Category: Behind the paper

Drivers of biodiversity depend on spatial grain and plant group: new paper from the EDGG Field Workshop to Bulgarian dry grasslands

Posted on October 9, 2020October 9, 2020 by David Zeleny

Prepared by Jürgen Dengler & Iwona Dembicz

A thorough sampling of an “EDGG Biodiversity Plot” is a time-consuming and almost meditative procedure. Photo credit: Jürgen Dengler.

This Behind the paper post refers to the article by Dembicz et al. Drivers of plant diversity in Bulgarian dry grasslands vary across spatial scales and functional-taxonomic groups, published in the Journal of Vegetation Science (https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12935…

High diversity in Armenian grasslands: EDGG Field Workshop provides standardized data for the first time

Posted on September 4, 2020September 4, 2020 by David Zeleny

The post provided by Jürgen Dengler & Idoia Biurrun

The expedition team on the Selim pass. Photo credit: Jürgen Dengler.

Behind the paper post referring to the article Biodiversity of dry grasslands in Armenia: First results from the 13th EDGG Field Workshop in Armenia by Aleksanyan et al.…

Filling empty boxes with hard data: Scientific background for European habitat classification (EUNIS)

Posted on August 21, 2020August 31, 2020 by David Zeleny

Prepared by Milan Chytrý

Examples of EUNIS habitats: N17 Black Sea coastal dune grassland (grey dune) in south-eastern Bulgaria, R1A Semi-dry perennial calcareous grassland (meadow steppe) with *Filipendula vulgaris* and *Salvia nutans* in western Ukraine, S33 Lowland to montane temperate and submediterranean genistoid scrub with *Cytisus balansae* in Catalonian Pyrenees, T3G *Pinus sylvestris* light taiga in southern Sweden.

Yunnan Pine forest: types and dynamics

Posted on June 11, 2020June 11, 2020 by David Zeleny

The post provided by Cindy Q. Tang

Yunnan Pine forests by the Tianchi Lake in the Tianchi National Nature Reserve. Photo credit: Rong-Wei Li.

This Behind the paper post refers to the article Forest characteristics, population structure and growth trends of Pinus yunnanensis in Tianchi National Nature Reserve of Yunnan, southwestern China, by Cindy Q.…

The Glen Finglas Experiment and the slow pace of change in upland communities

Posted on June 3, 2020June 3, 2020 by David Zeleny

The post provided by Robin Pakeman

Looking up Glen nam Meann (Lat 56.27°N, Long 4.38°W). The vegetation is a mosaic of different vegetation types with the foreground dominated by *Molinia caerulea* and *Juncus effusus*. Patches of *Agrostis-Festuca* grassland can be seen across the river as brighter green patches.

Trudging through treefalls

Posted on May 11, 2020August 25, 2020 by David Zeleny

The post provided by Kwek Yan Chong

Before (2011, left) and after (2015, right) five years of succession following a windstorm. Photo credit: Alex Yee (left) and Hao Ran Lai (right).

This post refers to the article Short‐term responses in a secondary tropical forest after a severe windstorm event by Yee et al.…

The man who sampled a grassland for 25 years – and his data got eventually published

Posted on May 1, 2020June 18, 2020 by David Zeleny

The post provided by Kryštof Chytrý, Milan Chytrý, Felícia M. Fischer and Jakub Těšitel

Jiří Danihelka (right) sampling permanent plots on Děvín Hill in 2012, accompanied by Adrian Indreica (left). Photo credit: Gianmaria Bonari.

This post refers to the article Weather fluctuations drive short-term dynamics and long-term stability in plant communities: a 25-year study in a Central European dry grassland by Fischer et al.…

Studying vascular epiphytes is very hard!

Posted on April 26, 2020April 26, 2020 by David Zeleny

The post provided by Glenda Mendieta-Leiva & Gerhard Zotz

Vascular epiphyte species fully covering tree branches of a cloud mountain rainforest tree at ca. 2200 m. a.s.l. in Southern Ecuador (photo credit: Florian A. Werner).

This post (and video inside) refer to the article EpIG‐DB: A database of vascular epiphyte assemblages in the Neotropics by Mendieta-Leiva et al.…

How we found which traits predict pairwise interactions in a mountain grassland

Posted on April 22, 2020April 23, 2020 by David Zeleny

The post provided by Hana Skálová, Tomáš Herben, Věra Hadincová, Sylvie Pecháčková and František Krahulec

Recording of the plants in the permanent grid, by Věra Hadincová (foreground) and Viera Mrázová (background). Photo credit: Sylvie Pecháčková.

This post refers to the article Which traits predict pairwise interactions in a mountain grassland?…

Small is beautiful: grassroots projects feed global data synthesis

Posted on March 12, 2020March 12, 2020 by David Zeleny

Provided by Alison Munson

Traits of Plants in Canada (TOPIC) workshop at Mont St-Hilaire, Québec, CANADA. Lead scientists centre front: Isabelle Aubin (right, in orange) and Alison Munson (left of Isabelle). Photo credit: Martin Duval.

This post refers to the perspective article Managing data locally to answer questions globally: the role of collaborative science in ecology by Aubin et al.…