetation of Europe in phytosociological data compared to agronomical weed surveys

Applied Vegetations Science

https://doi.org/10.1111/avsc.12460

Abstract: Questions: Two scientific disciplines, vegetation science and weed science, study arable weed vegetation, which has seen a strong diversity decrease in Europe over the last decades. We compared two collections of plot-based vegetation records originating from these two disciplines. The aim was to check the suitability of the collections for joint analysis and for addressing research questions from the opposing domains. We asked: are these collections complementary? If so, how can they be used for joint analysis? Location: Europe. Methods: We compared 13 311 phytosociological relevés and 13 328 records from weed science, concerning both data collection properties and the recorded species richness. To deal with bias in the data, we also analysed different subsets (i.e., crops, geographical regions, organic vs conventional fields, center vs edge plots). Results: Records from vegetation science have an average species number of 19.0 ± 10.4. Metadata on survey methodology or agronomic practices are rare in this collection. Records from weed science have an average species number of 8.5 ± 6.4. They are accompanied by extensive methodological information. Vegetation science records and the weed science records taken at field edges or from organic fields have similar species numbers. The collections cover different parts of Europe but the results are consistent in six geographical subsets and the overall data set. The difference in species numbers may be caused by differences in methodology between the disciplines, i.e., plot positioning within fields, plot sizes, or survey timing. Conclusion: This comparison of arable weed data that were originally sampled with a different purpose represents a new effort in connecting research between vegetation scientists and weed scientists. Both collections show different aspects of weed vegetation, which means the joint use of the data is valuable as it can contribute to a more complete picture of weed species diversity in European arable landscapes.

Jürgen Dengler, Idoia Biurrun, Florian Jansen, Wolfgang Willner

Vegetation Classification and Survey: development and diversification

Vegetation Classification and Survey

https://vcs.pensoft.net/article/80379/

Abstract: We report on the completed second volume of Vegetation Classification and Survey (VCS), whose content grew by 41% compared to the first volume. We were able to diversify article types, geographic coverage, authors and editorial team, the latter now consisting of 62 researchers from 29 countries with a female ratio of 31%. Three newly started Special Collections focus on the vegetation of the most diverse continents, which are at the same time least represented in the international literature: Africa, Asia and Latin America. We highlight six outstanding papers of the previous year, among them Dembicz et al. (2021b, Vegetation Classification and Survey 2: 293–304), which received the Editors’ Award 2021. In conclusion, we see a good perspective for the journal development and its inclusion in the leading citation databases, but the success strongly depends on authors and readers of VCS.

Martin Jiroušek, Tomáš Peterka, Milan Chytrý, Borja Jiménez-Alfaro, Oleg L. Kuznetsov, Aaron Pérez-Haase, Liene Aunina, Idoia Biurrun, Daniel Dítě, Nadezhda Goncharova, Petra Hájková, Florian Jansen, Natalia E. Koroleva, Elena D. Lapshina, Igor A. Lavrinenko, Olga V. Lavrinenko, Maxim G. Napreenko, Pawel Pawlikowski, Valerijus Rašomavičius, John Rodwell, David Romero Pedreira, Elvira Sahuquillo Balbuena, Viktor A. Smagin, Teemu Tahvanainen, Claudia Biţă-Nicolae, Lyubov Felbaba-Klushyna, Ulrich Graf, Tatiana G. Ivchenko, Ute Jandt, Jana Jiroušková, Alica Košuthová, Jonathan Lenoir, Viktor Onyshchenko, Vítězslav Plášek, Zuzana Plesková, Pavel S. Shirokikh, Anna Šímová, Eva Šmerdová, Pavel N. Tokarev, Michal Hájek (2022)

Classification of European bog vegetation of the Oxycocco-Sphagnetea class

Applied Vegetation Science

https://doi.org/10.1111/avsc.12646

Abstract: Aims: Classification of European bog vegetation (Oxycocco-Sphagnetea class); identification ofdiagnostic species for the class and vegetation subgroups (orders and alliances) development of an expert system for automatic classification of vegetation plots; and production of distribution maps of the Oxycocco-Sphagnetea class and its alliances. Location: Europe Methods: A dataset of vegetation-plot records was compiled to cover most of the European continent by various bog types. An unsupervised classification (beta-flexible linkage method, Sørensen distance measure) and DCA ordination were applied. Formal definitions of syntaxa based on species presence and covers, and respecting the results of the unsupervised classification, were developed and included in a classification expert system. Results: The Oxycocco-Sphagnetea class, its two orders (Sphagno-Ericetalia tetralicis and Sphagnetalia medii) and seven compositionally distinct alliances were formally defined. In addition to the syntaxa included in EuroVegChecklist, three new alliances were distinguished: Rubo chamaemori-Dicranion elongati (subarctic polygon and palsa mires); Erico mackaianae-Sphagnion papillosi (blanket bogs of the northwestern Iberian Peninsula); and Sphagno baltici-Trichophorion cespitosi (boreo-continental bog lawns). The latter alliance was newly described in this article. Conclusions: This first pan-European formalized classification of European bog vegetation partially followed the system presented in EuroVegChecklist, but suggested three additional alliances. One covers palsa and polygon mires, one covers Iberian bogs with endemics and one fills the syntaxonomical gap for lawn microhabitats in boreal bogs. A classification expert system has been developed, which allows assignment of vegetation plots to the types described.

Zdenka Preislerová, Borja Jiménez-Alfaro, Ladislav Mucina, Christian Berg, Gianmaria Bonari, Anna Kuzemko, Flavia Landucci, Corrado Marcenò, Tiago Monteiro-Henriques, Pavel Novák, Denys Vynokurov, Erwin Bergmeier, Jürgen Dengler, Iva Apostolova, Frederic Bioret, Idoia Biurrun, Juan Antonio Campos, Jorge Capelo, Andraž Čarni, Süleyman Çoban, János Csiky, Mirjana Ćuk, Renata Ćušterevska, Fred J.A. Daniëls, Michele De Sanctis, Yakiv Didukh, Daniel Dítě, Giuliano Fanelli, Yaroslav Golovanov, Valentin Golub, Riccardo Guarino, Michal Hájek, Dmytro Iakushenko, Adrian Indreica, Florian Jansen, Anni Jašková, Martin Jiroušek, Veronika Kalníková, Ali Kavgacı, Ilya Kucherov, Filip Küzmič, Maria Lebedeva, Javier Loidi, Zdeňka Lososová, Tatiana Lysenko, Đorđije Milanović, Viktor Onyshchenko, Gwenhael Perrin, Tomáš Peterka, Valerijus Rašomavičius, Maria Pilar Rodríguez-Rojo, John S. Rodwell, Solvita Rūsiņa, Daniel Sánchez-Mata, Joop H.J. Schaminée, Yuri Semenishchenkov, Nikolay Shevchenko, Jozef Šibík, Željko Škvorc, Viktor Smagin, Danijela Stešević, Vladimir Stupar, Kateřina Šumberová, Jean-Paul Theurillat, Elena Tikhonova, Rossen Tzonev, Milan Valachovič, Kiril Vassilev, Wolfgang Willner, Sergey Yamalov, Martin Večeřa, Milan Chytrý (2022)

Distribution maps of vegetation alliances in Europe

Applied Vegetation Science

https://doi.org/10.1111/avsc.12642

Abstract: Aim: The first comprehensive checklist of European phytosociological alliances, orders and classes (EuroVegChecklist) was published by Mucina et al. (2016, Applied Vegetation Science). However, this checklist did not contain detailed information on the distribution of individual vegetation types. Here we provide the first maps of all alliances in Europe. Location Europe, Greenland, Canary Islands, Madeira, Azores, Cyprus and the Caucasus countries. Methods: We collected data on the occurrence of phytosociological alliances in European countries and regions from literature and vegetation-plot databases. We interpreted and complemented these data using the expert knowledge of an international team of vegetation scientists and matched all the previously reported alliance names and concepts with those of the EuroVegChecklist. We then mapped the occurrence of the EuroVegChecklist alliances in 82 territorial units corresponding to countries, large islands, archipelagos and peninsulas. We subdivided the mainland parts of large or biogeographically heterogeneous countries based on the European biogeographical regions. Specialized alliances of coastal habitats were mapped only for the coastal section of each territorial unit. Results: Distribution maps were prepared for 1,105 alliances of vascular-plant dominated vegetation reported in the EuroVegChecklist. For each territorial unit, three levels of occurrence probability were plotted on the maps: (1) verified occurrence, (2) uncertain occurrence, (3) absence. The maps of individual alliances were complemented by summary maps of the number of alliances and the alliance-area relationship. Distribution data are also provided in a spreadsheet. Conclusions: The new map series represents the first attempt to characterize the distribution of all vegetation types at the alliance level across Europe. There are still many knowledge gaps, partly due to lack of data for some regions and partly due to uncertainties in the definition of some alliances. The maps presented here provide a basis for future research aimed at filling these gaps.

2021

Josep Padullés Cubino, Irena Axmanová, Zdeňka Lososová, Martin Večeřa, Ariel Bergamini, Helge Bruelheide, Jürgen Dengler, Ute Jandt, Florian Jansen, Ricarda Pätsch, Milan Chytrý (2021)

The effect of niche filtering on plant species abundance in temperate grassland communities

Functional Ecology

https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2435.13994

Abstract:

1. Niche filtering predicts that abundant species in communities have similar traits that are suitable for the environment. However, niche filtering can operate on distinct axes of trait variation in response to different ecological conditions. Here, we use a trait-based approach to infer niche filtering processes and (a) test if abundant and rare species in grassland communities are differently positioned along distinct axes of trait variation, (b) determine if these trait variation axes, as well as phylogenetic and functional similarities, drive species relative abundance (above-ground cover) within communities, and (c) explore whether these relationships vary across grassland types and macro-climatic gradients.
2. We analysed species abundance in vegetation plots from temperate grasslands in Central Europe as a function of species position along three axes of trait variation: the ‘Plant Size Spectrum’ (PSS), the ‘Leaf Economics Spectrum’ (LES) and the ‘Life span/Clonality Spectrum’ (LCS). We also used phylogenetic and functional similarities in the multi-dimensional trait space as predictors of species abundance. We compared our results among alpine, wet, mesic and dry grasslands and tested whether the effect of the predictors on species abundance was significant across macro-climatic gradients.
3. Compared to abundant species, rare species in grassland communities were more commonly annual and non-clonal, had lower stature and smaller leaves and seeds, and relied on more acquisitive leaf economics. Our predictors significantly explained species abundance in approximately one-third of the plots. LES was the most important predictor across all plots, with the most prominent effect in alpine and dry grasslands and areas with more extreme temperatures. In contrast, in mesic and wet grasslands and grasslands located in warmer and less seasonal regions, species abundance was best predicted by phylogenetic similarities between species, with Poaceae species becoming more abundant.
4. Our study explored trait–abundance relationships for different community types across a large area and broad macro-climatic gradients. We conclude that niche filtering, and particularly resource-acquisition trade-offs, drives species abundance in temperate grassland communities of Central Europe. Our findings emphasize the interaction between local environmental conditions and plant function in determining community assembly.

Michal Hájek; Jakub Těšitel; Teemu Tahvanainen; Tomáš Peterka; Borja Jiménez-Alfaro; Florian Jansen; Aaron Pérez-Haase; Emmanuel Garbolino; Michele Carbognani; Tiina H. M. Kolari; Petra Hájková; Ute Jandt; Liene Aunina; Paweł Pawlikowski; Tatiana Ivchenko; Marcello Tomaselli; Lubomír Tichý; Daniel Dítě; Zuzana Plesková; Eva Mikulášková (2021)

Rising temperature modulates pH niches of fen species

Global Change Biology

https://zenodo.org/record/4915753#.YYoxH7oxl9M

Friedrich Hacker, Florian Jansen, Thomas Krämerkämper, Peter Kremer, Dirk Tessmer (2021)

Der Abschneidewert für Stickstoffeinträge im Habitatschutz

Natur und Recht 43, 729-738

doi.org/10.1007/s10357-021-3914-3

Zusammenfassung: Die Rechtsprechung zum Abschneidekriterium gründet weitgehend auf Annahmen aus dem technischen und dem vegetationsökologischen Bereich (Messuntergrenze), Zuordenbarkeit zu einer Quelle, Abgrenzbarkeit von der Hintergrundbelastung, fehlende schädliche Effekte, fehlende Ursache-Wirkungs-Relation). Die Rechtsprechung stützt sich hierfür insbesondere auf den FE-Bericht Stickstoff 2013 und den daraus entwickelten Stickstoffleitfaden Straße 2019 sowie auf die Veröffentlichung eines Autor*innenkollektivs aus dem Jahr 2014. Es wurde gezeigt, dass keiner der Begründungsansätze aus den genannten Untersuchungen einer kritischen Überprüfung
standhält. Die Argumentation in den Untersuchungen ist teilweise methodisch falsch (beispielsweise die Herleitung einer fehlenden statistischen Unterscheidbarkeit oder einer einheitlichen Messuntergrenze für verschiedene stickstoffhaltige Stoffverbindungen). Teilweise ist die Argumentation veraltet oder schlicht unvollständig (beispielsweise
bzgl. der technischen Messuntergrenze). Teilweise werden Ergebnisse aus zitierten Arbeiten dargestellt, die diese Arbeiten überhaupt nicht enthalten (beispielsweise die Benennung von unteren Wirkschwellen für Stickstoffeinträge). Untersuchungen, die der Annahme des Abschneidekriteriums entgegenstehen, wurden dagegen nicht einbezogen. Dies hat zur Konsequenz, dass das Abschneidekriterium
von 0,3 kg N/(ha*a) in tatsächlicher Hinsicht falsch ist. Daraus folgt gleichzeitig, dass weder der FE-Bericht Stickstoff 2013 noch der Stickstoffleitfaden Straße 2019 (weiterhin) als Fachkonvention angesehen werden können. Die fehlerhaften tatsächlichen Annahmen haben zunächst zur Konsequenz, dass einzelne rechtliche Fragen neu bewertet werden müssen. Das betrifft insbesondere die Vorgaben des EuGH, dass der sichere Nachweis einer Beeinträchtigung im Habitatschutz nicht erforderlich ist, eine Wahrscheinlichkeit reicht aus. 103 Das BVerwG 104 entnimmt dem Abschneidekriterium, dass es die Grenze dieser Wahrscheinlichkeit markiere. Dies ist in tatsächlicher Hinsicht nicht der Fall, was die Anwendbarkeit der zitierten Judikatur des EuGH und der damit verbundenen Änderung der Nachweisführung nach sich zieht. Die Fehler in den tatsächlichen Annahmen führen außerdem dazu, dass das Abschneidekriterium von 0,3 kg N/ (ha*a) nicht diejenige Grenze markiert, jenseits derer keine vernünftigen Zweifel am Ausbleiben von Schäden entstehen.

J. Kreyling  F. Tanneberger , F. Jansen, S. van der Linden, C. Aggenbach, V. Blüml, J. Couwenberg, W-J Emsens, H. Joosten, A. Klimkowska, W. Kotowski, L. Kozub, B. Lennartz ,Y. Liczner, H. Liu, D. Michaelis, C. Oehmke, K. Parakenings, E. Pleyl, A. Poyda, S. Raabe, M. Röhl, K. Rücker, A. Schneider, J. Schrautzer, C. Schröder, F. Schug, E. Seeber, F. Thiel, S. Thiele, B. Tiemeyer, T. Timmermann, T. Urich , R. van Diggelen, K. Vegelin, E. Verbruggen,
M. Wilmking, N. Wrage-Mönnig, L. Wo łejko, D. Zak  & G. Jurasinki (2021)

Rewetting does not return drained fen peatlands totheir old selves

Nature Communications, 12, 5693, 

https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-25619-y

Abstract: Peatlands have been drained for land use for a long time and on a large scale, turning them from carbon and nutrient sinks into respective sources, diminishing water regulation capacity, causing surface height loss and destroying biodiversity. Over the last decades, drained peatlands have been rewetted for biodiversity restoration and, as it strongly decreases greenhouse gas emissions, also for climate protection. We quantify restoration success by comparing 320 rewetted fen peatland sites to 243 near-natural peatland sites of similar origin across temperate Europe, all set into perspective by 10k additional European fen vegetation plots. Results imply that rewetting of drained fen peatlands induces the establishment of tall, graminoid wetland plants (helophytisation) and long-lasting differences to pre-drainage biodiversity (vegetation), ecosystem functioning (geochemistry, hydrology), and land cover characteristics (spectral temporal metrics). The Paris Agreement entails the rewetting of 500,000 km2 of drained peatlands worldwide until 2050-2070. A better understanding of the resulting locally novel ecosystems is required to improve planning and implementation of peatland rewetting and subsequent managemen

Robin Pouteau, Idoia Biurrun, Caroline Brunel, Milan Chytrý, Wayne Dawson, Franz Essl, Trevor Fristoe, Rense Haveman, Carsten Hobohm, Florian Jansen, Holger Kreft, Jonathan Lenoir, Bernd Lenzner, Carsten Meyer, Jesper Erenskjold Moeslund, Jan Pergl, Petr Pyšek, Jens-Christian Svenning, Wilfried Thuiller, Patrick Weigelt, Thomas Wohlgemuth, Qiang Yang, Mark van Kleunen (2021)

Potential alien ranges of European plants will shrink in the future, but less so for already naturalized than for not yet naturalized species

Diversity and Distribution

https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13378

Abstract: Aims: The rapid increase in the number of species that have naturalized beyond their native range is among the most apparent features of the Anthropocene. How alien species will respond to other processes of future global changes is an emerging concern and remains poorly misunderstood. We therefore ask whether naturalized species will respond to climate and land use change differently than those species not yet naturalized anywhere in the world. Location: Global. Methods: We investigated future changes in the potential alien range of vascular plant species endemic to Europe that are either naturalized (n = 272) or not yet naturalized (1,213) outside of Europe. Potential ranges were estimated based on projections of species distribution models using 20 future climate-change scenarios. We mapped current and future global centres of naturalization risk. We also analysed expected changes in latitudinal, elevational and areal extent of species’ potential alien ranges.Results: We showed a large potential for more worldwide naturalizations of European plants currently and in the future. The centres of naturalization risk for naturalized and non-naturalized plants largely overlapped, and their location did not change much under projected future climates. Nevertheless, naturalized plants had their potential range shifting poleward over larger distances, whereas the non-naturalized ones had their potential elevational ranges shifting further upslope under the most severe climate change scenarios. As a result, climate and land use changes are predicted to shrink the potential alien range of European plants, but less so for already naturalized than for non-naturalized species. Main conclusions: While currently non-naturalized plants originate frequently from mountain ranges or boreal and Mediterranean biomes in Europe, the naturalized ones usually occur at low elevations, close to human centres of activities. As the latter are expected to increase worldwide, this could explain why the potential alien range of already naturalized plants will shrink less.

Robin Pouteau, Wilfried Thuiller, Carsten Hobohm, Caroline Brunel, Barry J. Conn, Wayne Dawson, Michele de Sá Dechoum, Aleksandr L. Ebel, Franz Essl, Ori Fragman-Sapir, Trevor Fristoe, Nejc Jogan, Holger Kreft, Bernd Lenzner, Carsten Meyer, Jan Pergl, Petr Pyšek, Alla Verkhozina, Patrick Weigelt, Qiang Yang, Elena Zykova, Svetlana Aćić, Emiliano Agrillo, Fabio Attorre, Ariel Bergamini, Christian Berg, Erwin Bergmeier, Idoia Biurrun, Steffen Boch, Gianmaria Bonari, Zoltán Botta-Dukát, Helge Bruelheide, Juan Antonio Campos, Andraž Čarni, Laura Casella, Maria Laura Carranza, Milan Chytrý, Renata Ćušterevska, Michele De Sanctis, Jürgen Dengler, Panayotis Dimopoulos, Rasmus Ejrnæs, Jörg Ewald, Giuliano Fanelli, Federico Fernández-González, Rosario G. Gavilán, Jean-Claude Gegout, Rense Haveman, Maike Isermann, Ute Jandt, Florian Jansen, Borja Jiménez-Alfaro, Ali Kavgacı, Larisa Khanina, Ilona Knollová, Anna Kuzemko, Maria Lebedeva, Jonathan Lenoir, Tatiana Lysenko, Corrado Marcenò, Vasiliy Martynenko, Jesper Erenskjold Moeslund, Ricarda Pätsch, Remigiusz Pielech, Valerijus Rašomavičius, Iris de Ronde, Eszter Ruprecht, Solvita Rūsiņa, Pavel Shirokikh, Jozef Šibík, Urban Šilc, Angela Stanisci, Zvjezdana Stančić, Jens-Christian Svenning, Grzegorz Swacha, Pavel Dan Turtureanu, Milan Valachovič, Kiril Vassilev, Sergey Yamalov, Mark van Kleunen (2021)

Climate and socio-economic factors explain differences between observed and expected naturalization patterns of European plants around the world

Global Ecology and Biogeography

https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13316

Abstract: Aim: The number of naturalized (i.e. established) alien species has increased rapidly over recent centuries. Given the differences in environmental tolerances among species, little is known about what factors determine the extent to which the observed size of the naturalized range of a species and hence the extent to which the observed richness of naturalized species of a region approach their full potential. Here, we asked which region- and species-specific characteristics explain differences between observed and expected naturalizations. Location: Global. Time period: Present. Major taxa studied: Vascular plants.Methods: We determined the observed naturalized distribution outside Europe for 1,485 species endemic to Europe using the Global Naturalized Alien Flora (GloNAF) database and their expected distributions outside Europe using species distribution models. First, we investigated which of seven socio-economic factors related to introduction pathways, anthropogenic pressures and inventory effort best explained the differences between observed and expected naturalized European floras. Second, we examined whether distributional features, economic use and functional traits explain the extent to which species have filled their expected ranges outside Europe. Results: In terms of suitable area, more than 95% of expected naturalizations of European plants were not yet observed. Species were naturalized in only 4.2% of their suitable regions outside of Europe (range filling) and in 0.4% of their unsuitable regions (range expansion). Anthropogenic habitat disturbance primarily explained the difference between observed and expected naturalized European floras, as did the number of treaties relevant to invasive species. Species of ornamental and economic value and with large specific leaf area performed better at filling and expanding beyond their expected range. Main conclusions: The naturalization of alien plant species is explained by climate matching but also by the regional level of human development, the introduction pressure associated with the ornamental and economic values of the species and their adaptation to disturbed environments.

Josep Padullés Cubino, Idoia Biurrun, Gianmaria Bonari, Tatiana Braslavskaya, Xavier Font, Ute Jandt, Florian Jansen, Valerijus Rašomavičius, Željko Škvorc, Wolfgang Willner, Milan Chytrý (2021)

The leaf economic and plant size spectra of European forest understory vegetation

Ecography

https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.05598

Abstract: Forest understories play a vital role in ecosystem functioning and the provision of ecosystem services. However, the extent to which environmental conditions drive dominant ecological strategies in forest understories at the continental scale remains understudied. Here, we used ~29 500 forest vegetation plots sampled across Europe and classified into 25 forest types to explore the relative role of macroclimate, soil pH and tree canopy cover in driving abundance-weighted patterns in the leaf economic spectrum (LES) and plant size spectrum (PSS) of forest understories (shrub and herb layers). We calculated LES using specific leaf area (SLA) and leaf dry matter content (LDMC) and PSS using plant height and seed mass of vascular plant species found in the understories. We found that forest understories had more conservative leaf economics in areas with more extreme mean annual temperatures (mainly Fennoscandia and the Mediterranean Basin), more extreme soil pH and under more open canopies. Warm and summer-dry regions around the Mediterranean Basin and areas of Atlantic Europe also had taller understories with heavier seeds than continental temperate or boreal areas. Understories of broadleaved deciduous forests, such as Fagus forests on non-acid soils, or ravine forests, more commonly hosted species with acquisitive leaf economics. In contrast, some coniferous forests, such as Pinus, Larix and Picea mire forests, or Pinus sylvestris light taiga and sclerophyllous forests, more commonly hosted species with conservative leaf economics. Our findings highlight the importance of macroclimate and soil factors in driving trait variation of understory communities at the continental scale and the mediator effect of canopy cover on these relationships. We also provide the first maps and analyses of LES and PSS of forest understories across Europe and give evidence that the understories of European forest types are differently positioned along major axes of trait variation.

Francesco Maria Sabatini, Jonathan Lenoir, Tarek Hattab, Elise Aimee Arnst, Milan Chytrý, Jürgen Dengler, Patrice De Ruffray, Stephan M. Hennekens, Ute Jandt, Florian Jansen, Borja Jiménez-Alfaro, Jens Kattge, Aurora Levesley, Valério D. Pillar, Oliver Purschke, Brody Sandel, Fahmida Sultana, Tsipe Aavik, Svetlana Aćić, Alicia T. R. Acosta, Emiliano Agrillo, Miguel Alvarez, Iva Apostolova, Mohammed A. S. Arfin Khan, Luzmila Arroyo, Fabio Attorre, Isabelle Aubin, Arindam Banerjee, Marijn Bauters, Yves Bergeron, Erwin Bergmeier, Idoia Biurrun, Anne D. Bjorkman, Gianmaria Bonari, Viktoria Bondareva, Jörg Brunet, Andraž Čarni, Laura Casella, Luis Cayuela, Tomáš Černý, Victor Chepinoga, János Csiky, Renata Ćušterevska, Els De Bie, André Luis de Gasper, Michele De Sanctis, Panayotis Dimopoulos, Jiri Dolezal, Tetiana Dziuba, Mohamed Abd El-Rouf Mousa El-Sheikh, Brian Enquist, Jörg Ewald, Farideh Fazayeli, Richard Field, Manfred Finckh, Sophie Gachet, Antonio Galán-de-Mera, Emmanuel Garbolino, Hamid Gholizadeh, Melisa Giorgis, Valentin Golub, Inger Greve Alsos, John-Arvid Grytnes, Gregory Richard Guerin, Alvaro G. Gutiérrez, Sylvia Haider, Mohamed Z. Hatim, Bruno Hérault, Guillermo Hinojos Mendoza, Norbert Hölzel, Jürgen Homeier, Wannes Hubau, Adrian Indreica, John A. M. Janssen, Birgit Jedrzejek, Anke Jentsch, Norbert Jürgens, Zygmunt Kącki, Jutta Kapfer, Dirk Nikolaus Karger, Ali Kavgacı, Elizabeth Kearsley, Michael Kessler, Larisa Khanina, Timothy Killeen, Andrey Korolyuk, Holger Kreft, Hjalmar S. Kühl, Anna Kuzemko, Flavia Landucci, Attila Lengyel, Frederic Lens, Débora Vanessa Lingner, Hongyan Liu, Tatiana Lysenko, Miguel D. Mahecha, Corrado Marcenò, Vasiliy Martynenko, Jesper Erenskjold Moeslund, Abel Monteagudo Mendoza, Ladislav Mucina, Jonas V. Müller, Jérôme Munzinger, Alireza Naqinezhad, Jalil Noroozi, Arkadiusz Nowak, Viktor Onyshchenko, Gerhard E. Overbeck, Meelis Pärtel, Aníbal Pauchard, Robert K. Peet, Josep Peñuelas, Aaron Pérez-Haase, Tomáš Peterka, Petr Petřík, Gwendolyn Peyre, Oliver L. Phillips, Vadim Prokhorov, Valerijus Rašomavičius, Rasmus Revermann, Gonzalo Rivas-Torres, John S. Rodwell, Eszter Ruprecht, Solvita Rūsiņa, Cyrus Samimi, Marco Schmidt, Franziska Schrodt, Hanhuai Shan, Pavel Shirokikh, Jozef Šibík, Urban Šilc, Petr Sklenář, Željko Škvorc, Ben Sparrow, Marta Gaia Sperandii, Zvjezdana Stančić, Jens-Christian Svenning, Zhiyao Tang, Cindy Q. Tang, Ioannis Tsiripidis, Kim André Vanselow, Rodolfo Vásquez Martínez, Kiril Vassilev, Eduardo Vélez-Martin, Roberto Venanzoni, Alexander Christian Vibrans, Cyrille Violle, Risto Virtanen, Henrik von Wehrden, Viktoria Wagner, Donald A. Walker, Donald M. Waller, Hua-Feng Wang, Karsten Wesche, Timothy J. S. Whitfeld, Wolfgang Willner, Susan K. Wiser, Thomas Wohlgemuth, Sergey Yamalov, Martin Zobel, Helge Bruelheide (2021)

sPlotOpen – An environmentally balanced, open-access, global dataset of vegetation plots

Global Ecologyand Biogeography

https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13346

Abstract: Motivation: Assessing biodiversity status and trends in plant communities is critical for understanding, quantifying and predicting the effects of global change on ecosystems. Vegetation plots record the occurrence or abundance of all plant species co-occurring within delimited local areas. This allows species absences to be inferred, information seldom provided by existing global plant datasets. Although many vegetation plots have been recorded, most are not available to the global research community. A recent initiative, called ‘sPlot’, compiled the first global vegetation plot database, and continues to grow and curate it. The sPlot database, however, is extremely unbalanced spatially and environmentally, and is not open-access. Here, we address both these issues by (a) resampling the vegetation plots using several environmental variables as sampling strata and (b) securing permission from data holders of 105 local-to-regional datasets to openly release data. We thus present sPlotOpen, the largest open-access dataset of vegetation plots ever released. sPlotOpen can be used to explore global diversity at the plant community level, as ground truth data in remote sensing applications, or as a baseline for biodiversity monitoring. Main types of variable contained: Vegetation plots (n = 95,104) recording cover or abundance of naturally co-occurring vascular plant species within delimited areas. sPlotOpen contains three partially overlapping resampled datasets (c. 50,000 plots each), to be used as replicates in global analyses. Besides geographical location, date, plot size, biome, elevation, slope, aspect, vegetation type, naturalness, coverage of various vegetation layers, and source dataset, plot-level data also include community-weighted means and variances of 18 plant functional traits from the TRY Plant Trait Database. Spatial location and grain: Global, 0.01–40,000 m². Time period and grain:1888–2015, recording dates. Major taxa and level of measurement: 42,677 vascular plant taxa, plot-level records. Software format: Three main matrices (.csv), relationally linked.

Diana E. Bowler, David Eichenberg, Klaus-Jürgen Conze, Frank Suhling, Kathrin Baumann, Theodor Benken, André Bönsel, Torsten Bittner, Arne Drews, André Günther, Nick J.B. Isaac, Falk Petzold, Marcel Seyring, Torsten Spengler, Bernd Trockur, Christoph Willigalla, Helge Bruelheide, Florian Jansen, Aletta Bonn (2021)

Winners and losers over 35 years of dragonfly and damselfly distributional change in Germany

Diversity and Distributions

https://doi.org/10.1111/ddi.13274

Abstract: Aim: Recent studies suggest insect declines in parts of Europe; however, the generality of these trends across different taxa and regions remains unclear. Standardized data are not available to assess large-scale, long-term changes for most insect groups but opportunistic citizen science data are widespread for some. Here, we took advantage of citizen science data to investigate distributional changes of Odonata. Location: Germany. Methods: We compiled over 1 million occurrence records from different regional databases. We used occupancy-detection models to account for imperfect detection and estimate annual distributions for each species during 1980–2016 within 5 × 5 km quadrants. We also compiled data on species attributes that were hypothesized to affect species’ sensitivity to different drivers and related them to the changes in species’ distributions. We further developed a novel approach to cluster groups of species with similar patterns of distributional change to represent multispecies indicators. Results: More species increased (45%) than decreased (29%) or remained stable (26%) in their distribution (i.e. number of occupied quadrants). Species showing increases were generally warm-adapted species and/or running water species, while species showing decreases were cold-adapted species using standing water habitats such as bogs. Time series clustering defined five main patterns of change—each associated with a specific combination of species attributes, and confirming the key roles of species’ temperature and habitat preferences. Overall, our analysis predicted that mean quadrant-level species richness has increased over most of the time period. Main conclusions: Trends in Odonata provide mixed news—improved water quality, coupled with positive impacts of climate change, could explain the positive trends of many species. At the same time, declining species point to conservation challenges associated with habitat loss and degradation. Our study demonstrates the great value of citizen science and the work of natural history societies for assessing large-scale distributional change.

Martin Večeřa, Irena Axmanová, Josep Padullés Cubino, Zdeňka Lososová, Jan Divíšek, Ilona Knollová, Svetlana Aćić, Idoia Biurrun, Steffen Boch, Gianmaria Bonari, Juan Antonio Campos, Andraž Čarni, Maria Laura Carranza, Laura Casella, Alessandro Chiarucci, Renata Ćušterevska, Pauline Delbosc, Jürgen Dengler, Federico Fernández-González, Jean-Claude Gégout, Ute Jandt, Florian Jansen, Anni Jašková, Borja Jiménez-Alfaro, Anna Kuzemko, Maria Lebedeva, Jonathan Lenoir, Tatiana Lysenko, Jesper Erenskjold Moeslund, Remigiusz Pielech, Eszter Ruprecht, Jozef Šibík, Urban Šilc, Željko Škvorc, Grzegorz Swacha, Irina Tatarenko, Kiril Vassilev, Thomas Wohlgemuth, Sergey Yamalov, Milan Chytrý (2021)

Mapping species richness of plant families in European vegetation

Journal of Vegetation Sciences

https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.13035

Abstract: Aims: Biodiversity is traditionally studied mostly at the species level, but biogeographical and macroecological studies at higher taxonomic levels can provide valuable insights into the evolutionary processes at large spatial scales. Our aim was to assess the representation of vascular plant families within different vegetation formations across Europe.Location: Europe. Methods: We used a data set of 816,005 vegetation plots from the European Vegetation Archive (EVA). For each plot, we calculated the relative species richness of each plant family as the number of species belonging to that family divided by the total number of species. We mapped the relative species richness, averaged across all plots in 50 km × 50 km grid cells, for each family and broad habitat groups: forests, grasslands, scrub and wetlands. We also calculated the absolute species richness and the Shannon diversity index for each family. Results: We produced 522 maps of mean relative species richness for a total of 152 vascular plant families occurring in forests, grasslands, scrub and wetlands. We found distinct spatial patterns for many combinations of families and habitat groups. The resulting series of 522 maps is freely available, both as images and GIS layers. Conclusions: The distinct spatial patterns revealed in the maps suggest that the relative species richness of plant families at the community level reflects the evolutionary history of individual families. We believe that the maps and associated data can inspire further biogeographical and macroecological studies and strengthen the ongoing integration of phylogenetic, functional and taxonomic diversity concepts.

Bruelheide, Helge; Jansen, Florian; Jandt, Ute; Bernhardt‐Römermann, Markus; Bonn, Aletta; Bowler, Diana; Dengler, Jürgen; Eichenberg, David; Grescho, Volker; Kellner, Simon; Klenke, Reinhard A.; Lütt, Silke; Lüttgert, Lina; Sabatini, Francesco Maria, Wesche, Karsten (2021)

A checklist for using Beals’ index with incomplete floristic monitoring data

Diversity and Distributions

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ddi.13277

Abstract: Christensen et al. criticized the application of Beals’ index of sociological favourability to adjust for incomplete species lists when comparing repeated surveys. Their main argument was that using Beals’ conditional occurrence probabilities would systematically underestimate biodiversity change compared to using observed frequencies. Although this might be the case for rare species, as we explicitly stated in our original publication, we here use a worked‐out example to show that this criticism is unjustified for species that are sufficiently represented in the reference data set. In our opinion, the misconception derives from ignoring one of the key requirements for applying Beal's index, which is the use of a sufficiently large reference data set to derive a reliable co‐occurrence matrix. We here show how the predicted probability for the occurrence of a species depends on the size of the reference data set and give recommendations on the premises for applying Beals’ approach for monitoring purposes.

Sporbert, Maria; Welk, Erik; Seidler, Gunnar; Jandt, Ute; Aćić, Svetlana; Biurrun, Idoia; Campos, Juan Antonio; Čarni, Andraž; Cerabolini, Bruno E. L.; Chytrý, Milan; Ćušterevska, Renata; Dengler, Jürgen; De Sanctis, Michele; Dziuba, Tetiana; Fagúndez, Jaime; Field, Richard; Golub, Valentin; He, Tianhua; Jansen, Florian; Lenoir, Jonathan; Marcenò, Corrado; Martín‐Forés, Irene; Erenskjold Moeslund, Jesper; Moretti, Marco; Niinemets, Ülo; Penuelas, Josep; Pérez‐Haase, Aaron; Vandvik, Vigdis; Vassilev, Kiril; Vynokurov, Denys; Bruelheide, Helge (2021)

Different sets of traits explain abundance and distribution patterns of European plants at different spatial scales

Journal of Vegetation Science

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jvs.13016

Abstract:Aim: Plant functional traits summarize the main variability in plant form and function across taxa and biomes. We assess whether geographic range size, climatic niche size, and local abundance of plants can be predicted by sets of traits (trait syndromes) or are driven by single traits. Location: Eurasia Methods: Species distribution maps were extracted from the Chorological Database Halle to derive information on the geographic range size and climatic niche size for 456 herbaceous, dwarf shrub and shrub species. We estimated local species abundances based on 740,113 vegetation plots from the European Vegetation Archive, where abundances were available as plant species cover per plot. We compiled a complete species-by-trait-matrix of 20 plant functional traits from trait databases (TRY, BiolFlor and CLO-PLA). The relationships of species geographic range size, climatic niche size and local abundance with single traits and trait syndromes were tested with multiple linear regression models. Results: Generally, traits were more strongly related to local abundances than to broad-scale species distribution patterns in geographic and climatic space (range and niche size), but both were better predicted by trait combinations than by single traits. Local abundance increased with leaf area and specific leaf area (SLA). Geographic range size and climatic niche size both increased with SLA. While range size increased with plant height, niche size decreased with leaf carbon content. Conclusion: Functional traits matter for species abundance and distribution at both local and broad geographic scale. Local abundances are associated with different combinations of traits as compared to broad-scale distributions, pointing to filtering by different environmental and ecological factors acting at distinct spatial scales. However, traits related to the leaf economics spectrum were important for species abundance and occurrence at both spatial scales. This finding emphasizes the general importance of resource acquisition strategies for the abundance and distribution of herbaceous, dwarf shrub and shrub species.

Florian Beyer, Florian Jansen, Gerald Jurasinski, Marian Koch, Birgit Schröder and Franziska Koebsch (2021)

Drought years in peatland rewetting: rapid vegetation succession can maintain the net CO₂ sink function

Biogeosciences,  18, 917–935.

https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-18-917-2021

Abstract: The rewetting of peatlands is regarded as an important nature-based climate solution and intended to reconcile climate protection with the restoration of self-regulating ecosystems that are resistant to climate impacts. Although the severity and frequency of droughts are predicted to increase as a consequence of climate change, it is not well understood whether such extreme events can jeopardize rewetting measures. The goal of this study was to better understand drought effects on vegetation development and the exchange of the two important greenhouse gases CO₂ and CH₄, especially in rewetted fens. Based on long-term reference records, we investigated anomalies in vegetation dynamics, CH₄ emissions, and net CO₂ exchange, including the component fluxes of ecosystem respiration (R_eco) and gross ecosystem productivity (GEP), in a rewetted fen during the extreme European summer drought in 2018. Drought-induced vegetation dynamics were derived from remotely sensed data.

Since flooding in 2010, the fen was characterized by a patchy mosaic of open-water surfaces and vegetated areas. After years of stagnant vegetation development, drought acted as a trigger event for pioneer species such as Tephroseris palustris and Ranunculus sceleratus to rapidly close persistent vegetation gaps. The massive spread of vegetation assimilated substantial amounts of CO₂. In 2018, the annual GEP budget increased by 20 % in comparison to average years (2010–2017). R_eco increased even by 40 %, but enhanced photosynthetic CO₂ sequestration could compensate for half of the drought-induced increase in respiratory CO₂ release. Altogether, the restored fen remained a net CO₂ sink in the year of drought, though net CO₂ sequestration was lower than in other years. CH₄ emissions were 20 % below average on an annual basis, though stronger reduction effects occurred from August onwards, when daily fluxes were 60 % lower than in reference years.

Our study reveals an important regulatory mechanism of restored fens to maintain their net CO₂ sink function even in extremely dry years. It appears that, in times of more frequent climate extremes, fen restoration can create ecosystems resilient to drought. However, in order to comprehensively assess the mitigation prospects of peatland rewetting as a nature-based climate solution, further research needs to focus on the long-term effects of such extreme events beyond the actual drought period.

Helge Bruelheide, Lubomír Tichý, Milan Chytrý, Florian Jansen (2021)

Implementing the formal language of the vegetation classification expert systems (esy) in the statistical computing environment R

Applied Vegetation Science

https://doi.org/10.1111/avsc.12562

Abstract: Aims: The machine‐readable formal language of the classification expert systems has become a standard for applying plot assignment rules in vegetation classification. Here we present an efficient algorithm implementing the vegetation classification expert system in the statistical programming language R. Methods and results: The principal idea of the R implementation is to solve the assignments to vegetation types not sequentially plot by plot but to parse the assignment rules into (nested) components that each can be evaluated by simultaneous vector‐based processing of all plots in a database. We demonstrate the algorithm taking the EUNIS classification expert system of European habitat types (EUNIS‐ESy) as an example. Conclusions: The R code version of the vegetation classification expert system is particularly useful in large vegetation‐plot databases because it solves all logical operations vector‐wise across all plots, allowing for efficient evaluation of membership expressions and formulas. Another advantage of the R implementation is that membership formulas are not only readable but can also be produced as a machine‐written result, for example as the output of classification algorithms run in R.

David Eichenberg, Diana E. Bowler, Aletta Bonn, Helge Bruelheide, Volker Grescho, David Harter, Ute Jandt, Rudolf May, Marten Winter, Florian Jansen (2021)

Widespread decline in Central European plant diversity across six decades

Global Change Biology 27, 1097-1110.

https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15447

Abstract.  Based on plant occurrence data covering all parts of Germany, we investigated changes in the distribution of 2136 plant species between 1960 and 2017. We analyzed 29 million occurrence records over an area of ~350,000 km² on a 5 × 5 km grid using temporal and spatiotemporal models and accounting for sampling bias. Since the 1960s, more than 70% of investigated plant species showed declines in nationwide occurrence. Archaeophytes (species introduced before 1492) most strongly declined but also native plant species experienced severe declines. In contrast, neophytes (species introduced after 1492) increased in their nationwide occurrence but not homogeneously throughout the country. Our analysis suggests that the strongest declines in native species already happened in the 1960s–1980s, a time frame in which often few data exist. Increases in neophytic species were strongest in the 1990s and 2010s. Overall, the increase in neophytes did not compensate for the loss of other species, resulting in a decrease in mean grid cell species richness of −1.9% per decade. The decline in plant biodiversity is a widespread phenomenon occurring in different habitats and geographic regions. It is likely that this decline has major repercussions on ecosystem functioning and overall biodiversity, potentially with cascading effects across trophic levels. The approach used in this study is transferable to other large‐scale trend analyses using heterogeneous occurrence data.

Wolfgang Willner, Idoia Biurrun, Jürgen Dengler, Florian Jansen (2021)

Vegetation Classification and Survey: the first year

Vegetation Classification and Survey 2 , 1-4.

10.3897/VCS/2021/63608

Abstract: We report on the completed first volume of Vegetation Classification and Survey (VCS), which included ten Research Papers, six Short Database Reports, two Long Database Reports, two Forum Papers and one Report. We highlight three outstanding papers as examples of contributions of which we would like to see more in the future. Finally, we announce a new article type “VCS Methods” and report about the status of two upcoming Special Collections. Lists of colleagues who served as reviewers or linguistic editors in 2020 are included in appendices.

2020

Josep Padullés Cubino, Borja Jiménez‐Alfaro, Francesco Maria Sabatini, Wolfgang Willner, Zdeňka Lososová, Idoia Biurrun, Jörg Brunet, Juan Antonio Campos, Adrian Indreica, Florian Jansen, Jonathan Lenoir, Željko Škvorc, Kiril Vassilev, Milan Chytrý (2020)

Plant taxonomic and phylogenetic turnover increases toward climatic extremes and depends on historical factors in European beech forests

Applied Vegetation Science

https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12977

Abstract: Aims: The effect of biogeographical processes on the spatial turnover component of beta‐diversity over large spatial extents remains scarcely understood. Here, we aim at disentangling the roles of environmental and historical factors on plant taxonomic and phylogenetic turnover, while controlling for the effects of species richness and rarity. Location: European beech (Fagus sylvatica) forests in Europe. Methods: We aggregated plant species occurrences from vegetation plots in spatial grid cells of 0.25º × 0.25º to calculate the spatial turnover component of taxonomic (TBD_turn) and phylogenetic (PBD_turn) beta‐diversity for each cell. We also calculated the deviation of PBD_turn given TBD_turn (PBD_dev‐turn), which measures the importance of phylogenetic turnover after factoring out taxonomic turnover. Beta‐diversity was calculated for each grid cell as the mean pairwise dissimilarity between the focal cell and all other cells. We used structural equation modeling (SEM) to examine the relationships between environmental (climate, soil pH, and distance from the geographical distribution limit of beech) and historical (distance from beech glacial refugia) predictors and beta‐diversity metrics. Results: We found a geographically consistent variation in taxonomic and phylogenetic turnover. Overall, TBD_turn and PBD_turn increased significantly toward more extreme climatic conditions, on more acidic soils, and toward the margins of beech distribution. The effects of environmental variables and the distance from glacial refugia on beta‐diversity metrics were mediated by species richness and rarity. Phylogenetic turnover was low in relation to taxonomic turnover (i.e., high PBD_dev‐turn) in areas closer to glacial refugia. Conclusions: Continental‐scale patterns of beta‐diversity in European beech forests are the result of complementary ecological and evolutionary processes. In general, beech forests are taxonomically and phylogenetically more distinct in climatically marginal areas of their European range. However, the spatial variation of beta‐diversity in European beech forest flora is still strongly characterized by the distribution of groups of closely related species that evolved or survived in glacial refugia.

Michal Hájek, Borja Jiménez-Alfaro, Ondřej Hájek, Lisa Brancaleoni, Marco Cantonati, Michele Carbognani, Anita Dedić, Daniel Dítě, Renato Gerdol, Petra Hájková, Veronika Horsáková, Florian Jansen, Jasmina Kamberović, Jutta Kapfer, Tiina Kolari, Mariusz Lamentowicz, Predrag Lazarević, Ermin Mašić, Jesper Erenskjold Moeslund, Aaron Pérez-6Haase, Tomáš Peterka, Alessandro Petraglia, Eulàlia Pladevall-Izard, Zuzana Plesková, Stefano Segadelli, Yuliya Semeniuk, Patrícia Singh, Anna Šímová, Eva Šmerdová, Teemu Tahvanainen, Marcello Tomaselli, Yuliya Vystavna, Claudia Biţă-Nicolae, Michal Horsák (2020)

A European map of groundwater pH and calcium

Earth System Science Data

https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2020-319

Abstract. Water resources and associated ecosystems are becoming highly endangered due to ongoing global environmental changes. Spatial ecological modelling is a widely used tool for understanding the past, present and future distribution and diversity patterns in groundwater-dependent ecosystems, such as fens, springs, streams, reed beds or wet grasslands. Still, the lack of detailed water chemistry maps prevents their reasonable use on continental and global scales. Being major determinants of biological composition and diversity of groundwater-dependent ecosystems, groundwater pH and calcium are of utmost importance. Here we developed the up-to-date European map of groundwater pH and Ca,based on 7,577 measurements of near-surface groundwater pH and calcium distributed across Europe. In comparison to the existing European groundwater maps, we included a several times larger number of sites, especially in the regions rich in spring and fen habitats, and filled the apparent gaps in Eastern and Southeastern Europe. We used Random Forest models and regression kriging to create continuous maps of water pH and calcium at the continental scale, which is freely available also as a raster map (Hájek et al. 2020; 10.5281/zenodo.4139912). Lithology had higher importance than climate for both pH and calcium. The previously recognised latitudinal and altitudinal gradients were rediscovered with much refined regional patterns, as associated with bedrock variation. For ecological models of distribution and diversity of groundwater-dependent, but also other terrestrial,ecosystems, the new map is more suitable than previouslyused maps of soil pH, unlike which it mirrors bedrock chemistry more than vegetation-dependent soil processes.
 

Hjalmar S.Kühl, Diana E.Bowler, Lukas Bösch, Helge Bruelheide, JensDauber, David Eichenberg, Nico Eisenhauer, Néstor Fernánde, Carlos A.Guerra, Klaus Henle, Ilka Herbinger, Nick J.B.Isaac, FlorianJansen, BirgittaKönig-Ries, Ingolf Kühn, Erlend B.Nilsen, Guy Pe'er, Anett Richter, Aletta Bonn (2020)

Effective Biodiversity Monitoring Needs a Culture of Integration

One Earth 3 (4), 462-474.

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2020.09.010

Summary: Despite conservation commitments, most countries still lack large-scale biodiversity monitoring programs to track progress toward agreed targets. Monitoring program design is frequently approached from a top-down, data-centric perspective that ignores the socio-cultural context of data collection. A rich landscape of people and organizations, with a diversity of motivations and expertise, independently engages in biodiversity monitoring. This diversity often leads to complementarity in activities across places, time periods, and taxa. In this Perspective, we propose a framework for aligning different efforts to realize large-scale biodiversity monitoring through a networked design of stakeholders, data, and biodiversity schemes. We emphasize the value of integrating independent biodiversity observations in conjunction with a backbone of structured core monitoring, thereby fostering broad ownership and resilience due to a strong partnership of science, society, policy, and individuals. Furthermore, we identify stakeholder-specific barriers and incentives to foster joint collaboration toward effective large-scale biodiversity monitoring.

David Eichenberg, Markus Bernhardt-Römermann, Diana Bowler, Helge Bruelheide, Klaus-Jürgen Conze, Jens Dauber, Jürgen Dengler, Diana Engels, Thomas Fartmann, Dieter Frank, Christian Geske, Volker Grescho, David Harter, Klaus Henle, Sylvia Hofmann, Ute Jandt, Florian Jansen, Johannes Kamp, Antje Kautzner, Birgitta König-Ries, Roland Krämer, Andreas Krüß, Hjalmar Kühl, Martin Ludwig, Holger Lueg, Rudolf May, Martin Musche, Andreas Opitz, Katrin Ronnenberg, Annemarie Schacherer, Livia Schäffler, Katja Schiffers, Ulrich Schulte, Johannes Schwarz, Thomas Sperle, Sabine Stab, Matthias Stöck, Florian Theves, Bernd Trockur, Karsten Wesche, Magnus Wessel, Marten Winter, Christian Wirth und Aletta Bonn (2020)

Langfristige Biodiversitätsveränderungen in Deutschland erkennen – mit Hilfe der Vergangenheit in die Zukunft schauen

Natur und Landschaft, 11, 479–491.

DOI: 10.17433/11.2020.50153851.479-491

Abstract: In this article, we identify possibilities and limits of processing as yet unused data sources for spatio-temporal biodiversity trend analyses inGermany. The sMon synthesis project (https://www.idiv.de/smon) of the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig is a joint working group of federal and state authorities cooperating with natural history societies, nature protection organisations and scientific institutions. In this group, we develop and evaluate methods for using heterogeneous data for retrospective trend analyses over the last decades. Building on this, we propose viable approaches for the future of German biodiversity monitoring and illustrate how data from the past can help to shape monitoring in the future.

Maria Sporbert, Petr Keil, Gunnar Seidler, Helge Bruelheide, Ute Jandt, Svetlana Aćić, Idoia Biurrun, Juan Antonio Campos, Andraž Čarni, Milan Chytrý, Renata Ćušterevska, Jürgen Dengler, Valentin Golub, Florian Jansen, Anna Kuzemko, Jonathan Lenoir, Corrado Marcenò, Jesper Erenskjold Moeslund, Aaron Pérez‐Haase, Solvita Rūsiņa, Urban Šilc, Ioannis Tsiripidris, Vigdis Vandvik, Kiril Vasilev, Risto Virtanen, Erik Welk (2020)

Testing macroecological abundance patterns: The relationship between local abundance and range size, range position and climatic suitability among European vascular plants

Journal of Biogeography, 47(10), 2210-2222.

https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.13926

Abstract: Aim: A fundamental question in macroecology centres around understanding the relationship between species’ local abundance and their distribution in geographical and climatic space (i.e. the multi‐dimensional climatic space or climatic niche). Here, we tested three macroecological hypotheses that link local abundance to the following range properties: (a) the abundance–range size relationship, (b) the abundance–range centre relationship and (c) the abundance–suitability relationship. Location: Europe.Taxon: Vascular plants. Methods: Distribution range maps were extracted from the Chorological Database Halle to derive information on the range and niche sizes of 517 European vascular plant species. To estimate local abundance, we assessed samples from 744,513 vegetation plots in the European Vegetation Archive, where local species’ abundance is available as plant cover per plot. We then calculated the ‘centrality’, that is, the distance between the location of the abundance observation and each species’ range centre in geographical and climatic space. The climatic suitability of plot locations was estimated using coarse‐grain species distribution models (SDMs). The relationships between centrality or climatic suitability with abundance was tested using linear models and quantile regression. We summarized the overall trend across species’ regression slopes from linear models and quantile regression using a meta‐analytical approach. Results: We did not detect any positive relationships between a species’ mean local abundance and the size of its geographical range or climatic niche. Contrasting yet significant correlations were detected between abundance and centrality or climatic suitability among species. Main conclusions: Our results do not provide unequivocal support for any of the relationships tested, demonstrating that determining properties of species’ distributions at large grains and extents might be of limited use for predicting local abundance, including current SDM approaches. We conclude that environmental factors influencing individual performance and local abundance are likely to differ from those factors driving plant species’ distribution at coarse resolution and broad geographical extents.

Milan Chytrý, Lubomír Tichý, Stephan M. Hennekens, Ilona Knollová, John A. M. Janssen, John S. Rodwell, Tomáš Peterka, Corrado Marcenò, Flavia Landucci, Jiří Danihelka, Michal Hájek, Jürgen Dengler, Pavel Novák, Dominik Zukal, Borja, Jiménez‐Alfaro, Ladislav Mucina, Sylvain Abdulhak, Svetlana Aćić, Emiliano Agrillo, Fabio Attorre, Erwin Bergmeier, Idoia Biurrun, Steffen Boch, János Bölöni, Gianmaria Bonari, Tatiana Braslavskaya, Helge Bruelheide, Juan Antonio Campos, Andraž Čarni, Laura Casella, Mirjana Ćuk, Renata Ćušterevska, Els De Bie, Pauline Delbosc, Olga Demina, Yakiv Didukh, Daniel Dítě, Tetiana Dziuba, Jörg Ewald, Rosario G. Gavilán, Jean‐Claude Gégout, Gian Pietro Giusso del Galdo, Valentin Golub, Nadezhda Goncharova, Friedemann Goral, Ulrich Graf, Adrian Indreica, Maike Isermann, Ute Jandt, Florian Jansen, Jan Jansen, Anni Jašková, Martin Jiroušek, Zygmunt Kącki, Veronika Kalníková, Ali Kavgacı, Larisa Khanina, Andrey Yu. Korolyuk, Mariya Kozhevnikova, Anna Kuzemko, Filip Küzmič, Oleg L. Kuznetsov, Māris Laiviņš, Igor Lavrinenko, Olga Lavrinenko, Maria Lebedeva, Zdeňka Lososová, Tatiana Lysenko, Lise Maciejewski, Constantin Mardari, Aleksander Marinšek, Maxim G. Napreenko, Viktor Onyshchenko, Aaron Pérez‐Haase, Remigiusz Pielech, Vadim Prokhorov, Valerijus Rašomavičius, Maria Pilar Rodríguez Rojo, Solvita Rūsiņa, Joachim Schrautzer, Jozef Šibík, , Urban Šilc, Željko Škvorc, Viktor A. Smagin, Zvjezdana Stančić, Angela Stanisci, Elena Tikhonova, Tiina Tonteri, Domas Uogintas, Milan Valachovič, Kiril Vassilev, Denys Vynokurov, Wolfgang Willner, Sergey Yamalov, Douglas Evans, Mette Palitzsch Lund, Rania Spyropoulou, Eleni Tryfon, Joop H. J. Schaminée (2020)

EUNIS Habitat Classification: Expert system, characteristic species combinations and distribution maps of European habitats

Applied Vegetation Science

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/avsc.12519

Abstract: Aim: The EUNIS Habitat Classification is a widely used reference framework for European habitat types (habitats), but it lacks formal definitions of individual habitats that would enable their unequivocal identification. Our goal was to develop a tool for assigning vegetation‐plot records to the habitats of the EUNIS system, use it to classify a European vegetation‐plot database, and compile statistically‐derived characteristic species combinations and distribution maps for these habitats. Location: Europe. Methods: We developed the classification expert system EUNIS‐ESy, which contains definitions of individual EUNIS habitats based on their species composition and geographic location. Each habitat was formally defined as a formula in a computer language combining algebraic and set‐theoretic concepts with formal logical operators. We applied this expert system to classify 1,261,373 vegetation plots from the European Vegetation Archive (EVA) and other databases. Then we determined diagnostic, constant and dominant species for each habitat by calculating species‐to‐habitat fidelity and constancy (occurrence frequency) in the classified data set. Finally, we mapped the plot locations for each habitat. Results:Formal definitions were developed for 199 habitats at Level 3 of the EUNIS hierarchy, including 25 coastal, 18 wetland, 55 grassland, 43 shrubland, 46 forest and 12 man‐made habitats. The expert system classified 1,125,121 vegetation plots to these habitat groups and 73,188 to other habitats, while 63,064 plots remained unclassified or were classified to more than one habitat. Data on each habitat were summarized in factsheets containing habitat description, distribution map, corresponding syntaxa and characteristic species combination. Conclusions:EUNIS habitats were characterized for the first time in terms of their species composition and distribution, based on a classification of a European database of vegetation plots using the newly developed electronic expert system EUNIS‐ESy. The data provided and the expert system have considerable potential for future use in European nature conservation planning, monitoring and assessment.

D.E Bowler, D. Eichenberg, K.J. Conze, F. Suhling, K. Baumann, A. Bönsel, T. Bittner, A. Drews, A. Günther, N.J.B. Isaac, F. Petzold, M. Seyring, T. Spengler, B. Trockur, C. Willigalla, H. Bruelheide, F. Jansen, A. Bonn (2020)

Winners and losers over 35 years of dragonfly and damselfly distributional change in Germany

bioRxiv

https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.08.03.234104v1

Abstract: Recent studies suggest insect declines in parts of Europe; however, the generality of these trends across different taxa and regions remains unclear. Standardized data are not available to assess large-scale, long-term changes for most insect groups but opportunistic citizen science data is widespread for some taxa. We compiled over 1 million occurrence records of Odonata (dragonflies and damselflies) from different regional databases across Germany. We used occupancy-detection models to estimate annual distributional changes between 1980 and 2016 for each species. We related species attributes to changes in the species’ distributions and inferred possible drivers of change. Species showing increases were generally warm-adapted species and/or running water species while species showing decreases were cold-adapted species using standing water habitats such as bogs. We developed a novel approach using time-series clustering to identify groups of species with similar patterns of temporal change. Using this method, we defined five typical patterns of change for Odonata – each associated with a specific combination of species attributes. Overall, trends in Odonata provide mixed news – improved water quality, coupled with positive impacts of climate change, could explain the positive trend status of many species. At the same time, declining species point to conservation challenges associated with habitat loss and degradation. Our study demonstrates the great value of citizen science data for assessing large-scale distributional change and conservation decision-making.

Eichenberg David, Diana E. Bowler, Bonn Aletta, Bruelheide Helge, Grescho Volker, Harter David, Jandt Ute, May Rudolf, Winter Marten, Jansen Florian (2020)

Widespread decline in plant diversity across six decades

bioRxiv

https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.31.275461

Abstract: Based on plant occurrence data covering all parts of Germany, we investigated changes in the distribution of 2146 plant species between 1960 and 2017. We analyzed 29 million occurrence records over an area of ∼350.000 km² on a 5 × 5 km grid using temporal and spatio-temporal models and accounting for sampling bias. Since the 1960s, more than 70% of investigated plant species showed significant declines in nation-wide occurrence. Archaeophytes (species introduced before 1492) most strongly declined but also native plant species experienced severe declines. In contrast, neophytes (species introduced after 1492) increased in their nation-wide occurrence but not homogeneously throughout the country. Our analysis suggests that the strongest declines in native species already happened in the 1960s-80s, a time frame in which usually few data exist. Increases in neophytic species were strongest in the 1990s and 2010s. Overall, the increase in neophytes did not compensate for the loss of other species, resulting in a decrease in mean grid-cell species-richness of -1.9% per decade. The decline in plant biodiversity is a widespread phenomenon occurring in different habitats and geographic regions. It is likely that this decline has major repercussions on ecosystem functioning and overall biodiversity, potentially with cascading effects across trophic levels. The approach used in this study is transferable to large-scale trend analyses using heterogeneous occurrence data.

Helge Bruelheide, Florian Jansen,  Ute Jandt, Markus Bernhardt-Römermann, Aletta Bonn, Diana Bowler, Jürgen Dengler, David Eichenberg, Volker Grescho, David Harter, Matthias Jugelt, Simon Kellner, Martin Ludwig, Karsten Wesche, Silke Lütt (2020)

Using incomplete floristic monitoring data from habitat mapping programmes to detect species trends

Diversity and Distributions 26,782–794.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/ddi.13058

Abstract: Aim: The loss of biodiversity has raised serious concerns about the entailing losses of ecosystem services. Here, we explore the potential of repeated habitat mapping data to identify floristic changes over time. Using one German federal state as a case study, we assessed floristic changes between the 1980s and 2010s. These habitat data have great potential for analysis because of their high spatial coverage while also posing methodological challenges such as incomplete observation data. We developed a modelling approach that accounts for incomplete observations and explored the ability to detect temporal trends. Location: The Federal State of Schleswig-Holstein (Germany). Methods: We compiled plant species lists from the earliest (1980s) and most recent (2010s) habitat mapping survey and aligned differing habitat definitions across mapping campaigns. A total of 5,503 mapped polygons, each with a list of species records, intersected the two surveys. We accounted for underrecorded species by assigning occurrence probabilities, based on species co-occurrence information across all surveys, using Beals' index and tested the robustness of this approach by simulation experiments. For those species with significant increases and decreases in occurrence probability, we linked these trends to the species' functional characteristics. Results: We found a systematic loss of species that are moderately threatened. Species that indicate low nitrogen supply and high soil moisture declined, suggesting a shift towards a more eutrophic and drier landscape. Importantly, assessing specific plant traits associated with losses, we also detected a decrease in species with reddish and blueish flowers and species providing nectar, pointing to a decrease of insect-pollinated taxa. Main conclusions: The identified changes raise concerns that plant biodiversity has fundamentally changed over the last three decades, with concomitant consequences for ecosystem services, especially pollination. Given the general lack of historical standardized data, our approach for trend analyses using incomplete observation data may be widely applicable to assess long-term biodiversity change.

Flavia Landucci, Kateřina Šumberová, Lubomír Tichý, Stephan Hennekens, Liene Aunina, Claudia Biță‐Nicolae, Lyubov Borsukevych, Alexander Bobrov, Andraž Čarni, Els De Bie, Valentin Golub, Richard Hrivnák, Svitlana Iemelianova, Ute Jandt, Florian Jansen, Zygmunt Kącki, Konrád Lájer, Eva Papastergiadou, Urban Šilc, Zofija Sinkevičienė, Zvjezdana Stančić, Jazep Stepanovič, Boris Teteryuk, Rossen Tzonev, Roberto Venanzoni, Igor Zelnik, Milan Chytrý (2020)

Classification of the European marsh vegetation (Phragmito‐Magnocaricetea) to the association level

Applied Vegetation Science 23, 297–316

https://doi.org/10.1101/2020.08.31.275461

Abstract: Aims: To create a comprehensive, consistent and unequivocal phytosociological classification of European marsh vegetation of the class Phragmito-Magnocaricetea. Location: Europe. Methods: We applied the Cocktail method to a European data set of 249 800 vegetation plots. We identified the mainpurposes and attributes on which to base the classification, defined assignment rules for vegetation plots, and prepared formal definitions for all the associations, alliances and orders of the class Phragmito-Magnocaricetea using formal logic. Each formula consists of the combination of ‘functional species groups’, cover values of individual species, and in the case of high-rank syntaxa also of ‘discriminating species groups’ created using the Group Improvement (GRIMP) method. Results: The European Phragmito-Magnocaricetea vegetation was classified into 92 associations grouped in 11 alliances and 6 orders. New syntaxa (previously invalidly published according to the International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature) were introduced: Bolboschoeno maritimi-Schoenoplection tabernaemontani, Glycerio maximae-Sietum latifolii, Glycerio notatae-Veronicetum beccabungae, Schoenoplectetum corymbosi and Thelypterido palustris-Caricetum elongatae. Based on a critical revision, some other syntaxa were rejected or excluded from the class Phragmito- Magnocaricetea. Conclusions: This work provides the first consistent classification of the class Phragmito-Magnocaricetea at the European scale, which is an important tool for nature conservation. Our classification largely respects previously existing concepts of syntaxa, but it also proposes modifications to the recently published EuroVegChecklist. This work also provides a comprehensible protocol that can be used for extending the current classification to new syntaxa and
geographical regions.

Florian Jansen, Idoia Biurrun, Jürgen Dengler, Wolfgang Willner (2020)

Vegetation classification goes open access

Vegetation Classification and Survey 1, 1-6.

10.3897/VCS/2020/53445

Abstract: With this inaugural editorial, we introduce Vegetation Classification and Survey (VCS), the new gold open access (OA) journal of the International Association for Vegetation Science (IAVS). VCS is devoted to vegetation classification at any spatial and organisational scale and irrespective of the methodological approach. It welcomes equally case studies and broad-scale syntheses as well as conceptual and methodological papers. Two Permanent Collections deal with ecoinformatics (including the standardised Database Reports published in collaboration with GIVD, the Global Index of Vegetation-Plot Databases) and phytosociological nomenclature (edited in collaboration with the respective IAVS Working Group). We discuss the advantages of OA as well as challenges and drawbacks caused by the way it is currently implemented, namely “pay for flaws” and publication impediments for scientists without access to funding. Being a society-owned journal, editorial decisions in VCS are free from economic considerations, while at the same time IAVS offers significant reductions to article processing charges (APCs) for authors with financial constraints. However, it is recognised that sustainable OA publishing will require that payment systems are changed from author-paid APCs to contracts between the science funding agencies and publishers or learned societies, to cover the production costs of journals that meet both quality and impact criteria.

2019
 

Masha T. van der Sande, Helge Bruelheide, Wayne Dawson, Jürgen Dengler, Franz Essl, Richard Field, Sylvia Haider, Mark van Kleunen, Holger Kreft, Joern Pagel, Jan Pergl, Oliver Purschke, Petr Pyšek, Patrick Weigelt, Marten Winter, Fabio Attorre, Isabelle Aubin, Erwin Bergmeier, Milan Chytrý, Matteo Dainese, Michele De Sanctis, Jaime Fagunde, Valentin Golub, Greg R. Guerin, Alvaro G. Gutiérrez, Ute Jandt, Florian Jansen, Borja Jiménez-Alfaro, Jens Kattge, Elizabeth Kearsley, Stefan Klotz, Koen Kramer, Marco Moretti, Ülo Niinemets, Robert K. Peet, Josep Penuelas, Petr Petřík, Peter B. Reich, Brody Sandel, Marco Schmidt, Maria Sibikova, Cyrille Violle, Timothy J. S. Whitfeld, Thomas Wohlgemuth, Tiffany M. Knight  (2019)

Similar factors underlie tree abundance in forests in native and alien ranges,Global Ecol Biogeogr. 2019;00:1–14. 

https ://doi.org/10 .1111/geb.13027

Abstract: Aim: Alien plant species can cause severe ecological and economic problems, and therefore at tract a lot of research interest in biogeography and related fields. To identify potential future invasive species, we need to better understand the mechanisms underlying the abundances of invasive tree species in their new ranges, and whether these mechanisms differ between their native and alien ranges. Here, we test two hypotheses: that greater relative abundance is promoted by (a) functional difference from locally co-occurring trees, and (b) higher values than locally co-occurring trees for traits linked to competitive ability.

Florian Jansen,  Aletta Bonn,  Diana E. Bowler, Helge Bruelheide, David Eichenberg (2019)

Moderately common plants show highest relative losses. Conservation letters.  https://doi.org/10.1111/conl.12674

Abstract: Nature conservation efforts often focus on rare species. Common and moderately common species, however, receive much less attention. Our analysis of occupancy change of flora using a grid survey in 1980 and a habitat mapping survey in 2000 in Northeast Germany revealed significant losses for most of the 355 modeled plant species. Highest losses were recorded for moderately common species. Plant species occurring in 20–40% of grid cells declined on average by 50% in 20 years, although there were some methodological uncertainties. We found no correlation between occupancy decline and Red List category, but habitat loss seems to be a main driver. We suggest to rethink conservation indicators by including previously common species in monitoring. Our approach to estimating trends, using the association of species to habitat types and occupancy–area relationships, can be applied to other regions with heterogeneous resurvey data, but it cannot replace urgently needed monitoring schemes

Martin Večeřa, Jan Divíšek, Jonathan Lenoir, Borja Jiménez‐Alfaro, Idoia Biurrun, Ilona Knollová, Emiliano Agrillo, Juan Antonio Campos, Andraž Čarni, Guillermo Crespo Jiménez, Mirjana Ćuk, Panayotis Dimopoulos, Jörg Ewald, Federico Fernández‐González, Jean‐Claude Gégout, Adrian Indreica, Ute Jandt, Florian Jansen, Zygmunt Kącki, Valerijus Rašomavičius, Marcela Řezníčková, John S. Rodwell, Joop H.J. Schaminée, Urban Šilc, Jens‐Christian Svenning, Grzegorz Swacha, Kiril Vassilev, Roberto Venanzoni, Wolfgang Willner, Thomas Wohlgemuth, Milan Chytrý (2019)

Alpha diversity of vascular plants in European forests. Journal of Biogeography. 2019.  https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.13624

Abstract:Aim: The former continental‐scale studies modelled coarse‐grained plant species‐richness patterns (gamma diversity). Here we aim to refine this information for European forests by (a) modelling the number of vascular plant species that co‐occur in local communities (alpha diversity) within spatial units of 400 m²; and (b) assessing the factors likely determining the observed spatial patterns in alpha diversity. Location: Europe roughly within 12°W–30°E and 35–60°N. Taxon: Vascular plants. Methods: The numbers of co‐occurring vascular plant species were counted in 73,134 georeferenced vegetation plots. Each plot was classified by an expert system into deciduous broadleaf, coniferous or sclerophyllous forest. Random Forest models were used to map and explain spatial patterns in alpha diversity for each forest type separately using 19 environmental, land‐use and historical variables. Results: Our models explained from 51.0% to 70.9% of the variation in forest alpha diversity. The modelled alpha‐diversity pattern was dominated by a marked gradient from species‐poor north‐western to species‐rich south‐eastern Europe. The most prominent richness hotspots were identified in the Calcareous Alps and adjacent north‐western Dinarides, the Carpathian foothills in Romania and the Western Carpathians in Slovakia. Energy‐related factors, bedrock types and terrain ruggedness were identified as the main variables underlying the observed richness patterns. Alpha diversity increases especially with temperature seasonality in deciduous broadleaf forests, on limestone bedrock in coniferous forests and in areas with low annual actual evapotranspiration in sclerophyllous forests. Main conclusions: We provide the first predictive maps and analyses of environmental factors driving the alpha diversity of vascular plants across European forests. Such information is important for the general understanding of European biodiversity. This study also demonstrates a high potential of vegetation‐plot databases as sources for robust estimation of the number of vascular plant species that co‐occur at fine spatial grains across large areas.

Maria Sporbert, Helge Bruelheide, Gunnar Seidler, Petr Keil, Ute Jandt, Gunnar Austrheim, Idoia Biurrun, Juan Antonio Campos, Andraž Čarni, Milan Chytrý, János Csiky, Els De Bie, Jürgen Dengler, Valentin Golub, John‐Arvid Grytnes, Adrian Indreica, Florian Jansen, Martin Jiroušek, Jonathan Lenoir, Miska Luoto, Corrado Marcenò, Jesper Erenskjold Moeslund, Aaron Pérez‐Haase, Solvita Rūsiņa, Vigdis Vandvik, Kiril Vassilev, Erik Welk (2019)

Assessing sampling coverage of species distribution in biodiversity databases. Journal of Vegetation Science. 2019.  https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12763

Abstract: Aim: Biodiversity databases are valuable resources for understanding plant species distributions and dynamics, but they may insufficiently represent the actual geographic distribution and climatic niches of species. Here we propose and test a method to assess sampling coverage of species distribution in biodiversity databases in geographic and climatic space. Location: Europe. Methods: Using a test selection of 808,794 vegetation plots from the European Vegetation Archive (EVA), we assessed the sampling coverage of 564 European vascular plant species across both their geographic ranges and realized climatic niches. Range maps from the Chorological Database Halle (CDH) were used as background reference data to capture species geographic ranges and to derive species climatic niches. To quantify sampling coverage, we developed a box‐counting method, the Dynamic Match Coefficient (DMC), which quantifies how much a set of occurrences of a given species matches with its geographic range or climatic niche. DMC is the area under the curve measuring the match between occurrence data and background reference (geographic range or climatic niche) across grids with variable resolution. High DMC values indicate good sampling coverage. We applied null models to compare observed DMC values with expectations from random distributions across species ranges and niches. Results:Comparisons with null models showed that, for most species, actual distributions within EVA are deviating from null model expectations and are more clumped than expected in both geographic and climatic space. Despite high interspecific variation, we found a positive relationship in DMC values between geographic and climatic space, but sampling coverage was in general more random across geographic space. Conclusion: Because DMC values are species‐specific and most biodiversity databases are clearly biased in terms of sampling coverage of species occurrences, we recommend using DMC values as covariates in macroecological models that use species as the observation unit.

Bruelheide, H., Dengler, J., Jimnez-Alfaro, B., Purschke, O., Hennekens, S.M., Chytrý M., Pillar, V.D., Jansen, F., Kattge, J., Sandel, B., Aubin, I., Biurrun, I., Field, R., Hai-der, S., Jandt, U., Lenoir, J., Peet, R.K., Peyre, G., Sabatini, F.M., Schmidt, M., Schrodt, F., Winter, M., Aćić, S., Agrillo, E., Alvarez, M., Ambarlı, D., Angelini, P., Apostolova, I., Arfin Khan, M.A.S., Arnst, E., Attorre, F., Baraloto, C., Beckmann, M., Berg, C., Bergeron, Y., Bergmeier, E., Bjorkman, A.D., Bondareva, V., Borchardt, P., Botta-Dukat, Z., Boyle, B., Breen, A., Brisse, H., Byun, C., Cabido, M.R., Casella, L., Cayuela, L., Černý, T., Chepinoga, V., Csiky, J., Curran, M., Ćušterevska, R., Dajić Stevanović, Z., De Bie, E., De Ruffray, P., De Sanctis, M., Dimopoulos, P., Dressler, S., Ejrnaes, R., El Sheikh, M., Enquist, B., Ewald, J., Fagndez, J., Finckh, M., Font, X., Forey, E., Fotiadis, G., Garca-Mijangos, I., de Gasper, A.L., Golub, V., Gu-tierrez, A.G., Hatim, M.Z., He, T., Higuchi, P., Holubov, D., H.lzel, N., Homeier, J., Indreica, A., Isık Gürsoy, D., Jansen, S., Janssen, J., Jedrzejek, B., Jiroušek, M., Jürgens, N., Kącki, Z., Kavgacı, A., Kearsley, E., Kessler, M., Knollov, I., Kolomiychuk, V., Korolyuk, A., Kozhevnikova, M., Kozub, Ł., Krstonošić, D., Kühl, H., Kühn, I., Kuzemko, A., Küzmič, F., Landucci, F., Lee, M.T., Levesley, A., Li, C.-F., Liu, H., Lopez-Gonzalez, G., Lysenko, T., Macanović, A., Mahdavi, P., Manning, P., Marcen, C., Martynenko, V., Mencuccini, M., Minden, V., Moeslund, J.E., Moretti, M., Müller, J.V., Munzinger, J., Niinemets, Ü., Nobis, M., Noroozi, J., Nowak, A., Onyshchenko, V., Overbeck, G.E., Ozinga, W.A., Pauchard, A., Pedashenko, H., Peñuelas, J., Pérez-Haase, A., Peterka, T., Petřík, P., Phillips, O.L., Prokhorov, V., Rašomavičius, V., Revermann, R., Rodwell, J., Ruprecht, E., Rūsiņa, S., Samimi, C., Schaminée, J.H.J., Schmiedel, U., Šibík, J., Šilc, U., Škvorc, Ž., Smyth, A., Sop, T., Sopotlieva, D., Sparrow, B., Stančić, Z., Svenning, J.-C., Swacha, G., Tang, Z., Tsiripidis, I., Turtureanu, P.D., Ugurlu, E., Uogintas, D., Valachovič, M., Vanselow, K.A., Vashenyak, Y., Vassilev, K., Vélez-Martin, E., Venanzoni, R., Vibrans, A.C., Violle, C., Virtanen, R., von Wehrden, H., Wagner, V., Walker, D.A., Wana, D., Weiher, E., Wesche, K., Whitfeld, T., Willner, W., Wiser, S., Wohlgemuth, T., Yamalov, S., Zizka, G., Zverev, A. (2019)

sPlot – a new tool for global vegetation analyses.

Journal of Vegetation Science, 30(2), 161-186, 2019,

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jvs.12710

Abstract: Aims: Vegetation‐plot records provide information on the presence and cover or abundance of plants co‐occurring in the same community. Vegetation‐plot data are spread across research groups, environmental agencies and biodiversity research centers and, thus, are rarely accessible at continental or global scales. Here we present the sPlot database, which collates vegetation plots worldwide to allow for the exploration of global patterns in taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity at the plant community level. Results: sPlot version 2.1 contains records from 1,121,244 vegetation plots, which comprise 23,586,216 records of plant species and their relative cover or abundance in plots collected worldwide between 1885 and 2015. We complemented the information for each plot by retrieving climate and soil conditions and the biogeographic context (e.g., biomes) from external sources, and by calculating community‐weighted means and variances of traits using gap‐filled data from the global plant trait database TRY. Moreover, we created a phylogenetic tree for 50,167 out of the 54,519 species identified in the plots. We present the first maps of global patterns of community richness and community‐weighted means of key traits. Conclusions: The availability of vegetation plot data in sPlot offers new avenues for vegetation analysis at the global scale.

2018

Bruelheide, Helge, Dengler, J., Purschke, O., Lenoir, J., Jiménez-Alfaro, B., Hennekens, S.M., Botta-Dukát, Z., Chytrý, M., Field, R., Jansen, F., Kattge, J., Pillar, V.D., Schrodt, F., Mahecha, M.D., Peet, R.K., Sandel, B., van Bodegom, P., Altman, J., Alvarez-Dávila, E., Arfin Khan, M.A.S., Attorre, F., Aubin, I., Baraloto, C., Barroso, J.G., Bauters, M., Bergmeier, E., Biurrun, I., Bjorkman, A.D., Blonder, B., Čarni, A., Cayuela, L., Černý, T., Cornelissen, J.H.C., Craven, D., Dainese, M., Derroire, G., De Sanctis, M., Díaz, S., Doležal, J., Farfan-Rios, W., Feldpausch, T.R., Fenton, N.J., Garnier, E., Guerin, G.R., Gutiérrez, A.G., Haider, S., Hattab, T., Henry, G., Hérault, B., Higuchi, P., Hölzel, N., Homeier, J., Jentsch, A., Jürgens, N., Kącki, Z., Karger, D.N., Kessler, M., Kleyer, M., Knollová, I., Korolyuk, A.Y., Kühn, I., Laughlin, D.C., Lens, F., Loos, J., Louault, F., Lyubenova, M.I., Malhi, Y., Marcenò, C., Mencuccini, M., Müller, J.V., Munzinger, J., Myers-Smith, I.H., Neill, D.A., Niinemets, Ü., Orwin, K.H., Ozinga, W.A., Penuelas, J., Pérez-Haase, A., Petřík, P., Phillips, O.L., Pärtel, M., Reich, P.B., Römermann, C., Rodrigues, A.V., Sabatini, F.M., Sardans, J., Schmidt, M., Seidler, G., Silva Espejo, J.E., Silveira, M., Smyth, A., Sporbert, M., Svenning, J.-C., Tang, Z., Thomas, R., Tsiripidis, I., Vassilev, K., Violle, C., Virtanen, R., Weiher, E., Welk, E., Wesche, K., Winter, M., Wirth, C., Jandt, U. (2018)

Global trait–environment relationships of plant communities.

Nature Ecology & Evolution 2, 1906–1917. 

https://doi.org/10/gfj595

Jiménez-Alfaro, B., Suárez-Seoane, S., Chytrý, M., Hennekens, S.M., Willner, W., Hájek, M., Agrillo, E., Álvarez-Martínez, J.M., Bergamini, A., Brisse, H., Brunet, J., Casella, L., Dítě, D., Font, X., Gillet, F., Hájková, P., Jansen, F., Jandt, U., Kącki, Z., Lenoir, J., Rodwell, J.S., Schaminée, J.H.J., Sekulová, L., Šibík, J., Škvorc, Ž., Tsiripidis, I. (2018)

Modelling the distribution and compositional variation of plant communities at the continental scale.Diversity and Distributions 24, 978–990. https://doi.org/10/gdtf3x

Willner, W., Bergmeier, E., Biurrun, I., Dengler, J. & Jansen, F. (2018)

A survey of vegetation survey

Phytocoenologia, 48, 1-6.

https://doi.org/10.1127/phyto/2018/0271

2017

Wagner, V., Chytrý, M., Jiménez-Alfaro, B., Pergl, J., Hennekens, S., Biurrun, I., Knollová, I., Berg, C., Vassilev, K., Rodwell, J.S., Škvorc, Ž., Jandt, U., Ewald, J., Jansen, F., Tsiripidis, I., Botta-Dukát, Z., Casella, L., Attorre, F., Rašomavičius, V., Ćušterevska, R., Schaminée, J.H.J., Brunet, J., Lenoir, J., Svenning, J.C., Kacki, Z., Petrášová-Šibíková, M., Šilc, U., García-Mijangos, I., Campos, J.A., Fernández-González, F., Wohlgemuth, T., Onyshchenko, V. & Pyšek, P. (2017)

Alien plant invasions in European woodlands.
Diversity and Distributions, 969–981.2017

Dengler, J., Bergmeier, E., Jansen, F. & Willner, W. (2017)
Phytocoenologia: The leading journal with a focus on vegetation classification. Phytocoenologia, 47, 1–11, 2017

Wolfgang Willner, Borja Jiminez-Alfaro, Emiliano Agrillo, Idoia Biurrun, Juan Antonio Campos, Andraz Czarni, Laura Casella, János Csiky, Renata Custerevska, Yakiv P. Didukh, Jörg Ewald, Ute Jandt, Florian Jansen, Zygmunt Kacki, Ali Kavgac, Jonathan Lenoir, Aleksander Marinsek, Viktor Onyshchenko, John Rodwell, Joop Schaminée, Jozef Sibik, Zeljko Skvorc, Jens-Christian Svenning, Ioannis Tsiripidis, Pavel Dan Turtureanu, Rossen Tzonev, Kiril Vassilev, Roberto Venanzoni, Thomas Wohlgemuth and Milan Chytrý (2017)

Classification of European beech forests: a Gordian Knot?
Applied Vegetation Science, 20, 494-512, 2017

Abstract: Questions: What are the main floristic patterns in European beech forests? Which classification at the alliance and suballiance level is the most convincing? Location: Europe and Asia Minor. Methods: We applied a TWINSPAN classification to a data set of 24 605 relevés covering the whole range of Fagus sylvatica forests and the western part of Fagus orientalis forests. We identified 24 “operational phytosociological units” (OPUs), which were used for further analysis. The position of each OPU along the soil pH and temperature gradient was evaluated using Ellenberg Indicator Values. Fidelity of species to OPUs was calculated using the phi coefficient and constancy ratio. We compared alternative alliance concepts, corresponding to groups of OPUs, in terms of number and frequency of diagnostic species. We also established formal definitions for the various alliance concepts based on the comparison of the total cover of the diagnostic species groups, and evaluated alternative geographical subdivisions of beech forests. Results: The first and second division levels of TWINSPAN followed the temperature and soil pH gradients, while lower divisions were mainly geographical. We grouped the 22 OPUs of Fagus sylvatica forests into acidophytic, meso-basiphytic and thermo-basiphytic beech forests, and separated two OPUs of F. orientalis forests. However, a solution with only two ecologically-defined alliances of F. sylvatica forests (acidophytic vs. basiphytic) was clearly superior with regard to number and frequency of diagnostic species. In contrast, when comparing groupings with three to six geographical alliances of basiphytic beech forests, respectively, we did not find a strongly superior solution. Conclusions: We propose to classify Fagus sylvatica forests into 15 suballiances – 3 acidophytic and 12 basiphytic ones. Separating these two groups at alliance or order level was clearly supported by our results. Concerning the grouping of the 12 basiphytic suballiances into ecological or geographical alliances, as advocated by many authors, we failed to find an optimal solution. Therefore, we propose a multi-dimensional classification of basiphytic beech forests, including both ecological and geographical groups as equally valid concepts which may be used alternatively depending on the purpose and context of the classification.

2016

Milan Chytrý, Stephan M. Hennekens, Borja Jiménez-Alfaro, Ilona Knollová, Jürgen Dengler, Florian Jansen, Flavia Landucci, Joop H.J. Schaminée, Svetlana Acic, Emiliano Agrillo, Didem Ambarlý, Pierangela Angelini, Iva Apostolova, Fabio Attorre, Christian Berg, Erwin Bergmeier, Idoia Biurrun, Zoltán Botta-Dukát, Henry Brisse, Juan Antonio Campos, Luis Carlon, Andraé Czarni, Laura Casella, János Csiky, Renata Cušterevska, Zora Dajic Stevanovic, Jiri Danihelka, Els De Bie, Patrice de Ruffray, Michele De Sanctis, W. Bernhard Dickoré, Panayotis Dimopoulos, Dmytro Dubyna, Tetiana Dziuba, Rasmus Ejrnæs, Nikolai Ermakov, Jörg Ewald, Giuliano Fanelli, Federico Fernández González, Úna FitzPatrick, Xavier Font, Itziar García-Mijangos, Rosario G. Gavilán, Valentin Golub, Riccardo Guarino, Rense Haveman, Adrian Indreica, Deniz Isik Gürsoy, Ute Jandt, John A.M. Janssen, Martin Jiroušek, Zygmunt Kacki, Ali Kavgaci, Martin Kleikamp, Vitaliy Kolomiychuk, Mirjana Krstivojevic Cuk, Daniel Krstonošic, Anna Kuzemko, Jonathan Lenoir, Tatiana Lysenko, Corrado Marcenò, Vassiliy Martynenko, Dana Michalcová, Jesper Erenskjold Moeslund, Viktor Onyshchenko, Hristo Pedashenko, Aaron Pérez-Haase, Tomáš Peterka, Vadim Prokhorov, Valerijus Rašomavicius, Maria Pilar Rodríguez-Rojo, John S. Rodwell, Tatiana Rogova, Eszter Ruprecht, Solvita Rusina, Gunnar Seidler, Jozef Šibík, Urban Šilc, Željko Škvorc, Desislava Sopotlieva, Zvjezdana Stancic, Jens-Christian Svenning, Grzegorz Swacha, Ioannis Tsiripidis, Pavel Dan Turtureanu, Emin Ugurlu, Domas Uogintas, Milan Valachovic, Yulia Vashenyak, Kiril Vassilev, Roberto Venanzoni, Risto Virtanen, Lynda Weekes, Wolfgang Willner, Thomas Wohlgemuth and Sergey Yamalov (2016)

European Vegetation Archive (EVA): an integrated database of European vegetation plots
Applied Vegetation Science, 19(1):173-180 January 2016
DOI: 10.1111/avsc.12191

Abstract: The European Vegetation Archive (EVA) has been developed since 2012 by the IAVS Working Group European Vegetation Survey as a centralized database of European vegetation plots. It stores copies of national and regional vegetation-plot databases on a single software platform. Data storage in EVA does not affect the ongoing independent development of the contributing databases, which remain the property of the data contributors. A prototype of the database management software TURBOVEG 3 has been developed for joint management of multiple databases that use different species lists. This is facilitated by the SynBioSys Taxon Database, a system of taxon names and concepts used in the individual European databases and their matches to a unified list of European flora. TURBOVEG 3 also includes procedures for handling data requests, selections and provisions according to the approved EVA Data Property and Governance Rules. By 30 June 2015, 61 databases from all European regions have joined EVA, contributing in total 1 024 236 vegetation plots from 57 countries, 82% of them with geographical coordinates. EVA provides a unique data source for large- scale analyses of European vegetation diversity both in fundamental research and nature conservation applications. Updated information on EVA is available online at euroveg.org/eva-database.

Tomas Peterka, Michal Hájek, Martin Jirousek, Borja Jiménez-Alfaro, Liene Aunina, Ariel Bergamini, Daniel Díte, Ljuba Felbaba-Klushyna, Ulrich Graf, Petra Hájková, Eva Hettenbergerova, Tatiana G. Ivchenko, Florian Jansen, Natalia E. Koroleva, Elena D. Lapshina, Predrag M. Lazarević, Asbjorn Moen, Maxim G. Napreenko, Pawel Pawlikowski, Zuzana Plesková, Lucia Sekulová, Viktor A. Smagin, Teemu Tahvanainen, Annett Thiele, Claudia Bita-Nicolae, Idoia Biurrun, Henry Brisse, Renata Ćusterevska, Els De Bie, Jörg Ewald, Úna FitzPatrick, Xavier Font, Ute Jandt, Zygmunt Kacki, Anna Kuzemko, Flavia Landucci, Jesper E. Moeslund, Aaron Pérez-Haase, Valerijus Rasomavicius, John S. Rodwell, Joop H.J. Schaminée, Urban Silc, Zvjezdana Stancic and Milan Chytrý (2016)

Formalized classification of European fen vegetation at the alliance level
Applied Vegetation Science, :1--19, 2016, ISSN: 14022001
http://doi.wiley.com/10.1111/avsc.12271

Abstract: Aims: Phytosociological classification of fen vegetation (Scheuchzerio palustris-Carice- tea fuscae class) differs among European countries. Here we propose a unified vegeta- tion classification of European fens at the alliance level, provide unequivocal assignment rules for individual vegetation plots, identify diagnostic species of fen alli- ances, andmap their distribution. Location: Europe,western Siberia and SE Greenland. Methods: 29 049 vegetation-plot records of fenswere selected fromdatabases using a list of specialist fen species. Formal definitions of alliances were created using the presence, absence and abundance of Cocktail-based species groups and indicator spe- cies. DCA visualized the similarities among the alliances in an ordination space. The ISOPAM classification algorithm was applied to regional subsets with homogeneous plot size to check whether the classification based on formal definitionsmatches the results of unsupervised classifications. Results: The following alliances were defined: Caricion viridulo-trinervis (sub-halo- phytic Atlantic dune-slack fens), Caricion davallianae (temperate calcareous fens), Caricion atrofusco-saxatilis (arcto-alpine calcareous fens), Stygio-Caricion limosae (boreal topogenic brown-moss fens), Sphagno warnstorfii-Tomentypnion nitentis (Sphagnum-brown-moss rich fens), Saxifrago-Tomentypnion (continental to boreo-continental nitrogen-limited brown-moss rich fens), Narthecion scardici (alpine fens with Balkan endemics), Caricion stantis (arctic brown-moss rich fens), Anagallido tenellae-Juncion bulbosi (Ibero-Atlanticmoderately rich fens), Drepanocladion exannulati (arcto-boreal- alpine non-calcareous fens), Caricion fuscae (temperate moderately rich fens), Sphagno-Caricion canescentis (poor fens) and Scheuchzerion palustris (dystrophic hol- lows). The main variation in the species composition of European fens reflected site chemistry (pH,mineral richness) and sorted the plots fromcalcareous and extremely rich fens, through rich andmoderately rich fens, to poor fens and dystrophic hollows. ISOPAMclassified regional subsets according to this gradient, supporting the ecologi- calmeaningfulness of this classification concept on both the regional and continental scale. Geographic/macroclimatic variation was reflected in the second most impor- tant gradient. Conclusions: The pan-European classification of fen vegetation was proposed and supported by the data for the first time. Formal definitions developed here allowcon- sistent and unequivocal assignment of individual vegetation plots to fen alliances at the continental scale.

Viktoria Wagner, Milan Chytrý, David Zeleny, Henrik von Wehrden, Annika Brinkert, Jiri Danihelka, Florian Jansen, Norbert Hölzel, Johannes Kamp, Pavel Lustyk, Kristina Merunkova, Salza Palpurina, Zdenka Preislerova and Karsten Wesche (2016)

Regional differences in soil pH niche among dry grassland plants in Eurasia
Oikos, 2016, ISSN: 00301299
DOI: 10.1111/oik.03369

Abstract: Soil pH is a key predictor of plant species occurrence owing to its effect on the availability of nutrients and phytotoxic metals. Although regional differences in realized soil pH niche (‘niche shifts’) have been reported since the 19th century, no study has disentangled how they are influenced by spatial differences in substrate availability, macroclimate, and competitors. We linked plot-level data on species occurrence and measured soil pH from dry grasslands in eight regions across Eurasia (n = 999 plots), spanning a geographic gradient of 6862 km. We calculated regional shifts in niche optimum (Dopt) and width (Dwidth) for 73 Species × Region 1 × Region 2 combinations (SRRs; 38 study species) using extended Huisman–Olff–Fresco models. Next, we used commonality analysis to partition the contribution of substrate availability, precipitation, and species traits indicative of competitive ability to variation in regional niche shifts. Shifts in optimum were rare (5% of SRRs with Dopt ≥ 1 pH units) but many species did not show optima within regions. By contrast, shifts in niche width were common (22% of SRRs with Dwidth ≥ 1 pH units) and there were pronounced interspecific differences. Whereas none of the three predictors significantly explained shifts in niche optimum, common and unique effects by substrate availability and precipitation accounted for 85% of variation in niche width. Our results suggest that substrate availability and precipitation could be the driving factors behind species regional shifts in niche width. Studies that address additional factors, such as other edaphic niches, and their variability at the regional and micro-scale will improve our understanding of the mechanisms underlying species distributions.

2015

Miquel De Caceres, Milan Chytrý, Emiliano Agrillo, Fabio Attorre, Zoltán Botta-Dukát, Jorge Capelo, Bálint Czúcz, Jürgen Dengler, Jörg Ewald, Don Faber-Langendoen, Enrico Feoli, Scott B. Franklin, Rosario Gavilán, François Gillet, Florian Jansen, Borja Jiménez-Alfaro, Pavel Krestov, Flavia Landucci, Attila Lengyel and et al. (2015)
A comparative framework for broad-scale plot-based vegetation classification
Applied Vegetation Science, 18(4):543–560, October 2015
DOI: 10.1111/avsc.12179

Abstract: Aims: Classification of vegetation is an essential tool to describe, understand, predict and manage biodiversity. Given the multiplicity of approaches to classify vegetation, it is important to develop international consensus around a set of general guidelines and purpose-specific standard protocols. Before these goals can be achieved, however, it is necessary to identify and understand the different choices that are made during the process of classifying vegetation. This paper presents a framework to facilitate comparisons between broad-scale plot-based classification approaches. Results: Our framework is based on the distinction of four structural elements (plot record, vegetation type, consistent classification section and classification system) and two procedural elements (classification protocol and classification approach). For each element we describe essential properties that can be used for comparisons. We also review alternative choices regarding critical decisions of classification approaches; with a special focus on the procedures used to define vegetation types from plot records. We illustrate our comparative framework by applying it to different broad-scale classification approaches. Conclusions: Our framework will be useful for understanding and comparing plot-based vegetation classification approaches, as well as for integrating classification systems and their sections.

Flavia Landucci, Marcela Reznícková, Katerina Šumberová, Milan Chytrý, Liene Aunina, Claudia Bita-Nicolae, Alexander Bobrov, Lyubov Borsukevych, Andraž Carni, János Csiky, Els De Bie, Dmytro Dubyna, Panayotis Dimopoulos, Tetiana Dziuba, Úna FitzPatrick, Xavier Font, Daniela Gigante, Valentin Golub, Stephan M. Hennekens, Richard Hrivnák, Svitlana Iemelianova, Ute Jandt, Florian Jansen, Zygmunt Kacki, Konrád Lájer, Dalyte Matuleviciute, Attila Mesterházy, Dana Michalcová, Jaanus Paal, Eva Papastergiadou, Alessandro Properzi, Vladimir Randelovic, John S. Rodwell, Joop H.J. Schaminée, Urban Šilc, Zofija Sinkeviciene, Zvjezdana Stancic, Jazep Stepanovich, Boris Teteryuk, Rossen Tzonev, Roberto Venanzoni, Lynda Weekes and Wolfgang Willner
WetVegEurope: a database of aquatic and wetland vegetation of Europe
Phytocoenologia, 45(1/2):187-194, July 2015
DOI: 10.1127/phyto/2015/0050

Abstract: WetVegEurope is a project (www.sci.muni.cz/botany/vegsci/wetveg) to provide a synthetic formalized classification of aquatic and marsh vegetation across Europe at the level of phytosociological associations. WetVegEurope is also a database created for this project (GIVD ID: EU-00-020, www.givd.info/ID/EU-00-020). This database contains 375 212 vegetation plots of aquatic, marsh and wet vegetation types from 33 European countries. The data are mainly copies of data sets from pre-existing national and thematic databases, but the database also contains 10 616 new plots previously not digitalized or even not available to the public. This database offers an extensive source of data for future studies of aquatic and marsh plant species and vegetation types at the European scale.

Ulf Schiefelbein, Florian Jansen, Birgit Litterski and Volkmar Wirth (2015)
Naturräumlich-ökologische Analyse der Flechtenflora von Deutschland
Herzogia, 28(2):624-653, 2015

Abstract: The lichen flora of Germany has been analysed on the basis of the information by Wirth et al. (2013; Die Flechten Deutschlands) with special emphasis on the species diversity and exclusivity, substrate factors (substrate specifity, pH, nitrogen/eutrophication) and climatic factors (light, humidity), whereas the natural regions form the geographical basis. The natural regions with the highest species diversity are the Bavarian Alps, Black Forest, Odenwald-Spessart, as well as other landscapes with high annual precipitation, namely Eifel, Weser Uplands, Harz, Franconian Jura, Sauerland and Upper Palatine-Bavarian forest. The natural regions with the lowest diversity are located in the south- ern part of the north eastern German lowland. Exclusivity of the species inventory of a natural region is defined as number of species recorded after 1950 in only one or two natural region units. For the whole of Germany, 638 species are known from only one or two landscapes, most of them occurring in Bavarian Alps, Black Forest, Upper Palatine- Bavarian forest, Odenwald-Spessart and Swabian Jura. A total of 47.6 % of the German lichen flora consists of rock-inhabiting species, 31.5 % are mainly on bark of deciduous and coniferous wood, and 15.1 % are predominantly on soil and over mosses on soil. The natural regions with the highest percentage of lichens normally confined to siliceous rocks are in the Fichtel Mountains, Black Forest, Rhön, Ore Mountains and Upper Palatine-Bavarian forest. Most calciphilous lichens occur in Thuringian Basin, Franconian Jura, Swabian Jura, Neckar Plateau and Main-Tauber- Basin. Lichens occurring mainly on acidic soils are most strongly represented in Pleistocene landscapes and lichens occurring usually on base-rich soils are most common in sparsely wooded, basiphilous natural regions (North Harz Foreland, Central German black soil region, Thuringian Basin, Upper Palatine-Upper Main Hills). The natural regions with the highest diversity also host the most hygrophytic lichens. In contrast, base-rich landscapes having only a small fraction of forests are characterized by a higher portion of xerophytic lichens. On the basis of the lichen diversity, sev- eral large groups of natural regions can be distinguished (e. g. natural regions with both acidic and calcareous rocks; natural regions consisting mainly of acidic rocks; calcareous landscapes; Pleistocene landscapes north of the Alps; Pleistocene landscapes in the northern German lowland).

Florian Jansen, Jörg Ewald and Ute Jandt (2015)
vegetweb 2.0 - Neuauflage eines Vegetationsdatenportals für Deutschland
Tuexenia, 35:309-319, 2015
DOI: 10.14471/2015.35.015

Abstract: With more than 2.5 million vegetation plots Germany holds probably the biggest treasure of this important biodiversity information. Unfortunately, visibility and accessibility of this heritage remain far behind the technical possibilities and actual international standards. Modernization and development of the national vegetation database vegetweb is a priority which is tackled by a joint project of the biggest database maintainers in Germany. You can access a prototype of the platform at www.vegetweb.de. The platform for the disclose and distribution of vegetation data will reach its full operational capacity by the end of 2016. We call on all colleagues to participate actively in the National Vegetation Database for Germany by providing own data or by persuading others to do so.

2014

Christian Berg, Anja Abdank, Maike Isermann, Florian Jansen, Tiemo Timmermann and Jürgen Dengler (2014)
Red Lists and conservation prioritization of plant communities – a methodological framework
Applied Vegetation Science, 17(3):504–515, July 2014
DOI: 10.1111/avsc.12093

Abstract:  Aims: Red Lists of threatened species are a well-established conservation tool throughout the world. In contrast, Red Lists of ecosystems, habitats or plant community types have only recently found interest at the global level, although they have a longer tradition in Central Europe. We contribute to the debate by presenting and discussing a comprehensive conservation assessment methodol- ogy for plant communities that was developed within the framework of the pro- ject ‘The plant communities of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and their vulnerability’. Location: Mecklenburg-Vorpommern,Northeast Germany (23,174 km²). Approach: Our approach adopts various concepts frommodern red listing and prioritization at various organizational levels of biodiversity, and combines them into amethodological framework applicable for regional to continental Red Lists of plant communities. For each distinguished plant community, three steps are carried out, i.e. (1) assessment of endangerment (scientific part, using the three criteria ‘past trend’, ‘current status’ and ‘prognosis’), (2) assessment of conserva- tion value (normative part, using the three criteria ‘degree of naturalness’, ‘rele- vance for species conservation’ and ‘global relevance’), and (3) a combination of (1) and (2) to derive a need for action (conservation prioritization). These steps are all based on the successive aggregation of quantitative criteria via decision matrices, which makes the assessment process transparent, avoids definition gaps and allows easy adjustment of the decision rules. Conclusions: Plant community types derived from well-documented classifi- cations of extensive vegetation-plot databases in combination with a trans- parent conservation assessment methodology have great potential in nature conservation and environmental monitoring. We suggest that the presented methodology is an improvement on traditional expert judgments as it sepa- rates the scientific and normative parts of the evaluation and uses clear, quantitative criteria and explicit rules to connect these into aggregated mea- sures. It worked effectively and yielded meaningful results for a German federal state. By adjusting the scaling of the criteria, the approach can be adapted, as a whole or in part, to other regions or higher levels of ecosys- tem typology.

Ane Kirstine Brunbjerg, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Wolf L. Eiserhardt, Rasmus Ejrnas, Lonnie W. Aarssen, Hannah L. Buckley, Estelle Forey and Florian Jansen (2014)
Multi-scale phylogenetic structure in coastal dune plant communities across the globe
Journal of Plant Ecology, 7(2):101-114, April 2014
DOI: 10.1093/jpe/rtt069

Abstract:Aims: Coastal dune plant communities occur world-wide under a wide range of climatic and geologic conditions as well as in all biogeographic regions. However, global patterns in the composition of coastal dune plant communities have not previously been quantitatively studied. Here, we assess phylogenetic structure of temperate and subtropical dune plant communities across spatial scales on five continents. Methods We calculated phylogenetic clustering (Net Relatedness Index, NRI) of regional dune floras to estimate the amount of in situ diversification relative to the global dune species pool and evaluated the relative importance of land and climate barriers for these diversification patterns by geographic analyses of phylogenetic similarity. We then tested whether dune plant communities exhibit similar patterns of phylogenetic structure within regions. Finally, we calculated NRI for local communities relative to the regional species pool and tested for an association with functional

Jürgen Dengler, Helge Bruelheide, Oliver Purschke, Milan Chytrý, Florian Jansen, Stephan M. Hennekens, Ute Jandt, Borja Jiménez-Alfaro, Jens Kattge, Valério D. Pillar, Brody Sandel, Marten Winter and et al. (2014)
sPlot-the new global vegetation-plot database for addressing trait-environment relationships across the world's biomes
In: L. Mucina (editor), Biodivers. Veg. pattern, Process. Conserv., page 90., Publisher: Kwongan Foundation, Perth, AU, 2014
http://www.biodiversity-p...ts.de/downloads/JD196.pdf

2013

Ulf Schiefelbein and Florian Jansen (2013)

Human impact on the lichen flora of two woody landscapes in Pomerania (Poland, Germany) Plant Diversity and Evolution, 130(3-4):273–293, December 2013 

DOI: 10.1127/1869-6155/2013/0130-0073

Abstract: The comparison of the lichen floras of two landscapes in Northern-Central Europe with almost identical environmental pre-conditions have shown big differences in species composition despite only small differences in air pollution, anthropogenic environmental conditions and historical land-use. The lichen flora in the Drawieński National Park (DNP, Poland) is in general, as well as in almost all habitat types much richer than in the Ueckermünder Heide (UEM, Germany). The DNP inhabits more endangered species and more species bound to old-growth forests than the UEM, whereas the majority of endangered lichens in both areas are sensitive to eutrophication. The species composition in DNP indicates a lower eutrophication level in all habitats and higher humidity in broad-leaved forests. As reasons for the distinction between both areas differences in atmospheric pollution by ammonia and nitric oxides, in drainage of the landscape as well as in forest management are discussed.

Florian Jansen and Jari Oksanen (2013)

How to model species responses along ecological gradients? - Huisman-Olff-Fresco models revisited

Journal of Vegetation Science, 24(6):1108–1117, November 2013

DOI: 10.1111/jvs.12050

Abstract: Questions In species response modelling, can a hierarchical logistic regression framework compete against Generalised Additive Models in terms of statistical inference? Are bimodal shapes useful to model species responses along ecological gradients? Location Germany Methods In hierarchical logistic regression modelling (also known as Huisman, Olff, Fresco (HOF) models) the best model is chosen from a set of predetermined models by statistical information criteria, i.e. a balance between model fit to the data and simplicity of the model. We extended the classical five model types with two bimodel shapes. We improved the model optimisation process to inhibit unrealistically steep slopes and abrupt changes. The stability of model choices is safeguarded by bootstrapping. The framework was tested on a dataset of 547 vegetation plots of arable land with measured soil pHKCL. The ability to reproduce known shapes was tested with artificial datasets. Shape parameters like niche width and range, slope (turnover), and species optima can be calculated from the models and used for further analyses. The model framework together with advanced plot functions is included in the package eHOF for the statistical software environment R. Results Based on the Akaike Information Criterion, 66 out of 131 species are modelled with a better compromise between model fit and model complexity by one of the logistic regression models compared to Generalised Additive Models with automatic smoother selection. Within the model framework, 17 species (13 %) are best modelled with one of the new bimodal types. The test with artificial data of known shape reveals a good reliability of eHOF models for unimodal responses in areas with homogeneous information but an increasing uncertainty if the sampling is uneven or if only a part of the response is covered within the observed gradient range. Conclusions Hierarchical logistic regression models offer a flexible way to efficiently fit species response data. They propose a sound theoretical background for ecological interpretation. Extended HOF models as presented here are judged as an effective tool for univariate species response modelling.

Anne Petzold, Tanja Pfeiffer, Florian Jansen, Pascal Eusemann and Martin Schnittler (2013)

Sex ratios and clonal growth in dioecious Populus euphratica Oliv., Xinjiang Prov., Western China

Trees, 27(3):729-744, June 2013

DOI: 10.1007/s00468-012-0828-y

Abstract: Using a microsatellite assay, we investigated sex ratios at three levels (apparent, intrinsic, genet) for Populus euphratica stands in Xinjiang, China and possible consequences of sex-specific costs of reproduction in terms of clonal growth and individual growth or mortality. Sex ratios at all levels tended to be male biased (60 % of 3,295 flowering trees were male), although male excess was least pronounced at the genet level (52 % of 850 genets were male). Male clones comprised significantly more (708 vs. 572) trees than female clones. Reproductive investment was measured in terms of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) contents of male and female reproductive organs: single flowers or fruit capsules, whole inflorescences or infructescences, and whole branches of ca. 2 cm diameter. Male flowers and catkins require less N than female fruits and catkins, but on average only 16 % of female catkins develop into fruits. This changes the measured investment for reproduction at branch level: now male branches spent 3.3 times more N than their female counterparts. This coincides with the annual increment of branches, measured as a possible trade-off for costs of reproduction: female branches needed 2 years less to reach a diameter of 2 cm. We conclude that full fruit set of females would give males a heavy comparative advantage, but frequent abortion of whole infructescences by females seems to be a powerful mechanism to compensate a higher reproductive effort, thus avoiding a pronounced runaway effect by more vigorous clonal growth of male trees over a long time.

Jörg Ewald, Stephan Hennekens, Sven Conrad, Thomas Wohlgemut, Florian Jansen, Martin Jenssen, Johnny Cornelis, Hans-Gerd Michiels, Jürgen Kayser, Milan Chytrý, Jean-Claude Gégout, Micahel Breuer, Clemens Abs, Helge Walentowski, Franz Starlinger and Sandrine Godefroid (2013)

Spatial and temporal patterns of Ellenberg values for nutrients in forests of Germany and adjacent regions - a survey based on phytosociological databases

Tuexenia, 33:93-109, 2013

http://www.tuexenia.de/fi...Ewald-etal_Tuexenia33.pdf

Abstract: Within the last 30 years the role of nitrogen in Central European forests has changed fundamentally from limiting resource to environmental problem. As the retrospective tracking of nutrient availability by soil chemical and biogeochemical measurements faces serious problems, bioindication based on understorey species composition is indispensable for monitoring broad-scale eutrophication. Based on a broad survey of more than 100,000 forest vegetation plots accessible in electronic data-bases from Germany and adjacent countries, we calculated unweighted average Ellenberg nutrient values (mN) as a proxy of plant-available macronutrients. Based on the quantiles of the frequency distribution of mN in a regionally stratified sample, we define five trophic classes, which can be used to compare dimensionless mN values. We studied spatial patterns of average nutrient values within 17 regions and compared the periods from 1899 to 1975 and 1976 to 2006. After 1975 eutrophic and hypertrophic conditions were common everywhere except in the Alps and Saxony-Anhalt, but very oligotrophic conditions were still widespread in regions with nutrient-poor bedrock. Before 1975 mN of plots had been lower than after 1975 in all but the southeastern regions. Between the pre- and post-1975 data the proportion of hypertrophic plots increased from 5.7 to 11.8%, and that of very oligo-trophic plots decreased from 14.6 to 8.3%. To remove bias resulting from uneven distribution, the dataset was stratified by five tree layer dom-inance types, period and region and resampled. In pre-1975 plots medians of mN increased in the order Pinus sylvestris, Quercus spp., Picea abies, Fagus sylvatica and Alnus spp, whereas the increase of mN was highest in forest types with historically low nutrient values. Therefore, the widespread change in mN must be attributed to the pronounced vegetation changes in Quercus and Pinus stands, indicating the importance of land-use change, i.e. recovery of nutrient cycles after hundreds of years of exploita-tion through coppicing, grazing and litter use. The analysis confirms eutrophication as a megatrend of modern vegetation change and demonstrates the high research potential of linking vegetation plot databases across large regions.

Dirk Wesuls, Magdalena Pellowski, Sigrid Suchrow, Jens Oldeland, Florian Jansen and Jürgen Dengler (2013)

The grazing fingerprint: modelling species responses and trait patterns along grazing gradients in semi-arid Namibian rangelands

Ecological Indicators, 27:61–70, 2013

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolind.2012.11.008

Abstract: Persistence or disappearance of plants under grazing pressure has led to their categorisation as grazing increasers or decreasers. We aimed to extend this classical indicator concept in rangeland ecology by interpreting the shape of species responses and trait patterns modelled along continuous grazing gradients at different spatial scales. Taking transects of two different lengths, we recorded the cover of vascular plant species along grazing gradients in central Namibian rangelands. We used a hierarchical set of ecologically meaningful models with increasing complexity – the HOF (Huisman-Olff-Fresco) approach – to investigate species’ grazing responses, diversity parameters and pooled cover values for two traits: growth form and life cycle. Based on our modelling results, we classified species responses into eight types: no response, monotonic increasers/decreasers, threshold increasers/decreasers, symmetric unimodal responses, left skewed and right skewed unimodal responses. The most common category was that of no response (42% of the short and 79% of the long transect responses). At both scales, decreaser responses with higher grazing pressure were more frequent than increaser responses. Monotonic and threshold responses were more frequent along the short transects. Diversity parameters showed a slight but continuous decline towards higher grazing intensities. Responses of growth form and life cycle categories were mostly consistent at both scales. Trees, shrubs, dwarf shrubs, and perennials declined continuously. Woody forbs tended to show a symmetric unimodal distribution along the gradients, while herbaceous forbs and annuals showed skewed unimodal responses towards lower grazing intensities. The different grazing response types proposed in this study allow for a differentiated picture of niche patterns along grazing gradients and provide a basis to use species as indicators for a continuum of vegetation states altered by livestock impact. The general decline of plant diversity with increasing grazing intensities highlights the importance of reserves that are less impacted by grazing to support the resilience of the studied system.

2012

Martin Unterseher, Benno Westphal, Norbert Amelang and Florian Jansen (2012)

3000 species and no end - species richness and community pattern of woodland macrofungi in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany

Mycological Progress, 11(2):543-554, May 2012

DOI: 10.1007/s11557-011-0769-7

Abstract: In addition to newly generated and continuously growing datasets in mycological research, existing compilations are of high value to assess the fungi of a whole region. In the present study, a private database with ca. 65,000 entries of macromycetous fruit body observations in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany, was analysed. Observed species richness of tree-associated mycorrhizal and saprobic fungi exceeded 3,000 taxa. The total fungal species richness could not be determined with confidence but will possibly exceed 4,000. Distinct species turnover with respect to host trees was observed. However, the rate of community overlap clearly differed between mycorrhizal and saprobic fungi and deciduous and coniferous trees. By separating the data into abundant core species and rare satellite taxa potential indicator species are presented, whose preservation will be beneficial to many other fungi and the entire ecosystems they live in.

Bettina Ohse, Florian Jansen and Martin Wilmking (2012)

Do limiting factors at Alaskan treelines shift with climatic regimes?

Environmental Research Letters, 7(1), January 2012

DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/7/1/015505

Abstract: Trees at Alaskan treelines are assumed to be limited by temperature and to expand upslope and/or to higher latitudes with global warming. However, recent studies describe negative temperature responses and drought stress of Alaskan treeline trees in the last decades. In this study, we analyze responses of treeline white spruce to temperature and precipitation according to different climatic regimes in Alaska, described as negative (cool) and positive (warm) phases of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO). We found that in three consecutive phases (positve 1925-1946, negative 1947-1976, and again positive 1977-1998), growth responses to temperature and precipitation differed markedly. Before 1947, in a phase of warm winters and with summer temperatures being close to the century mean, trees at most sites responded positively to summer temperature, as one would expect from treeline trees at northern high latitudes. Between 1947 and 1976, a phase of cold winters and average summers, trees showed similar responses, but a new pattern of negative responses to summer temperature of the year prior to growth coupled with positive responses to precipitation of the same year emerged at some sites. As precipitation was relatively low at those sites, we assume that drought stress might have played a role. However, climate responses were not uniform but were modified by regional gradients (trees at northern sites responded more often to temperature than trees at southern sites) and local site conditions (forest trees responded more often to precipitation than treeline trees), possibly reflecting differences in energy and water balance across regions and sites, respectively. However, since the shift in the PDO in 1976 from a negative to a positive phase, the trees’ climate-growth responses are much less pronounced and climate seems to have lost its importance as a limiting factor for growth of treeline white spruce. If predictions of continued warming and precipitation increase at northern high latitudes hold true, growth of Alaskan treeline trees will likely depend on the ratio of temperature and precipitation increase more than on absolute values, as well as on the interaction of periodic regime shifts with the global warming trend. Once a climatic limitation is lifted, other factors, such as insect outbreaks or interspecific competition, might become limiting to tree growth.

Florian Jansen, Falko Glöckler, Miquel De Caceres, Milan Chytrý, Jörg Ewald, Gabriela Lopez-Gonzalez, Jens Oldeland and Jürgen Dengler (2012)

News from the Global Index of Vegetation-Plot Databases (GIVD): the metadata platform, available data and their properties

Biodiversity & Ecology, 4:77-82, 2012

DOI: 10.7809/b-e.00061

Abstract: In 2010, we launched the Global Index of Vegetation-Plot Databases (GIVD; www.givd.info), an internet-based resource offering metadata of existing electronic vegetation databases. On 11 May 2012, 182 databases containing more than 2.8 million non-overlapping vegetation plots had been registered in GIVD. The majority of these plots were from European databases (123 databases, 1.87 million plots). The oldest plot record dated from 1864, but the vast majority of the plots had been collected since 1970. Most of the plots had areas between 1 and 1,000 m². A total of 68 databases also stored time series and/or nested-plot data. The vegetation-plot data registered in GIVD constitute a major resource for biodiversity research, not only through the large number of species occurrence records, but especially due to the storage of species co-occurrence information, complemented with site-specific structural data and plot-based environmental data. The increased ease of discovering and accessing such datasets, owing to their registration in GIVD, offers significant opportunities for large-scale studies in areas such as community ecology, macroecology, and global-change research. The results from such studies could be very important for nature conservation practice and policy.

Jürgen Dengler, Walter G. Berendsohn, Erwin Bergmeier, Milan Chytrý, Jiri Danihelka, Florian Jansen, Wolf-Henning Kusber, Flavia Landucci, Andreas Müller, Edoardo Panfili, Joop H.J. Schaminée, Roberto Venanzoni and Eckhard von Raab-Straube (2012)

The need for and the requirements of EuroSL, an electronic taxonomic reference list of all European plants

Biodiversity & Ecology, 4:15-24, 2012

DOI: 10.7809/b-e.00056

Abstract: Biodiversity informatics has experienced tremendous developments in the last 15 years. There are now comprehensive online checklists for plant taxa as well as many large plant-taxon related databases, including the vegetation-plot databases registered in the Global Index of Vegetation-Plot Databases (GIVD; www.givd.info). However, efficient maintenance, analysis, and inte- gration of these databases are still much impeded by the failure of presently available electronic taxonomic reference lists of plants to fully meet the requirements of such applications. Here we outline the principal specifications of an electronic taxonomic reference list for Europe (“EuroSL” = European standard list of plant taxa) and identify features not met in current practice. EuroSL should cover all macroscopic taxa of vascular plants, bryophytes, lichens, and algae that occur in European vegetation in a uniform database, irrespec- tive of their floristic status (e.g. native, archaeophyte, neophyte, casual). The adoption of informal aggregates is essential to cover de- viating species concepts and to capture legacy data. EuroSL should not only assign names but also match taxonomic concepts. This task cannot be fully automated, as the same correctly applied taxon name can have different meanings depending on the taxonomic concept applied. In order to be a useful tool, EuroSL would need to be better documented than most existing electronic checklists and be released in fixed versions. Every subsequent version should contain an unambiguous connection linking each taxon to the corre- sponding unit in the previous version. We identify possible components of EuroSL, of which Euro+Med PlantBase, the recent Euro- pean checklists of bryophytes, and the taxonomic crosswalks between various national Turboveg checklists collected for SynBioSys Europe, are the major ones. Concepts developed for GermanSL might be adopted for EuroSL, but implemented in a software frame- work that is yet to be developed from existing tools. Such a framework would allow documented editing of the content by specialists distributed across Europe. To become successful, EuroSL would require intensive collaboration between taxonomists, ecologists and biodiversity informaticians, as well as appropriate funding. Establishing EuroSL would dramatically enhance the usability and reliabil- ity of plant-taxon related databases in Europe for the purposes of pure and applied research and conservation legislation. Its develop- ment should therefore be of highest priority.

Florian Jansen, Christian Berg and Jürgen Dengler (2012)

VegMV - The vegetation database of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

Biodiversity & Ecology, 4:149-160, 2012

DOI: 10.7809/b-e.00070

Abstract: The phytosociological database of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (NE Germany) with its electronically stored vegetation relevés is reviewed. The database was established in 1994 and is now hosted at the Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, University of Greifswald, Germany (http://www.botanik.uni-greifswald.de/VegMV). On 27 October 2011, the database contained 53,842 relevés, mostly from the federal state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, collected by approx. 320 authors between 1928 and 2010. Some 28% of the relevés were taken from published papers or monographs, 42% from theses and 30% from various unpublished reports and “field books”. All kinds of habitats of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern are represented but territorial coverage by relevés is irregular, with lower coverage of less attractive and poorly accessible areas. The largest numbers of relevés are from managed grasslands (Molinio-Arrhenatheretea), arable land (Stellarietea mediae), and eutrophic reed communities (Phragmito-Magno-Caricetea). We quantify and discuss possible bias in the data, such as preferential selection of sampling sites (habitat and small scale preferences), taxonomic inconsistencies, spatial agglomeration, and missing values for some data elements. We present a brief introduction to the consistent phytosociological vegetation classification for which the data has been used. Further applications of the data and the conditions for their use are reported.

Jan Beck, Liliana Ballesteros-Mejia, Carsten M. Buchmann, Jürgen Dengler, Susanne Fritz, Bernd Gruber, Christian Hof, Florian Jansen, Sonja Knapp, Holger Kreft, Anne-Kathrin Schneider, Marten Winter and Carsten F. Dormann (2012)

What’s on the horizon of macroecology? - Present status and future perspectives

Ecography, 35(8):673-683, 2012

DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0587.2012.07364.x

http://www.botanik.uni-gr..._Ecography_accepted-1.pdf

Abstract: Over the last two decades, macroecology – the analysis of large-scale, multi-species ecological patterns and processes – has established itself as a major line of biological research. Analyses of statistical links between environmental variables and biotic responses have long and successfully been employed as a main approach, but new developments are due to be utilized. Scanning the horizon of macroecology, we identified four challenges that will probably play a major role in the future. We support our claims by examples and bibliographic analyses. 1) Integrating the past into macroecological analyses, e.g. by using paleontological or phylogenetic information or by applying methods from historical biogeography, will sharpen our understanding of the underlying reasons for contemporary patterns. 2) Explicit consideration of the local processes that lead to the observed larger-scale patterns is necessary to understand the fine-grain variability found in nature, and will enable better prediction of future patterns (e.g. under environmental change conditions). 3) Macroecology is dependent on large-scale, high quality data from a broad spectrum of taxa and regions. More available data sources need to be tapped and new, small-grain large-extent data need to be collected. 4) Although macroecology already lead to mainstreaming cutting edge statistical analysis techniques, we find that more sophisticated methods are needed to account for the biases inherent to sampling at large scale. Bayesian methods may be particularly suitable to address these challenges. To continue the vigorous development of the macroecological research agenda, it is time to address these challenges and to avoid becoming too complacent with current achievements.

2011

Jürgen Dengler, Florian Jansen, Falko Glöckler, Robert K. Peet, Miquel De Caceres, Milan Chytrý, Jörg Ewald, Jens Oldeland, Manfred Finckh, Laco Mucina, Joop Schaminée and Nick Spencer (2011)

The Global Index of Vegetation-Plot Databases (GIVD): a new resource for vegetation science

Journal of Vegetation Science, 22(4):582–597, August 2011

DOI: 10.1111/j.1654-1103.2011.01265.x ,  http://www.givd.info

Abstract:Questions: How many vegetation-plot records (relevés) are available in electronic databases, how are they distributed in terms of geography, what are their properties and how might they discovered and obtained for use in subsequent studies? Location: Global. Methods: We compiled the Global Index of Vegetation-Plot Databases (GIVD; www.givd.info), an internet-based resource aimed at registration of 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 the structure and data quality of the databases registered in GIVD as by 22 September 2010. Results: On the given date, 108 databases containing more than 2.3 million independent plots had been registered in GIVD. The majority of these data are contained in European databases (71 databases, 1.5 million plots), whereas other continents are represented by substantially smaller numbers (North America 13 databases, South America 6, Africa 8, Asia 8, Oceania 2, multi- continental 1). The oldest plot record dates from 1864, but the vast majority of the plots have been collected since 1970. Most of the plots report vegetation on an area of 1–1000 m². Some databases also store time series and nested-plot data. Apart from the geographic reference (required for inclusion), information was provided for the listed plots frequently on altitude (44%), slope and inclination (35%), and land use (26%), but rarely on soil properties (all less than 7%). Conclusions: The vegetation-plot data registered in GIVD constitute a major resource for biodiversity informatics, both through the large number of species occurrence records and, unlike most other datasets, the storage of species co-occurrence information at a small scale, combined with structural data and plot-based environmental data. We identify some short comings in available data that still need to be addressed (sampling underrepresented geographic regions, providing better incentives for data collection and sharing, developing user-friendly exchange standards between databases, as well as tools to analyse and remove confounding effects of sampling biases). However, the increased ease of discoverability and availability of such datasets conferred by registration in GIVD offers significant opportunities for large-scale studies in areas such as community assembly, macroecology, and global-change research. Fo rR ev iew On ly

Jan Peper, Florian Jansen, Dorothea Pietzsch and Michael Manthey (2011)

Patterns of plant species turnover along grazing gradients

Journal of Vegetation Science, 22(3):457-466, June 2011

DOI: 10.1111/j.1654-1103.2011.01260.x

Abstract:Questions: How are plant species distributed along grazing gradients? What is the shape of species richness patterns? How can we test for the existence of potential discontinuities in species turnover pattern? Location: Semi-deserts in the eastern Caucasus, Azerbaijan, Gobustan district. Methods: We studied the distribution of vascular plant species along transects of 900 m length perpendicular to five farms and estimated grazing intensity as current livestock units per distance. We modelled species response curves with Huismann-Olff-Fresco (HOF) models and calculated species turnover by cumulating the first derivatives of all response curves. To test for potential discontinuities in changes of vegetation composition along the grazing gradient, we introduce a new null model based on the individualistic continuum concept that uses permutations of the observed pattern of species responses. Results: Most species show a sigmoidal negative response to grazing intensity, while only few species respond with a unimodal pattern. The monotonic decrease in species richness with increasing grazing intensity marks a process of overgrazing that leads to the complete extirpation of plant species. Although the species turnover pattern shows a clear peak, it does not deviate significantly from the null model of individualistic continuous changes. Conclusions: Our approach offers a method of differentiating between transition zones and continuous shifts in species composition along ecological gradients. It also provides a valuable tool for rangeland management to test state-and-transition concepts and gives deeper insights into ecological processes affected by grazing.

Florian Jansen, Jürgen Dengler, Falko Glöckler, Milan Chytrý, Jörg Ewald and Jens Oldeland (2011)

Die mitteleuropäischen Datenbanken im Global Index of vegetation-plot databases (GIVD)

Tuexenia, 30:351–367, 2011

Abstract: The Global Index of Vegetation-Plot Databases (GIVD) is a metadatabase of vegetation databases worldwide that was initiated by an international Steering Committee in 2010 and that is hosted on a server in Greifswald. GIVD aims at providing a better overview on the growing number of vegetation- plot databases and increasing their accessibility for overarching analyses. In this article, we analyse which data from central Europe (including the Benelux countries) are available in GIVD. On 20 March 2011, 1.35 million of the total 2.45 million registered relevés originated from one of the covered twelve countries. With more than 600,000 digitally available relevés, corresponding to a density of 18 km–2, the Netherlands are globally leading in this respect.

Frank Mirschel, Stefan Zerbe and Florian Jansen (2011)

Driving factors for natural tree rejuvenation in anthropogenic pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) forests of NE Germany

Forest Ecology and Management, 261(3):683-694, 2011

DOI: 10.1016/j.foreco.2010.11.025

Abstract: The rejuvenation ecology of three main tree species in anthropogenic pine (Pinus sylvestris L. forests is explored in our study. We focus on the scale of micro-plots, which provide the safe sites for tree rejuvenation. We thrive on the multi-factorial relationship of tree establishment and driving ecological factors using a large dataset from pine stands in NE Germany and applying multivariate analyses. The success of the establishment of the investigated focal tree species Fagus sylvatica L., Quercus petraea Liebl. and Pinus sylvestris L. is, on general, mostly affected by three factors, i.e. water balance of the upper soil layers, browsing pressure, and diaspore sources. Our investigations on the micro-plot scale revealed species-specific differences. For beech saplings < 50 cm growth height, primarily the availability of water, indicated by available water capacity (AWC), thickness, quality, and structure of the organic layer, silt and humus content in the topsoil, and the lack of a dense competitive herb layer, were identified as most important factors. On the contrary, oak seems hardly be restricted by hydrologic and/or trophic deficits in the topsoil or humus layer. In conclusion and comparison to Fagus sylvatica L., we assume for Quercus petraea Liebl. advantages in natural regeneration processes under sub-continental climate conditions and thus under the scenarios of climate change. Pinus sylvestris L. regeneration in our investigation area occurs only in a narrow niche. We conclude with regard to future forest development and the objective of stand conversion with low management intensity that oak should be favoured within natural stand regeneration.

Florian Jansen, Jörg Ewald and Stefan Zerbe (2011)

Ecological preferences of alien plant species in North-Eastern Germany

Biological Invasions, 13(12):2691-2701, 2011

DOI: 10.1007/s10530-011-9939-4

Abstract: The large, comprehensive vegetation database of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern/NE Germany with 51,328 relevés allowed us to study an entire regional flora of 133 non-native plants (NNP, immigration after 1492 AD) with regard to their preferences to all kinds of habitats and along different ecological gradients. For each relevé, we computed average Ellenberg indicator values (EIV) for temperature, light, moisture, reaction, nutrients and salt as well as plant strategy type weights. We partitioned the dataset into relevés with and without occurrences of NNP and compared them with respect to the relative frequencies of EIVs and strategy type weights. We identified deviations from random differences by testing against permuted indicator values. To account for bias in EIV between community types, NNP preferences were differentiated for 34 phytosociological classes. We tested significance of preferences for the group of NNP as a whole, as well as for single NNP species within the entire dataset, as well as differentiated by phytosociological classes and formations. NNP as a group prefer communities with high EIVs for temperature and nutrients and low EIVs for moisture. They avoid communities with low EIV for reaction and high EIV for salt. NNP prefer communities with high proportions of ruderal and low proportion of stress strategists. The differentiation by phytosociological classes reinforces the general trends for temperature, nutrients, moisture, R and S strategy types. Nevertheless, preferences of single species reveal that NNP are not a congruent group but show individualistic ecological preferences.

2010

Florian Jansen and Jürgen Dengler (2010)

Plant names in vegetation databases - a neglected source of bias

Journal of Vegetation Science, 21(6):1179–1186, 2010

DOI: 10.1111/j.1654-1103.2010.01209.x

http://geobot.botanik.uni..._Plant_names_JVS_1209.pdf

http://www.botanik.uni-gr..._-_Forum_Article_JVS.epub

Abstract:Problem: The increasing availability of large vegetation databases holds great potential in ecological research and biodiversity informatics, However, inconsistent application of plant names compromises the usefulness of these databases. This problem has been acknowledged in recent years, and solutions have been proposed, such as the concept of “potential taxa” or “taxon views”. Unfortunately, awareness of the problem remains low among vegetation scientists. Methods: We demonstrate how misleading interpretations caused by inconsistent use of plant names might occur through the course of vegetation analysis, from relevés upward through databases, and then to the final analyses. We discuss how these problems might be minimized. Results: We highlight the importance of taxonomic reference lists for standardizing plant names and outline standards they should fulfill to be useful for vegetation databases. Additionally, we present the R package vegdata, which is designed to solve name-related problems that arise when analysing vegetation databases. Conclusions: We conclude that by giving more consideration to the appropriate application of plant names, vegetation scientists might enhance the reliability of analyses obtained from large vegetation databases.

2009

Florian Jansen, Stefan Zerbe and Michael Succow (2009)

Changes in landscape naturalness derived from a historical land register - a case study from NE Germany

Landscape Ecology, 24(2):185-196, 2009

http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10980-008-9297-5

Abstract: To detect landscape changes along a time gradient enhances the understanding of patterns and processes on the landscape level, in particular with regard to anthropogenic impact. Additionally, this provides important information for many purposes of applied landscape ecology, e.g. sustainable land-use development and landscape conservation. The comparison of human induced changes with a hypothetical landscape state without human impact (potential natural state) can be applied for landscape assessments such as, e.g. the landscape naturalness. In our study, we analyzed a landscape in NE Germany which is representative for the Pleistocene landscapes in Northern Central Europe. In order to reconstruct the state 300 years ago, we used the Swedish land survey of Swedish-Pomerania which is the first detailed mapping in this area at the end of the 17th century and contains supplement comments in text books. We were able to reconstruct the landscape ecological features with regard to vegetation cover, water supply, nutrient supply, and anthropogenic disturbances. We carried out a vegetation mapping of the present-day landscape in order to compare the two time slices. Our methodological approach thus enables us, to (1) get a detailed insight into land use and site ecology 300 years ago, (2) to quantify human impact on the landscape level with regard to different time slices, and (3) to assess the naturalness of the landscape. Our results show that in the present-day landscape the average deviance from the potential natural state is twice as high as in the historical landscape 300 years ago.

2008

Florian Jansen and Jürgen Dengler (2008)

GermanSL - Eine universelle taxonomische Referenzliste für Vegetationsdatenbanken in Deutschland

Tuexenia, 28:239-253, 2008

http://geobot.botanik.uni...r%20-%20Tuexenia%2028.pdf

Abstract: Die GermanSL ist eine universelle elektronische Referenzliste für die Flora Deutschlands, welche von der Sektion „Taxonomische Referenzlisten“ innerhalb des Netzwerkes Phytodiversität Deutschland (NetPhyD) entwickelt und Anfang 2008 in der Version 1.0 der Öffentlichkeit zugänglich gemacht wurde. Neben der Nutzung für einzelne Vegetationsdatenbanken soll sie die leichte Verknüpfung verschiedener solcher Datenbanken untereinander und mit anderen artbezogenen Datenbanken (z. B. floristische Kartierung, plant functional traits) fördern. Die GermanSL basiert auf den publizierten Referenzlisten der botanischen Großgruppen in Deutschland, die erforderlichenfalls in genau dokumentierter Weise korrigiert oder ergänzt wurden. Sie stellt damit keine neue taxonomische Sicht dar, sondern kompiliert die vorhandenen und macht sie nutzbar. Die GermanSL enthält aktuell rund 30.000 angenommene Namen und Synonyme von Gefäßpflanzen, Moosen, Flechten und Algen, taxonomische Informationen wie die Zugehörigkeit zu übergeordneten Taxa sowie eine Auswahl an Artattributen (Zeigerwerte, Rote-Liste-Status). Die Liste steht als Excel-Datei und in einer Version für das vegetationskundliche Datenbankprogramm TURBOVEG zum kostenlosen Download bereit. Wir rufen alle interessierten Kollegen zur aktiven Mitarbeit bei der Pflege und Ergänzung der GermanSL auf.

2005

Jürgen Dengler, Christian Berg and Florian Jansen (2005)

New ideas for modern phytosociological monographs

Annali di Botanica Nuova Serie, 5:49-66, 2005

www.botanik.uni-greifswal..._et_al_2005_New_Ideas.pdf

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Other Publications

2016

Florian Jansen, Erwin Bergmeier, Jürgen Dengler, Monika Janišová, Pavel Krestov and Wolfgang Willner (2016)

Vegetation classification: a task of our time

Phytocoenologia, 46(1):1-4, May 2016, ISSN: 0340269X

DOI: 10.1127/phyto/2016/0134

http://openurl.ingenta.co...6&issue=1&spage=1

2015

Erwin Bergmeier, Jürgen Dengler, Monika Janisová, Florian Jansen, Pavel Krestov, Jan Role&#263;ek, Donald A. Walker and Wolfgang Willner (2015)

Re-launch of Phytocoenologia: new profile for the classic vegetation ecology journal

Phytocoenologia, 45(1-2):1-10

DOI: 10.1127/phyto/2015/0069

2014

Jürgen Dengler, Helge Bruelheide, Oliver Purschke, Milan Chytrý, Florian Jansen, Stephan M. Hennekens, Ute Jandt, Borja Jiménez-Alfaro, Jens Kattge, Valério D. Pillar, Brody Sandel, Marten Winter and et al. (2014)

sPlot-the new global vegetation-plot database for addressing traitenvironment relationships across the world's biomes

In L. Mucina (editor), Biodivers. Veg. pattern, Process. Conserv, page 90., Publisher: Kwongan Foundation, Perth, A, 2014

http://www.biodiversity-p...ts.de/downloads/JD196.pdf

Florian Jansen (2014)

Bayesian statistics in ecology - quantifying our uncertainty

Habilitationskolloquium

Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät, Universität Greifswald, 2014

2011

Florian Jansen and Jörg Ewald (2011)

Einstufung der Waldbindung epigäischer Moose mit Hilfe statistischer Auswertungen von Vegetationsdatenbanken

In Marcus Schmidt, Wolf-Ulrich Kriebitzsch and Jörg Ewald (editor)

Waldartenliste der Farn- und Blütenpflanzen, Moose und Flechten Deutschlands

Volume 299 of BfN-Skripten, page 46-52, Publisher: BfN, Bonn-Bad-Godesberg, 2011, ISBN: 978-3-89624-034-7

Helga Bültmann, Peter Scholz, Dietmar Teuber, Tassilo Feuerer, Petra Fischer, Steffen Boch, Johannes Heribert Bradtka, Rainer Cezanne, Christian Dolnik, Uwe Drehwald, Marion Eichler, Jörg Ewald, Thilo Heinken, Carsten Hobohm, Florian Jansen, Wolf-Ulrich Kriebitzsch, Götz Heinrich Loos, Volker Otte, Alexander Paul, Christian Printzen, Marcus Schmidt, laurens Sparrius and Gunnar Waesch (2011)

Waldartenliste der Flechten Deutschlands

In Marcus Schmidt, Wolf-Ulrich Kriebitzsch and Jörg Ewald (editor)

Volume 299 of BfN-Skripten, page 89-107, Publisher: BfN, Bonn-Bad-Godesberg, 2011, ISBN: 978-3-89624-034-7

M. Preussing, U. Drehwald, M. Koperski, H. Thiel, G. Waesch, M. Baumann, Christian Berg, H. Dierschke, C. Dolnik, O. Dürhammer, Jörg Ewald, A. Fischer, H. Grünberg, T. Heinken, Florian Jansen, H.-U. Kison, J. Klawitter, W.-U. Kriebitzsch, G.H. Loos, Michael Manthey, J. Müller, A. Paul, M. Reimann, M. Schmidt, W. Schmidt, K.M. Stetzka, D. Teuber, U. Teuber, A. Wagner, I. Wagner, M. Weckesser, S. Winter, T. Wolf and M. Wolf (2011)

Waldartenliste der Moose Deutschlands

In Marcus Schmidt, Wolf-Ulrich Kriebitzsch and Jörg Ewald (editor)

Waldartenlisten der Farn- und Blütenpflanzen, Moose und Flechten Deutschlands

Volume 299 of BfN-Skripten, page 75-88, Publisher: BfN, Bonn-Bad-Godesberg, 2011, ISBN: 978-3-89624-034-7

2010

Florian Jansen, Anja Abdank, Annett Adler and Heike Barth (2010)

Interaktive Floristische Funddatenbanken in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern

Naturschutzarbeit in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, 52(2):59-64, 2010

2009

Jörg Ewald, Florian Jansen and Michael Manthey (2009)

8. Workshop der Arbeitsgruppe Vegetationsdatenbanken zum Thema ”Bioindikation” in Greifswald

Tuexenia, 29:441-443, 2009

Florian Jansen (2009)

Der Studiengang Landschaftsökologie und Naturschutz an der Universität Greifswald

Forum der Geoökologie, 20(1):45-46, 2009

2008

Ingo Koska, Florian Jansen and Tiemo Timmermann (2008)

Standortsökologische Bioindikation mit Hilfe des Vegetationsformenkonzeptes

Tuexenia, Beiheft, 1:33-49, 2008

Stefan Zerbe and Florian Jansen (2008)

Vergleich verschiedener Managementstrategien zur Renaturierung anthropogener Kiefernbestände in Brandenburg

Florian Jansen (2008)

Shape of species responses: Huisman-Olff-Fresco models revisited

In L. et al. Mucina (editor), Frontiers of Vegetation Science ? An Evolutionary Angle, page 80-81, Publisher: Keith Phillips Images, Somerset West, 2008, ISBN: 978-0-9584766-9-0

http://stbweb02.stb.sun.a...ocs/IAVS2008Abstracts.pdf

Michael Manthey and Florian Jansen (2008)

Species packing under different disturbance levels

In L. Mucina, J.M. Kalwij, V.R. Smith, M. Chytrì, P.S. White, S.S. Cilliers, V.D. Pillar, M. Zobel and I.-F. Sun (editor), Frontiers of Vegetation Science-An Evolutionary Angle, page 111-112, Publisher: Keith Phillips Images, 2008

2005

Florian Jansen (2005)

Ansätze zu einer quantitativen historischen Landschaftsökologie

Volume 394, Publisher: Borntraeger, Dissertationes Botanicae edition, 2005, ISBN: 3-443-64307-8

http://www.schweizerbart....tati-3443643078-desc.html

Florian Jansen (2005)

Ansätze zu einer quantitativen historischen Landschaftsökologie

Dissertation, Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät, Universität Greifswald, 2005

http://www.schweizerbart....ns/detail/isbn/3443643078

2004

Jens Päzolt and Florian Jansen (2004)

Klasse Molinio-Arrhenatheretea

In Christian Berg, Jürgen Dengler, Anja Abdank and Maike Isermann (editor), Die Pflanzengesellschaften Mecklenburg Vorpommerns und ihre Gefährdung - Textban, page 336-353, Publisher: Weissdorn, Jena, 2004

Ingo Koska, Ute Clausnitzer, Florian Jansen and Michael Manthey (2004)

Pflanzensoziologie und Vegetationsformenkonzept

In Christian Berg, Jürgen Dengler, Anja Abdank and Maike Isermann (editor), Die Pflanzengesellschaften Mecklenburg-Vorpommerns und ihre Gefährdung - Textban, page 51-53, Publisher: Weissdorn, Jena, 2004

2003

Jürgen Dengler, Christian Berg, M Eisenberg, Maike Isermann, Florian Jansen, Ingo Koska, S Löbel, Michael Manthey, Jens Päzolt, Almut Spangenberg, Tiemo Timmermann and Heinrich Wollert (2003)

New descriptions and typifications of syntaxa within the project 'Plant communities of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and their vulnerability' - Part I

Feddes Repertorium, 114:587-631, 2003

Christian Köppel, Florian Jansen, J. Burton, Martin Schnittler and Norbert Hirneisen (2003)

A statistical survey on European Red Lists

In HHd longh, OS Bánki, W Bergmans and MJvdWt Bosch (editor), The harmonization of red Lists for threatened species in Europe. Proceedings of an International Seminar 27 and 28 November 2002, page 59-75, Publisher: The Netherlands Commission for International Nature Protection, Leiden, 2003

Florian Jansen (2003)

Anthropogene Landschaftsveränderungen im Vergleich zwischen 1700 und heute - Ein historisch landschaftsökologischer Vergleich auf Basis der Schwedischen Matrikelkarten von Vorpommern

In O. Bastian et al (editor), Bewertung und Entwicklung der Landschaft, page 181-192, Publisher: Leibniz-Institut für ökol. Raument. e.V., Dresden, 2003

2002

Ingo Koska, Michael Manthey and Florian Jansen (2002)

Weiterentwicklung des Vegetationsformenkonzeptes

In Botanisches Institut der Ernst-Moritz-Arnst-Universität, Landesforstanstalt Eberswalde and Landesamt für Forsten und Großschutzgebiete Mecklenburg-Vorpommern (editor)

„Naturräumliche Grundlagen der Landnutzung“ und „Weiterführung der Naturraumkunde“, Festkolloquium vom 20.04.2001. Eberswalde, page 195-222, Publisher: Landesforstanstalt Eberswalde, Eberswalde, 2002

2001

Ingo Koska, Florian Jansen, Ute Clausnitzer, Dieter Gremer, Michael Manthey and Tiemo Timmermann (2001)

Das Vegetationsformenkonzept: Integration von Vegetation und Standort in einem Klassifikationsverfahren

Berichte der Reinhold-Tüxen-Gesellschaft, 13:257-263, 2001

Florian Jansen (2001)

300 Jahre Landnutzung in Vorpommern

In Ulrich Harteisen, Alexandra Schmidt and Monika Wulf (editor) 

Kulturlandschaftsforschung und Umweltplanung: Fachtagung an der Fachhochschule Hildesheim/Holzminden/Göttingen am 9. - 10. November 2000 in Göttingen, page 145-148, Publisher: GC, Herdeck, 2001

Florian Jansen and Michael Succow (2001)

Ausgewählte Beispiele der 'Anthropogenese' von Mooren Nordostdeutschlands - Die Ziese-Niederung

In Michael Succow and Hans Joosten (editor), Landschaftsökologische Moorkund, Chapter 8.3.2.5, page 443-452, Publisher: Schweizerbart, Stuttgart, 2 edition, 2001

Florian Jansen and Jens Päzolt (2001)

Klasse Molinio-Arrhenatheretea

In Christian Berg, Jürgen Dengler and Anja Abdank (editor), Die Pflanzengesellschaften Mecklenburg-Vorpommerns und ihre Gefährdung - Tabellenban, page 144-156, Publisher: Weissdorn, Jena, 2001, Note: Weissdorn

1999

Florian Jansen (1999)

Standortsveränderung und Kohlenstoffbilanz der Zieseniederung

Petermanns Geographische Mitteilungen, 143(5+6):387-400, 1999

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