Vegetation Classification and Survey (VCS): Editors’ Choice of the fourth quarter of 2024

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Prepared by Jürgen Dengler (on behalf of the VCS Chief Editor)

Sampling plot in a high Andean Distichia muscoides community. Source: Maldonado Fonken et al. (2024)

Vegetation Classification and Survey (VCS) has completed the fourth quarter of the 5th volume, containing in total 11 articles (see list below). Among these, the Chief Editors selected the contribution by Maldonado-Fonkén et al. (2024) as the Editors’ Choice article. This research paper is part of the “Special Collection Neotropical vegetation”, published in collaboration with IAVS’ Regional Section for Latin America and the Caribbean.

Monica Maldonado-Fonkén and colleagues studied wetland communities (bofedal) in the Peruvian Andes, along a 68 km longitudinal transect, and described 13 bofedal communities using 127 1- m2 plots. These bofedal communities occurring at elevations of 4,200 to 4,800 m a.s.l. in the Andes are very peculiar plant communities if compared to other wetlands globally. They typically consist of mono-dominant stands of cushion plants from different plant families with very dense and hard leaves. The most frequent community across the study area and the elevational gradient was the Distichia muscoides-dominated community. This paper demonstrates the high diversity and heterogeneity of these community types, from plot to regional scales.

Plantago rigida, a typical dominant species in the studied bofedal communities. Source: Maldonado Fonken et al. (2024).

The fourth quarter also brought the completion of two Special Collections in VCS, published in collaboration with two Regional Sections of IAVS. The Regional Section for Latin America and the Caribbean completed the Special Collection on “Neotropical vegetation” with 10 articles and 146 pages (Peyre et al. 2024). The Regional Section for Africa completed the Special Collection on “African vegetation studies” with 8 articles and 172 pages (Guuroh et al. 2024; see also vegsciblog post). We would like to thank the two IAVS groups for their commitment and the guest editor teams for their great service to the journal. Likewise, we would like to invite all IAVS working groups and regional sections to consider organising similar Special Collections in VCS.

All articles of Volume 5, 4th quarter

  • Noroozi, J., Talebi, A., Suen, M. & Schneeweiss, G.M. (2024) Plant biogeography, endemism and vegetation types of Dena Mts, Zagros, West Iran. Vegetation Classification and Survey 5: 185–202. https://doi.org/10.3897/VCS.118433
  • Maldonado-Fonkén, M., Chuquillanqui, H., Vildoso, B. & Linares-Palomino, R. (2024) Plant communities of high-Andean bofedal wetlands across a trans-Andean transect in southern Peru. Vegetation Classification and Survey 5: 203–218. https://doi.org/10.3897/VCS.115726
  • Peyre, G., Andrade, B.O., Velazquez, A. & Giorgis, M.A. (2024) Vegetation classification in the Neotropics – Novel insights from Latin America and the Caribbean. Vegetation Classification and Survey 5: 219–223. https://doi.org/10.3897/VCS.133613
  • Sicuriello, F., Ferretti, F., Colangelo, P. & De Cinti, B. (2024) Compositional and ecological diversity of Cansiglio forest (Friuli Venezia Giulia, Italy). Vegetation Classification and Survey 5: 225–236. https://doi.org/10.3897/VCS.118821
  • Ramzi, S., Noroozi, J., Gholizadeh, H., Hamzeh’ee, B., Asri, Y., Talebi, A., Moradi, H., Mahdavi, P., Eramsadati, S.S.T., & Naqinezhad, A. (2024) IranVeg – the Vegetation Database of Iran: current status and the way forward. Vegetation Classification and Survey 5: 237–256. https://doi.org/10.3897/VCS.114081
  • Willner, W., Čarni, A., Fernández-González, F., Pallas, J., Terzi, M. & Theurillat, J.-P. (2024) Report 3 of the Committee for Change and Conservation of Names (CCCN). Vegetation Classification and Survey 5: 257–265. https://doi.org/10.3897/VCS.142803
  • Coscia, J.T., Harris, J.B.C., Floyd, D., Beall, M.C., Bellangue, D., Chaney, D., Gorrell, J., Sackett, E., Staengl, E.J. & Reid, J.L. (2024) Floristics of Virginia’s Northern and Central Piedmont grasslands. Vegetation Classification and Survey 5: 267–278. https://doi.org/10.3897/VCS.126066
  • Guuroh, R.T., Brown, L.R., Alvarez, M., Finckh, M., Schmiedel, U., Tsheboeng, G. & Dengler, J. (2024) African vegetation studies: introduction to a Special Collection. Vegetation Classification and Survey 5: 279–288. https://doi.org/10.3897/VCS.143360
  • Ciaramella, D., Viti, M.M., Landi, M., Chytrý, K., Angiolini, C. & Bonari, G. (2024) Vegetation diversity of Pinus pinaster forests in the Italian Peninsula. Vegetation Classification and Survey 5: 289–300. https://doi.org/10.3897/VCS.118023
  • Talebi, A., Vynokurov, D., Attar, F., Dengler, J. & Naqinezhad, A. (2024) Vegetation of the southern slopes of Mt. Damavand, Iran: a comprehensive phytosociological classification. Vegetation Classification and Survey 5: 301–328. https://doi.org/10.3897/VCS.136825 Yaselyani, M., Bagheri, A., Saeidi, H. & Noroozi, J. (2024) Vascular plant diversity of the high mountains of Fereydunshahr, Central Zagros, Iran. Vegetation Classification and Survey 5: 329–346. https://doi.org/10.3897/VCS.110546