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

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

Continue reading

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

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.…

Continue reading

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

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.
Continue reading

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

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.…

Continue reading

Studying vascular epiphytes is very hard!

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.…

Continue reading

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

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?

Continue reading

Small is beautiful: grassroots projects feed global data synthesis

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.…

Continue reading