Vegetation Classification and Survey (VCS): Editors’ Choice of the first quarter of 2025

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

In the first quarter of its 6^th volume, Vegetation Classification and Survey (VCS) has published five articles (see list below). Among these, the Chief Editors selected the contribution by Joelson et al. (2025) as the Editors’ Choice article.

Natalia Zoe Joelson and colleagues studied the forest communities in the Argentinian part of northern Patagonia. For this purpose, they collected 141 vegetation plots of 100 m² with stratified systematic sampling, aimed at good representation of both elevation and moisture gradients and covering the different parts of the study are. Based on this sound sampling, the authors conducted comprehensive statistical analyses, including unsupervised classification, ordination, indicator species analyses and ANOVAs to compare the properties of the derived communities. The authors could distinguish six community types, each well characterised by diagnostic species, and could match them with described phytosociological associations. Since South America is still poorly covered by plot-based vegetation studies in general and by formal syntaxonomic studies in particular, this paper is an important contribution to widening the state of knowledge on the vegetation in Patagonia and South America in general.

All articles of Volume 6, 1st quarter

• Biurrun, I., Dengler, J. & Willner, W. (2025) Vegetation Classification and Survey: five years and looking ahead. Vegetation Classification and Survey 6: 1–11. https://doi.org/10.3897/VCS.148065; see also https://vegsciblog.org/2025/03/11/vcs-five-years-and-looking-ahead/
• Iemelianova, S., Borsukevych, L. (2025) Syntaxonomy of the class Alnetea glutinosae in Ukraine: a critical revision. Vegetation Classification and Survey 6: 13–36. https://doi.org/10.3897/VCS.122611
• Joelson, N.Z., Simon, A., von Lampe, F., Loguercio, G.Á., Zerbe, S., Leuschner, C. & Walentowski, H. (2025) Floristic patterns in the Andes of northern Patagonia’s forests, Argentina: towards integrating ecological responses with expert-based and unsupervised classification methods Vegetation Classification and Survey 6: 37–56. https://doi.org/10.3897/VCS.134621 
• Ostrowski, G., Aicher, S., Mankiewicz, A., Chusova, O., Dembiz, I., Widmer, S. & Dengler, J. (2025) Mean ecological indicator values: use EIVE but no cover-weighting. Vegetation Classification and Survey 6: 57–67. https://doi.org/10.3897/VCS.134800; see also https://vegsciblog.org/2025/04/03/mean-eiv-which-system-which-weighting/
• Loidi, J. (2025) A multi-scalar classification system for the terrestrial vegetation of the world. Vegetation Classification and Survey 6: 69–78. https://doi.org/10.3897/VCS.139673