The winners of the Photo Competition for JVS/AVS 2022 cover pictures are Gianmaria Bonari and Rense Haveman. The forerunners are Chien-Fan Chen, Anaclara Guido, Luis López-Mársico and Ricarda Pätsch.
Congratulations to the winners and many thanks to all the colleagues who submitted their pictures. Here is the overview of the best pictures.
Mixed beech-fir forest (Fagus sylvatica, Abies alba) in the Italian Alps (Val Campelle, Trento). The other tree species include Betula pendula, Larix decidua and Populus tremula. Photo credit: Gianmaria Bonari.
Batis maritima vegetation in a brackish pool on the Caribbean island of Klein Curaçao, surrounded by Avicennia germinans and Conocarpus erectus mangroves. In the 19th century, Klein Curaçao was severely damaged by the extraction of guano and the introduction of goats. In 1996, the goats were eradicated, and a reforestation program was set up, resulting in the restoration of natural vegetation, including this mangrove habitat. Photo credit: Rense Haveman.
Landslide disturbance generates bare ground habitat and provides the occasion for regeneration of hundreds-year-old giant trees. This example of a landslide in Taiwan shows yellow-green seedlings of Picea morrisonicola and adult trees of the same species in the forest in the background. Photo credit: Chien-Fan Chen
Natural forest-grasslands mosaics of Southern Brazil (Mata Atlantica biome) are mainly maintained by grazing and fires. Araucaria angustifolia is one of the main species in the forest patches. Photo credit: Anaclara Guido.
Pyric herbivory: Fire is employed as a management tool in some Uruguayan grasslands and, together with livestock, allows maintaining this type of open ecosystem. Photo credit: Luis López-Mársico. The picture is related to the paper: López‐Mársico, L., Lezama, F. & Altesor, A. (2021) Heterogeneity decreases as time since fire increases in a South American grassland. Applied Vegetation Science, 24(1), e12521. https://doi.org/10.1111/avsc.12521
Colourful vegetation zonation in saline depressions on fossil salt deposits at the Turda salt mine in the Transylvanian Basin, Romania. Most saline non-vegetated areas transition into a Salicornia-dominated zone, followed by Puccinellia distans agg. and Tripolium pannonicum subsp. pannonicum. Photo credit: Ricarda Pätsch.
