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From natural forests to urban weeds

Posted on April 14, 2019March 3, 2020 by David Zeleny

Post provided by Kun Song, Ying-Ji Pan & Yi-Chong Cui

Weed communities in urban area, Shanghai. An invasive species, *Solidago canadensis* (the individuals with yellow flowers in the photo), was the dominant species with few other species living together. Photo credit: Yi-Chong Cui.

The new issue 2019/2 of the Journal of Vegetation Science is out

Posted on April 10, 2019April 10, 2019 by Milan Chytry

The cover of this new issue features sPlot – the global vegetation-plot database.

Grazing exclusion and vegetation change in an upland grassland with patches of tall herbs

Posted on April 1, 2019January 30, 2020 by David Zeleny

Prepared by Sarah H. Watts, Anna Griffith & Lindsay Mackinlay

The tall herb community thriving below a section of crags within the fence at Creag an Lochain, Ben Lawers NNR, Scotland. Photo credit: Sarah Watts.

In 2000, an electric deer fence was erected around 180 ha at Creag an Lochain in the Ben Lawers Natural Nature Reserve, Scotland.…

Ancient refugia and present-day habitat suitability of native laurophylls in Italy

Posted on March 27, 2019January 30, 2020 by David Zeleny

Prepared by Nicola Alessi, Jakub Tešitel, Stefan Zerbe, Francesco Spada, Emiliano Agrillo & Camilla Wellstein

Old individual of laurel (*Laurus nobilis* L.) in a forest dominated by the evergreen holm oak (*Quercus ilex* L.) in Maremma Park, Italy. Photo credit: Emiliano Agrillo.

Geese are overlooked dispersal vectors for vascular plants in archipelago environments

Posted on March 23, 2019January 30, 2020 by David Zeleny

Prepared by Dirk Hattermann, Markus Bernhardt-Römermann, Annette Otte & Rolf Lutz Eckstein

Species rich vegetation of a rocky shore with geese droppings in the foreground. Photo credit: Dirk Hattermann.

Since plants do not move, they have to adapt to changing environmental conditions on the spot or disperse their seeds by means of wind, water or animals to escape unfavourable conditions.…

Species abundance distributions should underpin ordinal cover-abundance transformations

Posted on March 22, 2019January 30, 2020 by David Zeleny

Prepared by Megan J. McNellie, Josh Dorrough and Ian Oliver

Around the world, ecologists are surveying plants in fixed area plots and estimating the cover and abundance of plant species. Photo credit: Fenner School of Environment and Society, The Australian National University.

Cushion and shrub ecosystem engineers contribute differently to diversity and functions in alpine ecosystems

Posted on March 21, 2019January 30, 2020 by David Zeleny

Prepared by Jian-Guo Chen, Xiao-Fang He, Song-Wei Wang, Yang Yang & Hang Sun

Cushion engineers in the alpine ecosystem in south-western China. The two cushion species shown here (*Arenaria polytrichoides* and *Potentilla articulata*) can modify the microenvironment and facilitate the colonization and survival of other species.

Abandonment of traditional saltworks facilitates degradation of halophytic plant communities and Carpobrotus edulis invasion

Posted on March 13, 2019January 30, 2020 by David Zeleny

Prepared by Rosa M. Chefaoui & Sergio Chozas

Invasion of *Carpobrotus edulis* on the dykes of abandoned saltworks in Ria Formosa, Portugal. Photo credit: Rosa M. Chefaoui.

In the “Anthropocene” era, in which most ecosystems have been altered by humans, half of the world’s wetlands have been lost.…

The new issue 2019/1 of Applied Vegetation Science is out

Posted on February 28, 2019April 1, 2019 by Milan Chytry

The cover picture shows a thermal weeder device for experimental burning. See Vidaller et al. for details

Journal of Vegetation Science starts Volume 30!

Posted on February 28, 2019February 28, 2019 by Milan Chytry

JVS has already been here for three decades. Its contents reflect the development of vegetation science over this period, but also indicate the future horizons. We initiated a discussion of the current and past Chief Editors, aiming to identify the most important trends in the past decades, and projections for the future.…