Category: Plain language summary

High resistance of plant biodiversity to moderate native woody encroachment in loess steppe grassland fragments

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By Balázs Teleki, Judit Sonkoly, László Erdős, Béla Tóthmérész, Mátyás Prommer & Péter Török

Loess grassland richly decorated with Adonis vernalis. Photo credit: Balázs Teleki

Loess grasslands are among the most species-rich habitat types in the world, often containing up to 40-60 species on a single square meter.…

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The lowland seasonally dry subtropical forests in central Argentina: vegetation types and a call for conservation

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Prepared by Sebastián R. Zeballos, Melisa A. Giorgis, Marcelo R. Cabido, Alicia T.R. Acosta, María del Rosario Iglesias & Juan J. Cantero

The remaining patches of “Espinal” forest surrounded by an extended matrix of soybean in Central Argentina. Photo Credit: Pereyra Mariana

The introductory photo illustrates the actual conservation status of the lowland seasonally dry subtropical forest in central Argentina and perhaps in many other places in the Neotropics.…

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Environment and evolutionary history depict phylogenetic alpha and beta diversity in the Atlantic coastal white‐sand woodlands

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By Jhonny Capichoni Massante & Pille Gerhold

View of a Atlantic coastal white-sand vegetation in southern Brazil (Massambaba Protection Area, Rio de Janeiro). Photo credit: Jhonny Capichoni Massante.

The Atlantic forest of South America is a regional mosaic of different habitat types.…

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Reindeer trampling promotes vegetation changes in tundra heathlands: results from a simulation experiment

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By Dagmar D. Egelkraut, Hélène S. A. Barthelemy & Johan Olofsson

Our study site in Nordreisa, northern Norway. Photo credit: Dagmar Egelkraut

The photo above shows a beautiful rolling hillside in the north of Norway. It also shows a fence; those who look more closely might notice a distinct difference between the vegetation on one side of the fence compared to the other.…

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Where does the forest come back from? Soil and litter seed banks and the juvenile bank as sources of vegetation resilience in a semiarid Neotropical forest

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By María Lucrecia Lipoma, Valentina Fortunato, Lucas Enrico & Sandra Díaz

Above: Litter sample collection for the identification of seeds in the litter seed bank. Bellow: Juvenile plant bank of the dominant woody species of the ecosystem of the Chaco forest, Aspidosperma quebracho-blanco.
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Epiphyll specialization for leaf and forest successional stages in a tropical lowland rainforest

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Prepared by Anna Mežaka, Maaike Y. Bader, Noris Salazar Allen & Glenda Mendieta-Leiva

Lichen, liverwort, algae and fungi patches on an old leaf of Xylopia macrantha. Barro Colorado Island, Panama. Photo credit: Anna Mežaka.

Forest gaps in tropical rainforests contribute to habitat heterogeneity and vascular plant diversity.…

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Trait‐based numerical classification of mesic and wet grasslands in Poland

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Prepared by Attila Lengyel, Grzegorz Swacha, Zoltán Botta-Dukát & Zygmunt Kącki

Both management and environmental factors are important drivers of the variation between trait-based types of mesic grasslands in Poland. Location: Sudety Mountains, Poland. Photo credit: Zygmunt Kącki.

The use of numerical classification methods and vegetation plot databases opened new avenues towards the understanding of vegetation patterns on broad spatial scales.…

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Trade-offs between fire hazard reduction and conservation in a Natura 2000 shrub–grassland mosaic

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By Vasco Silva, Filipe X. Catry, Paulo M. Fernandes, Francisco C. Rego & Miguel N. Bugalho

Vasco Silva (the first author of the paper) surveying the habitats dominated by gorse shrublands of Ulex jussiaei and grasslands of Stipa gigantea in Sintra mountain, western coast of Portugal, before the prescribed fire execution.
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