News
New EVS Steering Committee 2024-2028 2024–12–03
We are pleased to announce the results of the elections for the new Steering Committee of the IAVS Working Group European Vegetation Survey (EVS) for the term 2024–2028.
The EVS Bylaws declare that the Steering Committee consists of five members. However, there was a tie for the fifth and sixth positions, and the Bylaws do not specify how to resolve such cases. Therefore, the outgoing Steering Committee of the EVS suggested that the new Steering Committee include six members. This solution was supported by the IAVS President, Susan Wiser.
The newly elected members of the Steering Committee are:
Milan Chytrý (230 votes), Idoia Biurrun (187 votes), Anna Kuzemko (127 votes), Joop Schaminée (116 votes), Gianmaria Bonari (90 votes), Jorge Capelo (90 votes).
Thank you to all members who participated in the election process. Your involvement is crucial to the success and future of our working group.
Professor Edoardo Biondi passed away on 7 November 2024 2024–11–09
It is with deep sadness that we share the news of the death of Professor Edoardo Biondi (28/07/1944–7/11/2024), a leading figure in Italian phytosociology. His work on the diversity and ecology of plant communities in Italy and beyond has left an indelible mark on vegetation science.
New Special Collection "Vegetation classification of islands and archipelagos" in Vegetation Classification and Survey. 2024–11–05
This SC is launched as a result of the joint EVS-IAVS conference in Madeira 16–20 Sep 2024. Deadline for abstract contribution is 31 January 2025.
33rd Conference "European Vegetation Survey" - Perugia, Italy, 28 April - 2 May 2025 2024–09–22
The 33rd Conference of European Vegetation Survey will be held in Perugia in central Italy from 28 April to 2 May 2025.
19th Eurasian Grassland Conference “Grasslands as biodiversity hotspots”, Bolzano, Italy, 26th August – 1st September 2024 2024–05–25
Registration deadline approaching – 31st May 2024
The 19th Eurasian Grassland Conference will be held in Bolzano (Bozen) in South Tyrol (Trentino-Alto Adige region). The venue for the conference will be the Eurac research headquarters. Destinations of the excursions will be the nearby inner-alpine dry grasslands (Mid-Conference Excursion) and the Alpine meadows and pastures of the Dolomites (Post-Conference-Excursion). Further information at the conference website: https://www.egc2024.it/en.
32nd EVS Conference, Madeira, 16-20 Sep 2024 - website open 2024–01–24
The 32nd Conference of the European Vegetation Survey will be held on Madeira island, Portugal. It will be a joint event with the Annual Symposium of the International Association for Vegetation Sciences, with special sessions dedicated to European Vegetation Survey.
New website of the Italian Society for Vegetation Science 2023–10–17
The new website of the Italian Society for Vegetation Science is now available (also in English) at: https://www.scienzadellavegetazione.it/
THE NEED FOR PROTECTION OF THE SVYDOVETS MASSIF (UKRAINIAN CARPATHIANS) 2023–06–02
The European Vegetation Survey highlights the need for the protection of the Svydovets Massif in the Ukrainian Carpathians, which is a key territory of the Ukrainian Carpathians eco-network (Felbaba-Klushyna, 2010) and part of the Emerald network (UA0000608; http://emerald.net.ua/). These mountains are the richest and unique in Ukraine in terms of floristic and plant genetic diversity. At least 18 types of endangered plant communities have been identified in the Svydovets Massif as those that need special protection according to Resolution No. 4 of the Bern Convention. At least 42 rare and endangered species of vascular plants, 14 species of invertebrates, and 37 vertebrates included in the Red Data Book of Ukraine occur in Svydovets (Kobiv et al., 2009; Felbaba-Klushyna, 2015; Felbaba-Klushyna, Voloschuk, 2018; Kagalo et al. 2018). At the same time, it is the wettest part of the Ukrainian Carpathians, with more than 2,500 mm of annual precipitation (Ando, 1999). Therefore, this massif performs a powerful hydrological function, and disturbances of vegetation could result in catastrophic floods. Excessive anthropogenic influence disrupts the natural ecosystem processes in this massif (Antoshyk, 2014; Felbaba-Klushyna et al., 2023). For the past few years, there has been a heated debate about the possibility of building mega-resorts in these mountains. We believe that such actions are unacceptable. The Svydovets Massif should remain in its natural state, as it is extremely important for the preservation of the biodiversity of Ukraine and Europe as a whole, as well as for the preservation of the functional core of the ecosystem of the Carpathian region.
References
Antoshyk O. (2014). Preservation of lakes and near-lake territories high mountains of the Svydovets Massif of the Ukrainian Carpathians / Visnyk of the Lviv University. Series Geography 45: 267–275.
Felbaba-Klushyna L. (2010). Vegetation cover of swamps and reservoirs of the upper reaches of the Tisza River basin (Ukrainian Carpathians) and the Fluvial concept of its protection – Uzhgorod: Polygrafcentre “Lyra, 192 p. (https://geobot.org.ua/…babatysa.pdf)
Felbaba-Klushyna LM (2015) Rare communities of representatives of the genus Potamogeton in the Ukrainian Carpathians. Agroecological J. 2:80–89 [in Ukrainian]
Felbaba-Klushyna LM, Voloshchuk MI (2018) Vegetation of high altitude lakes of the Svydovets ridge (Ukrainian Carpathians): current state, structure, development trends. In: Problems of preservation of mountain ecosystems and sustainable use of biological resources of the Carpathians. Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference dedicated to the 50th anniversary of the establishment of the Carpathian Biosphere Reserve (Ukraine, Rakhiv, 22–25 October 2018) NAIR, Ivano-Frankivsk, pp 479–486. (Available on http://cbr.nature.org.ua/ conf2018/Zbirnyk_2018.pdf [in Ukrainian].
Felbaba-Klushyna L., Turisová I., Turis P., Voloshchuk M., Gapon S. (2023) Vegetation cover of subalpine lakes within the Svydovets ridge (Ukrainian Carpathians) and prospects for its protection / Biologia https://doi.org/…-023-01386-7
Kagalo O, Kanarskiy Y, Mykitchak T, Kovtonyuk O, Kobiv Y, Kyyak V, Sychak N, Bashta AT, Tsaryk Y, Dykiy I, Shydlovskiy I, Reshetylo O (2018) Nature conservation value of the territory of the central Svydovets mts (Ukrainian Carpathians). Visnyk of the Kyiv National University named after Taras 7.3–7.8.
Kobiv Y, Prokopiv A, Gelesh M, Borsukevych L (2009) Distribution, state of populations and habitat characteristics of rare and endangered plant species in the northern part of Svydovets Mts. Visnyk of the Lviv University, Ser. Biol. 49:63–82. [in Ukrainian]
31st EVS Conference, Rome, Italy, 21-25 May 2023 - website and registration open 2023–02–02
We are excited to announce that the website of the EVS Conference in Rome, Italy, 21–25 May 2023, is now open:
The conference title is European Vegetation Survey: methods and approaches in a changing environment. Do not miss this exciting opportunity to meet again in person in Rome after seven years.
Deadlines:
Financial support applications: February 28th, 2023
Abstract submission: March 31st, 2023
Registration and fee payment: April 22nd, 2023
Documents Phytosociologiques, fourth series 2023–01–31
Since its creation in 1972, the journal Documents Phytosociologiques has greatly contributed to the influence of phytosociology in Europe and around the world. This journal of the Amicale internationale de Phytosociologie has been carried out for nearly four decades by Prof. Jean-Marie GÉHU and Prof. Franco PEDROTTI (first and second series). From 2009 to 2020, the third series of Documents Phytosociologiques was co-published by the French Society of Phytosociology (SFP), the Ministry in charge of Ecology and the National Botanical Conservatory of the Massif Central. Thirteen volumes and one special issue have been published.
Since 2022, the SFP has been responsible for the editing and publication of the Phytosociological Documents (fourth series) which are now published online: http://www.phytosocio.org/#… The first two volumes, published in October and November 2022, are available for download, along with the composition of the Editorial Board and instructions to authors.
This journal is a tool for communication and promotion of the work carried out in Europe and around the world, in the various fields relating to phytosociology, both fundamental and applied. Open to the community of phytosociologists, it offers the possibility of publishing various types of summary work, original work, and monographs in different Latin and Anglo-Saxon languages.
Prof. Dr. Hartmut Dierschke (1937-2022) 2022–12–22
It is with great sadness that we announce that Professor Hartmut Dierschke passed away suddenly on 19 December 2022. He was an outstanding phytosociologist with profound knowledge of flora and plant communities in the field, an excellent teacher, organizer of scientific life, and a kind and humble person. He was one of the key people in the early years of the European Vegetation Survey Group.
31st EVS Conference, Rome, Italy, 21-25 May 2023 2022–11–29
The 31st Conference of European Vegetation Survey will be held in Rome, Italy, on 21–25 May 2023 (arrival on 21 May, conference on 22–24 May, excursion on 25 May). The conference website will be available soon. Looking forward to seeing many of you in Rome, the town where the European Vegetation Survey was born.
Eurasian Grassland Conference - extended deadline 2022–04–25
The deadline for abstract submission and early-bird registration for the Eurasian Grassland Conference (12–18 September 2022, Tolosa, Spain) has been extended to 10 May 2022.
EVS Statement on the war in Ukraine 2022–03–06
Our community of vegetation scientists, ecologists, botanists and other researchers united in the IAVS Working Group European Vegetation Survey strongly opposes the war against Ukraine started by the Russian President and his government. We condemn the barbaric crimes of killing innocent people including children and destroying civilian infrastructure, including scientific and educational institutions, as well as the unprecedented destruction of nature. We strongly support the Ukrainian people who want to live in peace as a free, independent nation. We respect all Russian colleagues who condemned their government’s military actions and war crimes. We call for an urgent and peaceful end to this senseless conflict.
17th Eurasian Grassland Conference, Tolosa, Spain, 12-18 September 2022 2022–02–16
Important dates:
Registration opens: 1st April
Early Bird registration deadline – 30th April
Travel grant application deadline – 30th April
Post-conference excursion application – 30th April
Abstract submission deadline – 30th April
Communication of acceptance for post-conference excursion – 15th May
Acceptance of abstracts and type of presentation – 15th May
Travel grant allocation – 31st May
Late registration deadline – 15th June
Detailed program: 25th July
30th Conference of European Vegetation Survey, Bratislava, Slovakia, 9-13 May 2022 2022–01–22
We are excited to announce that the website of the 30th Conference of European Vegetation Survey is now open:
Do not miss this exciting opportunity to meet again in person after two years without live EVS conferences.
Deadlines:
Financial support applications: February 15th, 2022
Registration and fee payment (early): February 28th, 2022
Registration and fee payment (late): April 15th, 2022
Abstract submission: March 15th, 2022
Program: April 30th, 2022
Asian Grassland Conference 2022 - registration open 2021–12–22
The registration of the Asian Grassland Conference (AGC) is now open! The conference will be full of engaging talks and special events, and it is free of charge! Please visit the conference website at https://edgg.org/AGC to find detailed information and to register. You can also read the second call at https://edgg.org/…all_v4_0.pdf. The deadline for abstract submission is 27 February 2022. Please note that the conference dates have been changed to 19–21 April 2022 to enable a higher level of participation.
Didem Ambarli
New version of the EUNIS-ESy expert system published 2021–06–01
We just published a new version of the EUNIS-ESy classification expert system and factsheets for European habitats of the EUNIS classification based on the analysis of 1.28 million vegetation plots: http://doi.org/…nodo.4812736. Newly added are habitats of coastal saltmarshes and sparsely vegetated inland habitats. Using the expert system file EUNIS-ESy-2021–06–01.txt, everybody can classify their own vegetation plots to EUNIS habitats. An important part of the publication is the file Habitat-factsheets-EUNIS-habitats-2021–06–01.pdf containing 660 pages of descriptions of 278 European habitats including their distribution maps and characteristic species combinations.
Virtual Conference of the European Vegetation Survey, 6-7 September 2021 2021–03–31
The 29th Congress of the European Vegetation Survey was set to be held this year at the Botanic Garden of Rome. Unfortunately, due to high uncertainties with the development of the pandemic, we have decided to postpone the face-to-face Congress to 2022. However, to maintain the professional ties and friendship in the EVS community, we decided to organize a virtual conference instead.
Please find the details of the Virtual Conference below:
Title: Revegetating Europe: contributions of the EVS to the ecological restoration decade
Dates: 6th–7th September 2021
Fee: No fees will be required
Deadline for Abstract submission: 15th June 2021
Decisions about presentation acceptance: 15th July 2021
Programme: 15th August 2021
Deadline for registration: 3rd September 2021
Users can register and submit the abstract at the website of the Conference: http://www.evs2020roma.info/
Presentations on any aspects of European vegetation diversity and its conservation will be considered. Those on vegetation restoration are particularly welcome.
Abstracts will be grouped according to topics and published as a digital document at the ZENODO repository (with DOI). Two types of presentation will be considered: regular ones (15') and lightning talks (5'). Depending on the number of submitted abstracts, it is possible that some of the regular presentations will have to be condensed to lightning talks.
Organizing Committee
Fabio Attorre, University of Rome La Sapienza, Italy
Emiliano Agrillo, Institute of Environmental Protection and Research (ISPRA), Rome, Italy
Idoia Biurrun, University of the Baque Country, Bilbao, Spain
Milan Chytrý, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic
Anna Kuzemko, M.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Kyiv, Ukraine¨
Joop Schaminée, Wageningen Environmental Research, Wageningen, the Netherlands
Looking forward to seeing you virtually in September and hopefully in Rome next year!
The EVS Steering Committee
International Symposium in honor of Salvador Rivas Martínez, León, Spain, 1-3 September 2021 2020–12–23
https://simposiosalvadorrivasmartinez.com/
EVA is starting the ReSurveyEurope Initiative 2020–10–07
European Vegetation Archive, in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Vienna and iDiv Halle-Jena-Leipzig, is starting a new initiative called ReSurveyEurope. Our aim is to collect (or identify in existing vegetation-plot databases) records from vegetation plots that were surveyed repeatedly in time at least twice. We collect both the data from exactly fixed permanent plots and the data from recent resurvey of old relevés (semi-permanent plots). We plan to publish a data paper about the new database in 2021, for which all the contributors of resurvey data will be invited as co-authors. Subsequently, these data will be used for projects analysing vegetation change in time. The regime of data ownership and availability will follow the EVA Rules. If you are interested in this initiative, please read the detailed instructions in the ReSurveyEurope Call: http://euroveg.org/…EVA_Call.pdf The deadline for data contribution for the first version of the ReSurveyEurope database and the data paper is 31 January 2021.
New Steering Committee of EVS for 2020-2024 elected 2020–09–21
The election period of the Steering Committee (SC) of European Vegetation Survey ended on 15 September 2020. The election was organized by the Election Committee including Emiliano Agrillo, Monika Janišová and Borja Jiménez-Alfaro. The number of received valid votes was 123.
Following the EVS bylaws (see art. Article 5. Steering Committee http://euroveg.org/bylaws) the five new SC members are:
Milan Chytrý, CZ, 104 votes
Idoia Biurrun, ES, 77 votes
Joop Schaminée, NL, 66 votes
Anna Kuzemko, UA, 56 votes
Fabio Attorre, IT, 55 votes
The numbers of votes for other candidates were:
Javier Loidi, ES, 62 votes (does not become a member of SC according to the Bylaws because Idoia Biurrun from the same country received more votes)
Andraž Čarni, SI, 53 votes
Flavia Landucci, CZ/IT, 48 votes
Massimo Terzi, IT, 23 votes
Prof. Salvador Rivas Martínez passed away 2020–08–28
Prof. Salvador Rivas Martínez, a great person of Spanish, European and global vegetation science, passed away on 27 August 2020. R. I. P.
Special Collections "Classification of Palaearctic Grasslands" 2020–07–13
The deadline of the call for abstracts to the VCS Special Collection „Classification of Palaearctic grasslands“ has been extended to 31 July 2020.
Full information is here: https://vegsciblog.org/…palaearctic/
EVS meeting in Rome postponed from May 2020 to spring 2021 2020–06–02
After discussions with local organizers, the EVS Steering Committee decided to postpone the Rome Meeting of the European Vegetation Survey to spring 2021. At the same time, the meeting in Bratislava, originally planned for May 2021, will be postponed to spring 2022. Exact dates of both meetings will be announced later.
European countries are gradually lifting their coronavirus containment measures, so there might be a chance to have a meeting in autumn 2020, but there are still too many uncertainties and differences among countries that make any planning difficult for both the conference organizers and participants, especially when advance payments for renting the conference venue, tickets, accommodation and other things are needed. I feel really sad that for the first time since EVS was founded in 1992, its annual meeting has to be cancelled. However, we can look forward to our meetings in the next years. I would like to thank the meeting organizers Fabio Attorre, Emiliano Agrillo, Jozef Šibík and their colleagues in Rome and Bratislava for their flexibility and willingness to organize the meetings in spite of the difficulties encountered this year.
See you in Rome in spring 2021!
Milan Chytrý
Secretary, European Vegetation Survey
Start of Vegetation Classification and Survey (VCS), the new gold open access journal of the International Association for Vegetation Science 2020–05–06
On 4 May the first six research articles have been published together with an inaugural editorial that explains the mission of the new journal. The six classificaiton papers come from five continents and include comprehensive works on Italian forest communities and Greek aquatic communities. Further information at: https://vegsciblog.org/…-are-online/ All articles are freely available from: https://vcs.pensoft.net/.
We invite EVS members to submit their papers on vegtation classification, ecoinformatics and phytosociological nomenclature to VCS. Submissions in 2020 benefit from much discounted APCs, while IAVS members receive further reductions.
Jürgen Dengler (for the VCS Chief Editors)
17th Eurasian Grassland Conference in Spain IS POSTPONED to 2021 2020–04–21
DUE TO THE VERY DYNAMIC AND UNPREDICTABLE SITUATION WITH CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC 17th EURASIAN GRASSLAND CONFERENCE IN SPAIN HAS BEEN POSTPONED TO 2021.
DETAILED INFORMATION ON THE PRECISE DATES OF THE POSTPONED EGC AS WELL AS ONLINE REGISTRATION DATES WILL BE ANNOUNCED ON THE CONFERENCE WEBSITE AND IN THE JOURNAL PALAEARCTIC GRASSLANDS IN AUTUMN 2020.
JVS Special Feature "Macroecology of vegetation" 2020–03–26
Dear leaders of macroecological projects using EVA data,
The Journal of Vegetation Science (JVS) is organising a Special Feature (SF) on „Macroecology of vegetation“ (see also attached flyer). We welcome all contributions that explore emergent patterns of vegetation (e.g. alpha-/beta-diversity, FD and PD, CWMs of traits, assembly rules, invasion patterns) across large spatial (or temporal) extents. We believe that macroecological studies using EVA data would be particularly suitable for this SF. While most other (macro-) ecological journals now require that in case of acceptance the underlying data are published open access (which is not allowed in the case of EVA data), JVS is aware of this situation and makes an exception for data from collaborative databases such as EVA (If the paper uses data from large multi-contributor databases such as sPlot, EVA or TRY, which cannot be made publicly available because of the third-party ownership issues, the data selection released for the study should be stored in an internal repository of the source database, and made available for re-analyses upon request; in such a case the author should refer to the project code or name used in such internal repository.)
Therefore, we would like to invite you to consider the SF „Macroecology of vegetation“ in JVS as possible publication venue for the paper(s) from your EVA project(s). If interested, please send a proposal (preliminary title, authors, preliminary abstract) until 15 May 2020 to Meelis Pärtel (meelis.partel@ut.ee). The selected proposals then can be submitted until 15 September 2020.
We look forward to your exciting macroecological papers.
Best regards,
Jürgen Dengler (on behalf of the whole guest editor team)
Eurasian Grassland Conference: registration is open 2020–03–04
17th Eurasian Grassland Conference, 7–13 September 2020, Tolosa, Spain https://edgg.org/egc2020
EVS meeting postponed from May to autumn 2020–03–04
We regret to inform that, due to COVID-19 outbreak in Europe and the consequent difficulties (current and foreseen) in the organization of events and travel to affected countries, the meeting has been postponed to autumn 2020.
The new dates and deadlines will be announced on the meeting website (http://www.evs2020roma.info/) as soon as possible. Until these are decided, registration to the meeting is closed and the preliminary programme is cancelled.
We apologize for any inconvenience that may occur due to this decision.
Organizing and Scientific committee
Vegetation Classification Survey - a new IAVS journal 2020–02–21
Vegetation Classification and Survey (VCS), the new gold open-access journal of IAVS is now fully functional. Check out and consider submitting your papers at https://vcs.pensoft.net/.
Eastern Alpine and Dinaric Society for Vegetation Ecology meeting, Dubrovnik, Croatia, 14-17 April 2021 2020–01–27
More information on http://www.eadsve.org/
29th European Vegetation Survey Meeting, Rome, Italy, 4-7 May 2020, Website open! 2019–12–14
14th EDGG Field Workshop: Ukraine, 25 May - 3 June 2020 2019–12–11
https://edgg.org/…workshop2020
17th Eurasian Grassland Conference, 7-13 September 2020, Tolosa, Spain 2019–12–11
European Workshop "Atlantic biogeographical chalk grasslands" 18-20 September 2019, Rouen, France 2019–04–19
http://euroveg.org/…uen-2019.pdf
Website of the EVS Madrid meeting now open! 2019–03–15
28th EUROPEAN VEGETATION SURVEY MADRID 2019
Vegetation Diversity & Global Change 2–6 September 2019, Madrid (Spain)
Eurasian Grassland Conference, 29 May-5 June 2019, Graz, Austria and Maribor, Slovenia 2019–03–07
The first circular of the 28th EVS Meeting, Madrid, 2-6 September 2019 2019–02–11
http://euroveg.org/…rid-2019.pdf
62nd IAVS Symposium Bremen, Germany, 14-19 July 2019 2018–11–27
Visit the symposium website: http://iavs.org/…um/Home.aspx
Workshop "Vegetation Databases and the Biodiversity of Cultural Landscapes", Triesdorf, Germany, 27 Feb - 1 Mar 2019 2018–11–16
https://www.hswt.de/…riesdorf.pdf
EVS Meeting 2019 2018–08–16
The 28th Workshop of European Vegetation Survey will take place in Madrid, Spain, on 2–6 September 2019.
The main theme of the Workshop will be VEGETATION DIVERSITY AND GLOBAL CHANGE, with focus will be on the following topics:
- Assessment and conservation of European habitats
- Vegetation classification and data management
- High-mountain vegetation
- Aquatic vegetation
- Vegetation dynamics and succession in different habitats: from old fields to forests
- Habitat restoration and plant invasions
The 2018 Annual Report of European Vegetation Survey published 2018–06–26
http://euroveg.org/annual-reports
Special Feature “Vegetation Science and Habitats Directive” 2018–06–23
The Special Feature entitled “Vegetation Science and Habitats Directive”, edited by Fabio Attorre, Sandro Pignatti, Francesco Spada, Laura Casella and Emiliano Agrillo, was published in the journal Rendiconti Lincei, Scienze Fisiche e Naturali, in June 2018 (https://link.springer.com/…/29/2/page/1). It contains a series of papers based on selected presentations from the 25th meeting of the European Vegetation Survey (Rome 2015) and other invited papers on the topic. It contains 11 papers plus an editorial.
Publication of a report updating the French interpretation of 35 habitats of Community interest 2018–04–11
In 2014 the French Ministry of Ecology established a national working group on the interpretation of habitats of Community interest (except marine habitats). This group work on updating the interpretation of about a hundred habitats of Community interest. A report (in French) presents its first results: the updated interpretation of 35 habitats, mainly coastal and freshwater. Link to the report: http://spn.mnhn.fr/…ars_2018.pdf. Link to the news on the website of the French National Inventory of Natural Heritage: https://inpn.mnhn.fr/…ommunautaire
Jornadas Internacionales de Fitosociología, Mexico, 21-24 November 2018 2018–03–17
Geobotánica en América Latina: presente y retos del futuro http://132.247.197.101/fito/
New online database of Czech flora and vegetation 2018–03–16
You are welcome to explore the new online database at www.pladias.org. It contains
- interactive species distribution maps
- several dozen plant traits
- complete overview of vegetation types
- downloadable datasets
- fulltexts of national flora and vegetation monographs, etc.
15th Eurasian Grassland Conference, Sulmona, Italy 2018–02–27
Dear Colleagues,
I would like to inform/remind you that the early bird registration to the
15th Eurasian Grassland Conference (EGC) COOPERATING FOR GRASSLAND CONSERVATION
Place: Sulmona (Italy) Time: 4–8 June 2018
is open from the 23rd February 2018
Deadlines for abstract submission and travel grant application: 31st March 2018
Deadline for the registration and payment: 30th April 2018
Further information at: https://edgg.namupro.de/egc2018
Looking forward to meet you in Sulmona,
On the behalf of the IAVS-EDGG
Péter Török
EDGG Representative to IAVS University of Debrecen molinia@gmail.com
Workshop Vegetation Databases and Detection of Environmental Change, Jena, Germany, 14-16 March 2018 2018–01–17
Since 2002 the German Working Group on Vegetation Databases <http://www.hswt.de/person/ joerg‐ewald/vegetationsdatenbanken.html> engages in making the vast amount of plot data produced by vegetation scientists accessible to research and application. Our 17th meeting to be held from 14th to 16th March 2018 at the Friedrich‐Schiller‐University Jena (Germany) will be dedicated to the topic “Vegetation Databases and Detection of Environmental Change”.
https://www.hswt.de/…rch_2018.pdf
EVS meeting 2018 website launched 2017–11–13
The website of the EVS 2018 meeting in Wroclaw has been launched: http://evs2018wroclaw.uni.wroc.pl
New officers of the European Vegetation Classification Committee (EVCC) 2017–10–16
Electronic elections of the Secretary and Deputy Secretary of the European Vegetation Classification Committee (EVCC) took place from 30 September to 15 October 2017. A total of 47 members (out of 69 members of the EVCC) voted. All the votes were in favour of electing the two proposed candidates, Wolfgang Willnerr as the EVCC Secretary and Idoia Biurrun as the Deputy Secretary. No vote was against.
Congratulations to Wolfgang and Idoia and good luck in steering the work of the EVCC!
The final version of the EVCC Procedures, approved by the EVS Business Meeting in Bilbao on 14 September 2017, is available at http://euroveg.org/…APPROVED.pdf.
Next EVS meetings 2017–10–13
The next EVS meetings will be:
- 2018 Wroclaw, Poland
- 2019 Madrid, Spain
- 2020 Roma, Italy
- 2021 Bratislava, Slovakia
EVS meeting 2018, Wroclaw, Poland 2017–10–05
The 27th meeting of European Vegetation Survey will be held in Wroclaw, Poland, on 23–26 May 2018.
Boris Mikhailovich Mirkin died on 9 August 2017 2017–08–22
It is with deep sadness that we announce the passing of Professor Boris Mikhailovich Mirkin at an age of 81. He was a great scientist – vegetation ecologist who introduced the Braun-Blanquet method to the former Soviet Union and influenced many colleagues both in Russia and other countries.
Revised proposal of the EuroVegChecklist update procedures 2017–08–07
Revised proposal has been prepared based on the discussion at the IAVS Symposium in Palermo (June 2017) and comments received so far. The final version will be approved at the EVS Meeting in Bilbao (September 2017)
http://euroveg.org/…17-08-07.pdf
Virtual Special Issue "Towards a consistent classification of European grasslands" published online 2017–07–31
Virtual Special Issue „Towards a consistent classification of European grasslands“ has been published online on the website of Applied Vegetation Science:
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/…uesPage.html
It contains an Editorial and eight original research papers published between 2013 and 2017, which nicely illustrate not only the diversity of European grasslands, but also the variety of approaches used for their study.
EVA Annual Report for 2017 published 2017–06–15
http://euroveg.org/…-eva-reports
The 2017 EVS Annual Report has been published 2017–06–03
http://euroveg.org/annual-reports
A first draft of the EuroVegChecklist update procedures has been published 2017–05–29
http://euroveg.org/…17-05-29.pdf
14th Eurasian Grassland Conference, Riga, Latvia, 4-11 July 2017 2017–05–01
Topic: Semi-natural grasslands across borders
Early bird registration is open, until the 10th of May; you can find it with additional information at:
Looking forward to meet you in Riga,
On behalf of the Local Organizing Committee
Solvita Rusina University of Latvia solvita.rusina@lu.lv
On the behalf of the IAVS-EDGG Péter Török University of Debrecen molinia@gmail.com
Phytosociological congress in Cabo Verde, 5-7 November 2017 2017–04–17
The Portuguese and French association of phytosociology are jointly organizing an international congress in Cabo Verde in November 2017.
Proposed schedule:
5 and 6 November: Congress sessions
7 November: Field trip at São Tiago Island
8–11 November: Post-congress field trip in Fogo Island which had volcanic activity a few years ago
Congress website: http://www.ceg.ulisboa.pt/…pean-phytos/
Interactive online application of EuroVegChecklist has been released 2017–03–31
An interactive online application of EuroVegChecklist, the standard classification system of European vegetation (Mucina et al. 2016, Applied Vegetation Science, Suppl. 1), has been developed by Stephan Hennekens. It comprises the complete classification system with all information published in the printed appendices and various data from the electronic appendices of the original publication, including lists of indicator species of phytosociological classes and lists of relevant literature for each class. The application also makes it possible to post online comments on individual syntaxa.
Thanks to Stephan for making this information available online!
https://www.synbiosys.alterra.nl/evc/
European Red List of Habitats published 2017–01–25
For the first time, a comprehensive assessment of European habitats has been carried out, providing a clear picture of the state of the 490 habitats in 35 countries across Europe, from the Arctic Circle to the Mediterranean Sea, and in neighbouring coastal waters of the North Atlantic, Baltic, Mediterranean and Black Seas. Over 300 experts have contributed their knowledge and expertise to produce an assessment of the level of threat of European habitats. The European Red List of Habitats was funded by the European Commission and coordinated by a partnership formed by Wageningen Environmental Research (Alterra), IUCN, NatureBureau and consultants Susan Gubbay and John Rodwell.
What they reveal is stark. Over a third of all land habitats are currently under threat: more than three-quarters of bogs, over half of grassland habitats, and almost half of our lakes, rivers and coasts. Forests, heaths and rocky habitats have fared better but are still of great concern.
In all our neighbouring seas, mussel beds, seagrass beds and habitats in estuaries are everywhere threatened. In the Mediterranean Sea, almost a third of all habitats are at risk of collapse; in the North-East Atlantic, nearly a quarter. Also of great concern is the large number of marine habitats about which we still know too little, particularly in the Black Sea.
European habitats are declining in extent and quality for many reasons, and many threats are having increasingly large impacts. Intensive farming and abandonment of traditional grazing lands, drainage and pollution, invasion of alien plants and animals, urbanisation and associated infrastructure development all of these continue to pose dangers to terrestrial habitats. At sea, it is pollution, nutrient enrichment, destructive fishing practices and coastal defence and development that are most threatening. Some damaging effects of climate change are already apparent in both marine and terrestrial systems and are likely to worsen.
Together, these habitats form the rich tapestry of our many different European landscapes and seascapes. They provide a home for many thousands of plants and animals and provide important ecosystem services, such as protecting soils, capturing carbon and helping alleviate global warming. These habitats can yield valuable crops, sustain livestock, game and fish and provide places for tourism and recreation. They offer inspiration and delight to all and are a precious heritage for future generations.
The European Red List of Habitats provides an entirely new and all-embracing tool to review commitments for protecting and restoring the land and seas of Europe. It covers a much wider range of habitats than those legally protected under the Habitats Directive and will help us measure progress towards the targets of the EU2020 Biodiversity Strategy.
Further information on the Red List can be found at http://ec.europa.eu/…dlist_en.htm
60th Annual Symposium of IAVS 2017–01–24
60th Annual Symposium of IAVS with the theme „Vegetation patterns in natural and cultural landscapes“ will be held in Palermo, Italy, on 20–24 June 2017 (Tuesday-Saturday).
26th EVS Meeting, Bilbao, 13-16 September 2017 2016–12–14
http://www.ehu.eus/en/web/evs2017
The first comprehensive and critically revised classification of European vegetation types (EuroVegChecklist) has been published! 2016–12–05
After 15 years of work and compiling ~10,000 publications, our team of 32 vegetation scientists from 16 countries led by Ladislav Mucina presents a new classification system with 149 classes, 377 orders and 1298 alliances of European vegetation in a special issue of the journal Applied Vegetation Science. With support from International Association for Vegetation Science, the special issue is open access. This new classification provides a solid basis for nature conservation planning, monitoring and habitat protection.
Journal website: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/…257/abstract
Press release: http://www.wiley.com/…-129936.html
EuroVegChecklist browser: http://www.synbiosys.alterra.nl/…SetupEVB.exe
16th workshop on "Vegetation Databases and Natura 2000", Freiburg, Germany, 8-10 March 2017 2016–11–08
http://www.hswt.de/…es_N2000.pdf
37th meeting of the Eastern Alpine and Dinaric Society for Vegetation Ecology, Prizren, Kosovo, 13-16 July 2017 2016–10–18
http://www.eadsve.org/…re-meetings/
New EVA Coordinating Board for 2016-2020 elected 2016–06–01
The new Coordinating Board of European Vegetation Archive (EVA) was elected by the EVA Council, a body consisting of the Custodians of the EVA databases. The new Board will include:
Idoia Biurrun, Milan Chytrý, Jürgen Dengler, Stephan Hennekens, Florian Jansen, Borja Jiménez-Alfaro, Ilona Knollová
Congratulations and good luck with an uneasy task of managing the EVA database.
The 2016 EVS Annual Report has been published 2016–05–27
http://euroveg.org/…reports/2016
Vegetation of the Czech Republic online 2016–05–26
With the consent of publishers, fulltext PDFs of volumes 1–3 of Vegetation of the Czech Republic and 2nd edition of the Habitat Catalogue of the Czech Republic have been posted online:
Vegetation of the Czech Republic: http://www.sci.muni.cz/…vegetace.php?…
Habitat Catalogue of the Czech Republic – coarse resolution: http://www.nature.cz/…2_vydani.pdf
Habitat Catalogue of the Czech Republic – fine resolution: http://www.sci.muni.cz/…solution.pdf
Proposed revision of the EUNIS habitats classification 2016–05–23
As announced at the recent Rome meeting, a consultation on a proposed revision of the forest, heath, scrub and tundra sections of the EUNIS habitats classification, based on work by the EVS, has just started and the EEA would welcome your comments. Please see
http://forum.eionet.europa.eu/…consultation
and
http://forum.eionet.europa.eu/…consultation
for further information. The consultation is open until 1st July 2016, if you have any questions contact Doug Evans (evans@mnhn.fr)
13th Eurasian Grassland Conference: Management and conservation of semi-natural grasslands: from theory to practice, 20-24 September 2016, Sighişoara, Romania 2016–04–14
New EVS Steering Committee for 2016-2020 elected 2016–04–09
The new Steering Committee of the EVS Working Group was elected on 7 April 2016 at the Annual Meeting in Rome. It includes (alphabetically): Fabio Attorre, Italy, Andraž Čarni, Slovenia, Milan Chytrý, Czech Republic, Joop Schaminée, The Netherlands, and John Rodwell, United Kingdom
The new Steering Committee selected Milan Chytrý as the Secretary and appointed Emiliano Agrillo as an ex officio Membership Administrator.
Symposium ‘Vegetation diversity in Latin America and Europe: advances for studies and conservation’, 12-15 July 2016, Santiago de Compostela, Spain 2016–04–04
Dear colleagues,
The Symposium ‘Vegetation diversity in Latin America and Europe: advances for studies and conservation’ organized by the Universidad of Santiago de Compostela and the Geobotany Spanish Society (sgeobot.com), will be held from the 12th to the 15th of July 2016 in Santiago de Compostela.
Information about the symposium can be downloaded from https://sites.google.com/…fit/index_es
All of you are very welcome. The registration is open until 6th of June.
Best regards
Rosario G. Gavilán
International Symposium "Vegetation and Nature Conservation", 4-7 October 2016, Saint Brieuc, France 2016–02–19
Dear colleagues,
International Symposium „Vegetation and Nature Conservation“ organized by the French Society of Phytosociology, The French ministry of Ecology, Sustainable Devolpment and Energy, the Departemental Council of Côtes-d'Armor and ViVarmor Nature, will take place from 4 to 7th October 2016 in Saint-Brieuc.
The first circular is here: www.euroveg.org/…euc-2016.pdf
This symposium will be dedicated to the Professor Jean-Marie Géhu (1930–2014).
I look forward to welcoming you in Brittany this autumn.
Sincerely,
Frédéric Bioret
15th Workshop on “Vegetation Databases and Resurveys”, Potsdam, 2-4 March 2016 2015–12–16
Dear colleagues,
As we have announced a while ago, we will hold our next workshop in early March 2016 in Potsdam. We warmly invite you to prepare your topical talks and posters, which you will be able to submit online after 15 January (see below). We will send a reminder and final call as soon as the website is opened.
Workshop Topics:
Since 2002 the German Working Group on Vegetation Databases <http://www.hswt.de/…nbanken.html> engages in making the vast volume of plot data produced by vegetation scientists accessible to research and application. Our 15th meeting to be held from 2nd to 4th March 2016 at the University of Potsdam (Germany) will be dedicated to resurvey studies.
A major task of current ecological research is to detect and analyse environmental and biotic change due to land use change, nitrogen deposition, climate change and biological invasions. Preserving legacy vegetation data with precise georeferences (permanent and semi-permanent plots) in databases allows to revisit plots, resample their present species composition and compare it to historical states. Beyond the plot level vegetation datasets provide insights into beta-diversity and biotic homogenisation on the landscape scale. In large databases several resurvey studies may be combined to detect more general trends of vegetation change. Once detected, such trends can be attributed to ecological mechanisms and environmental drivers by relating them to site factors and species traits.
Confirmed keynote speakers:
Kris Verheyen, University of Ghent Martin Diekmann, University of Bremen Karsten Wesche, Senckenberg Museum of Natural History Görlitz
Call for Abstracts:
We invite presentations (talks and posters) focussing on questions and methods relating to the design, performance, documentation, analysis and interpretation of vegetation resurveys at different spatial scales, as well as to the implementation of results in the management and conservation of vegetation. Beyond the focal topic, more general contributions on other technical or scientific advances in vegetation databanking are welcome. During the workshop recent advances in relaunching the national vegetation portal VegetWeb 2.0 <vegetweb.de> will be presented.
Registration and abstract submission will be possible from 15th January 2016 under http://www.uni-potsdam.de/…atabases2016. There will be no workshop fees.
Organisation:
The workshop will be hosted by the Department of Biodiversity Research / Systematic Botany of the University of Potsdam <http://www.uni-potsdam.de/index.php?…> and is generously supported by the Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (BfN) and the Federal Ministry for the Environment (BMU). Looking forward to your contributions and to seeing you in Potsdam!
Thilo Heinken, Florian Jansen & Jörg Ewald
Professor Pierre Quézel (1926-2015) 2015–10–26
We are deeply saddened to announce that excellent French vegetation ecologist Pierre Quézel passed away on 21 October 2015.
Invitation to join the new IAVS Vegetation Classification Working Group 2015–08–31
Dear EVS members,
We know that many of you are actively working and very interested in vegetation classification. If you should belong to this group, please read the following:
At the IAVS Symposium in Brno there was a well-attended meeting of participants interested in vegetation classification (~60), highlighting that this is a timely topic within our association. The participants agreed that we should re-organise the former informal structure of a mailing list (together with a Special Committee of the last IAVS Governing Board, comprised of very few members and whose terms of duty terminated in Brno) into a formal Working Group within IAVS. This will give all IAVS members (and also non-members) equal opportunities to participate in forthcoming activities and to influence their outcomes, but will also provide our Working Group with access to financial and organisational support from IAVS.
The Bylaws available at http://euroveg.org/…approved.pdf have been developed by us and approved (after some smaller modifications) by eight founding members of the Working Group, who are Jorge Capelo, Milan Chytrý, Miquel De Cáceres, Jürgen Dengler, Scott Franklin, Francois Gillet, Pavel Krestov and Robert K. Peet. If you are interested in vegetation classification at any spatial or organisational scale, particularly the underlying methodologies, and you agree with the Bylaws, you are invited to join the Working Group by sending an e-mail to the three ad-hoc coordinators (or, after the election, to the Chair or Secretary). As you can see from the Bylaws, membership in our group is free of charge and IAVS membership is not obligatory. Please note that currently it is not possible to change the Bylaws; if you have ideas for further modifications, Article 9 tells you the procedure that can be followed (once the Steering Committee has been elected).
We plan to conduct the elections for the first Steering Committee (SC) during September 2015 (see Article 5), i.e. during the first half of the month all members can name candidates for the SC, while the electronic election itself will take place in the second half of September. If you wish to participate in the election, please take care that you have joined before nominations are final. In case you will not be available during the first half of September, feel free to send at any time nominations for SC members to us (candidates need to be members of both the Working Group and the IAVS).
We now look forward to a successful development of our group that can effectively tackle the five tasks we agreed upon in Brno within its new organisational framework from October onwards.
Best regards,
The ad-hoc coordinators (please respond to all three of us because each of us will be partly unavailable during the next weeks).
Miquel De Cáceres (miquelcaceres@gmail.com)
Jürgen Dengler (juergen.dengler@uni-bayreuth.de)
Scott Franklin (Scott.Franklin@unco.edu)
The 2015 EVS Annual Report has been published 2015–06–25
http://euroveg.org/…reports/2015
Future EVS Meetings 2015–06–05
25th EVS meeting will take place in Rome, Italy, on 6–9 April 2016, hosted by Università di Roma “La Sapienza” (Emiliano Agrillo, Fabio Attorre, Laura Casella, Francesco Spada and colleagues). Please note that the earlier announced dates (13–16 April) had to be changed because of the Jubilee celebration in Rome.
26th EVS meeting will be held in Bilbao, Spain, in spring 2017, hosted by University of the Basque Country (Javier Loidi and colleagues).
27th EVS meeting will be held in Wrocław, Poland, in spring 2018, hosted by University of Wrocław (Zygmunt Kącki and colleagues).
Synoptic tables of French vegetation online 2015–03–29
Message from Jan-Bernard Bouzillé: Synoptic tables of the Prodrome of French vegetation are now available on the French Society of Phytosociology website (http://www.phytosocio.org). The synoptic tables are downloadable from the „Prodrome“ part of the website.
36th meeting of the Eastern Alpine and Dinaric Society for Vegetation Ecology, Osijek, Croatia, 17-20 June 2015 2015–03–09
http://www.eadsve.org/osijek2015/
Travel grants for the EVS Meeting in Rennes 2015–01–07
Dear colleagues,
I hope to see many of you at the EVS Meeting in Rennes, France, on 4–8 May 2015 – https://evs2015.univ-rennes1.fr/index.php. Please note that the deadline for registration, payment and abstract submission is 28 February.
It is my pleasure to announce that the Governing Board of our mother organization, International Association for Vegetation Science, allocated some funds as financial support to attend the Rennes meeting for vegetation scientists facing financial challenges. These grants can cover the costs of the EVS Meeting attendance (travel, conference fee, excursion(s), accommodation) in full or in part.
Eligibility criteria for travel grants:
- The applicant has to be a member of IAVS.
- The applicant will be a presenting author of a talk or a poster.
- Both students and non-students are eligible.
Application procedure:
- Send a motivation letter to the EVS France Staff Secretary (evs2015@univ-rennes1.fr) by 31 January 2015.
- In the motivation letter, explain why you want to attend the EVS Meeting, indicate the approximate amount of support (in euros) you ask for, and which expenses you need to cover (travel, conference fee, excursion fee, accommodation, or any combination of these). State clearly that you have no or only partial financial support from your institution for attending the EVS Meeting. Add a preliminary abstract of your talk or poster and a brief CV.
- The applications will be handled by the Organizing Committee of the EVS Meeting and the IAVS Global Sponsorship Committee (GSC), which will make all decisions about financial support. The selection of grantees and the decision on the amount of the individual travel grants will be based both on the personal merits of the applicants (e.g. abstract quality, motivation, CV) and their needs (e.g. income situation, travel costs to Rennes).
- All the applicants will be informed about the decision by 20 February 2015.
- All expenses of the awardees will be reimbursed after the Meeting through the IAVS Secretariat based on the original receipts and tickets.
Best wishes,
Milan Chytrý, Secretary, European Vegetation Survey
58th Annual Symposium of the International Association for Vegetation Science (IAVS), Brno, Czech Republic, 19-24 July 2015 2014–10–30
All the members of European Vegetation Survey are cordially welcome to the IAVS Symposium: www.iavs2015.cz.
24th EVS Meeting, Rennes, France, 4-8 May 2015 2014–10–16
We cordially welcome you to the 24th annual meeting of our Working Group: https://evs2015.univ-rennes1.fr
12th European Dry Grassland Meeting, Mainz, Germany, 22-27 May 2015 2014–09–09
http://www.edgg.org/…ng_2015.html
The 2014 EVS Annual Report has been published 2014–08–06
http://euroveg.org/…reports/2014
Public consultation on Article 17 assessments of Conservation Status of species and habitats of Community Interest 2014–05–30
Article 17 of the EU Habitats Directive requires the 28 Member States to report to the European Commission every 6 years following an agreed format – hence ‘Article 17 reporting’. The third report covers the period 2007–2006 and concerns 27 EU Member States (Croatia is not concerned by this report given their recent accession to the EU).
A major part of the Article 17 report is an assessment of the conservation status of all the habitats and species listed on the Annexes of the Directive This assessment uses an agreed methodology based around the definition of ‘Favourable Conservation Status’ given in the Directive, The assessments cover the entire area of each country and are not restricted to the Natura 2000 network.
From the country reports the European Topic Centre on Biological Diversity has produced assessments for each biogeographical region. A public consultation will be held from 2 June to 7 July 2014 and the ETC/BD would welcome your comments, particularly on the habitats. If you are interested please visit http://bd.eionet.europa.eu/…reports2012/ .
Results from the last reporting round were presented to the 2009 EVS meeting and published in Annali di Botanica (Sipkova et al 2010).
Sipkova, Z., Balzer, S., Evans D. & Ssymank, A. (2010). Assessing the conservation status of European Union habitats – results of the community report with a case study of the German national report. Annali di Botanica 1: 19–37. http://annalidibotanica.uniroma1.it/…ew/9103/9043
Rosario Gavilán and Francesco Spada became new members of the EVS Steering Committee 2014–05–17
Following the amendment of the EVS By-laws approved in 2013, Rosario Gavilán and Francesco Spada were elected as new members of the EVS Steering Committee on the Business Meeting held in Ljubljana on 10 May 2014. Congratulations!
A report on habitat and vegetation mapping in Europe published 2014–03–03
The study of habitat and vegetation mapping in Europe has been published by the Museum National d'Histoire Naturelle and the European Environment Agency. The report can be found at the EEA's website (http://www.eea.europa.eu/…ng-in-europe ) whilst there are ‚press releases‘ at http://www.eea.europa.eu/…e-ecosystems and http://bd.eionet.europa.eu/…nn1393424141
Professor Jean-Marie Géhu (1930-2014) 2014–02–24
Professor Jean-Marie Géhu, a leading personality of French and European phytosociology, passed away on 15 February 2014. http://euroveg.org/…rie-Gehu.pdf
Crosswalks between the Prodrome of French vegetation and habitats of Community interest 2014–02–05
The Service du patrimoine naturel (a section of the National Museum of Natural History of Paris) developed a crosswalk between phytosociological units of the Prodrome of French vegetation (to the levels of the alliance and the suballiance) and the habitats of Community interest (Annex I of the EU Habitats Directive). This work was done in close collaboration with the conservatoires botaniques nationaux and phytosociologists of the Société française de phytosociologie. Around 800 correspondences are provided. 24% of the 371 alliances occurring in France are not of Community interest and 36% are linked to a single habitat of Community interest. The Quercion ilicis alliance has the largest number of correspondences: it is linked to 12 habitats!
The report is available on the website of the National Inventory of Natural Heritage (INPN): http://inpn.mnhn.fr/…respondances#… (Gaudillat, 2014). The crosswalk is also available as an Excel data table (“TYPO_CRSP_PVF1_HIC”).
Professor Władysław Matuszkiewicz (1921-2013) 2013–10–14
Professor Władysław Matuszkiewicz, a prominent Polish and European vegetation scientist, Honorary Member of the International Association for Vegetation Science, passed away on 11 October 2013. He is well-known especially for his synthetic studies of Polish vegetation, including „Przewodnik do oznaczania zbiorowisk roślinnych Polski“ (Identification key to Polish plant communities) and Map of potential natural vegetation of Poland.
EVS Bylaws amended 2013–06–28
In the last meeting of European Vegetation Survey (EVS) in Vienna in May 2012, our Business Meeting approved the new EVS Bylaws, which defined, for the first time, the EVS Steering Committee (SC). EVS is a truly international working group and it is therefore crucial that also its SC is an international body. Therefore the Bylaws approved in Vienna postulated a requirement that each SC member is from a different European country. However, the subsequent vote in Vienna showed that even with this rule, entire regions of Europe with many people active in vegetation survey and highly diverse vegetation may be not represented in the EVS SC, which is clearly undesirable with respect to the EVS aims.
Therefore the EVS SC prepared a proposal for an amendment of the Bylaws, which should ensure that three European geographic regions, defined by similar languages, history and/or biogeography (Western-Central and North-western Europe, Southern Europe and Eastern-Central and Eastern Europe), are represented in the future EVS SCs. This amendment was approved at the EVS Business Meeting in Rome on 10 April 2013 and by the Council meeting of the International Association for Vegetation Science in Tartu on 27 June 2013.
The amendment text is available at: http://euroveg.org/…13-03-11.pdf
The Prodrome of French vegetation published online 2013–06–12
The Prodrome of French vegetation published in 2004 is being extended to the level of the association. For each class a phytosociological synthesis is provided, in some cases at the European level. This synthesis contains a description of the higher hierarchical units, synoptic tables and information sheets for all associations known to occur in France. For each association information is given on synonymy, nomenclatural type, characteristic species, ecology, variations, distribution within France and correspondences with the European habitat classifications (CORINE Biotopes, annex I of the Habitats Directive, EUNIS). This work can lead to changes in the initial national phytosociological system (Bardat et al., 2004). The synthesis of approximately 80 classes, corresponding to more than 2600 plant associations are expected to be completed by the end of 2014. By the beginning of 2013, three quarters of the classes have been finalised or are close to completion, with 764 description sheets validated or under correction. An additional 50 synthesis are expected by the end of 2013. The work is coordinated by the Société française de Phytosociologie (SFP) in partnership with the Service du patrimoine naturel (SPN) of the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle (MNHN) and involves several partners including the Conservatoires botaniques nationaux and vegetation scientists based elsewhere.
The results are being published in the Journal de botanique de la Société botanique de France. The phytosociological classification and the correspondences with European habitat classifications are held in databases by the SPN according to specific data standards and made available via the Inventaire national du Patrimoine naturel (National Inventory of Natural Heritage, INPN). To date the following classes are available for download: Agrostietea, Betulo-Alnetea, Cardaminetea, Charetea, Cisto-Lavanduletea, Filipendulo-Convolvuletea, Lemnetea, Littorelletea, Nardetea, Nerio-Tamaricetea, Oxycocco-Sphagnetea, Polygono-Poetea, Saginetea, Serapiadetea, Sisymbrietea.
Three other spreadsheets containing correspondences between plant associations and European classifications (CORINE Biotopes, annex I of the Habitats Directive, EUNIS) are also available. All this work will be updated gradually.
This work will be very useful to many national programmes such as national vegetation plot database (VegFrance), vegetation mapping of France (CARHAB) but also for local practionners. At the European level, the data are available to all plant ecologists interested in vegetation survey and might encourage possible collaborations.
EVS history has been published 2013–04–06
An account of EVS history written by John Rodwell has been published on www.euroveg.org/history.
Website of the Société Française de Phytosociologie 2013–04–03
Website of the French Society of Phytosociology is available at http://www.phytosocio.org/. The main objective is to provide a place centralising news about our discipline and allow easy access to the society. It also aims to be a place for information exchange and sharing. It is also expected to publish a database of phytosociological data that would allow to gather records on French vegetation.
Results of the Survey about Plot-based Vegetation Classification Methods were completed and published online 2013–03–22
https://sites.google.com/…thods/survey
VegFrance database website has been launched 2013–01–29
A new national vegetation database of France has a new website at http://vegfrance.univ-rennes1.fr/
Papers on four southern European vegetation databases were published 2013–01–10
Papers on four national databases of southern European countries (Spain+Portugal, France, Italy and Greece) were published in the journal Plant Sociology. Free PDFs can be downloaded from: http://www.scienzadellavegetazione.it/…coloCerca.do?…