Aims Understanding fine‐grain diversity patterns across large spatial extents is fundamental for macroecological research and biodiversity conservation. Using the GrassPlot database, we provide benchmarks of fine‐grain richness values of Palaearctic open habitats for vascular plants, bryophytes, lichens and complete vegetation (i.e., the sum of the former three groups). Location Palaearctic biogeographic realm. Methods We used 126,524 plots of eight standard grain sizes from the GrassPlot database: 0.0001, 0.001, 0.01, 0.1, 1, 10, 100 and 1,000 m2 and calculated the mean richness and standard deviations, as well as maximum, minimum, median, and first and third quartiles for each combination of grain size, taxonomic group, biome, region, vegetation type and phytosociological class. Results Patterns of plant diversity in vegetation types and biomes differ across grain sizes and taxonomic groups. Overall, secondary (mostly semi‐natural) grasslands and natural grasslands are the richest vegetation type. The open‐access file ”GrassPlot Diversity Benchmarks” and the web tool “GrassPlot Diversity Explorer” are now available online (https://edgg.org/databases/GrasslandDiversityExplorer) and provide more insights into species richness patterns in the Palaearctic open habitats. Conclusions The GrassPlot Diversity Benchmarks provide high‐quality data on species richness in open habitat types across the Palaearctic. These benchmark data can be used in vegetation ecology, macroecology, biodiversity conservation and data quality checking. While the amount of data in the underlying GrassPlot database and their spatial coverage are smaller than in other extensive vegetation‐plot databases, species recordings in GrassPlot are on average more complete, making it a valuable complementary data source in macroecology.

Abstract. Water resources and associated ecosystems are becoming highly endangered due to ongoing global environmental changes. Spatial ecological modelling is a promising toolbox for understanding the past, present and future distribution and diversity patterns in groundwater-dependent ecosystems, such as fens, springs, streams, reed beds or wet grasslands. Still, the lack of detailed water chemistry maps prevents the use of reasonable models to be applied on continental and global scales. Being major determinants of biological composition and diversity of groundwater-dependent ecosystems, groundwater pH and calcium are of utmost importance. Here we developed an up-to-date European map of groundwater pH and Ca, based on 7577 measurements of near-surface groundwater pH and calcium distributed across Europe. In comparison to the existing European groundwater maps, we included several times more sites, especially in the regions rich in spring and fen habitats, and filled the apparent gaps in eastern and southeastern Europe. We used random forest models and regression kriging to create continuous maps of water pH and calcium at the continental scale, which is freely available also as a raster map (Hájek et al., 2020b; https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.4139912). Lithology had a higher importance than climate for both pH and calcium. The previously recognised latitudinal and altitudinal gradients were rediscovered with much refined regional patterns, as associated with bedrock variation. For ecological models of distribution and diversity of many terrestrial ecosystems, our new map based on field groundwater measurements is more suitable than maps of soil pH, which mirror not only bedrock chemistry but also vegetation-dependent soil processes.

M. (2018): Using a new database of plant macrofossils of the Czech and Slovak Republics to compare past and present distribution of hypothetically relict fen mosses. -Preslia 90: 367-386.Modern databases containing large amounts of botanical data are a promising source of new results based on large data analyses. We used a new database of plant macrofossils of the Czech and Slovak Republics to compare the recent distributions of putative relict species of fen bryophytes with their past distributions since the late glacial. All the species studied occur in lateglacial sediments, but mostly in regions where they are recently recorded (19-21st centuries). There are specific regions rich in putative relict species of fen bryophytes both in late glacial / early Holocene times and recently. In some cases the target species were, however, found outside the recent distribution range where environmental conditions are no longer suitable for their occurrence. We further found that the total number of the glacial and early-Holocene records greatly exceeds the total number of records for the middle Holocene, when succession to woodlands or bogs resulted in a reduction in species of bryophytes that are specific to open rich fens. The observed patterns may imply a relict status of the target species. We especially documented a substantial decline in the abundance of species requiring a high and stable water level (Drepanocladus trifarius, Meesia triquetra and Scorpidium scorpioides), both throughout the Holocene and during the most recent transformations of the landscape. In contrast, those species that tolerate transient decreases in water level persisted into recent times at more localities (Calliergon giganteum, Hamatocaulis vernicosus, Paludella squarrosa). Macrofossil data cannot, however, provide a quantitative analysis of the distribution of a species, because the number of recent data usually greatly exceeds the number of fossil records. The reason is that the area sampled in palaeoecological research is very small as it is time-consuming and expensive; cores or excavations usually are of only a few square centimetres. Despite this shortcoming, macrofossil data are an important, but not the only, source of evidence for the identification of the relict status of a species.

QuestionFiltering vegetation plot records according to sampling size is an essential methodological step in vegetation studies. In fens, the variation of traditionally used plot sizes seems to limit continental‐scale syntheses following the Braun‐Blanquet approach. Which plot sizes harbour the analogous number of habitat specialists (i.e., diagnostic/indicator species) and capture the main compositional gradients identically?LocationScandinavia, central Europe.MethodsThe data set of fen vegetation plot records was compiled using large databases and categorised into four distinct habitats. For each habitat, semi‐log species–area curves of specialists and other species were fitted using generalised additive models (GAM). In addition, we surveyed 72 sites in a series of plot sizes (0.07, 0.25, 1, 4, 16 m2) where we applied, separately for each plot size, Non‐Metric Multi‐Dimensional Scaling (NMDS) and compared the resulting patterns with Procrustes analysis.ResultsConsistently across different fen habitats, the species–area curves of specialists increased steeply up to the plot size of 1 m2, while increasing negligibly in the plot size range of 1–25 m2. In contrast, the species–area curves of other species displayed mostly linear to linear‐exponential trends. NMDS ordinations of medium (1 and 4 m2) and large plots (16 m2) were the most congruent, while the patterns captured in the ordination of the smallest plots (0.07 m2) differed most from the others.ConclusionsIn fens, plot sizes of at least 1 m2 describe sufficiently the broad‐scale pattern in specialists’ diversity as well as the main environmental gradients. The range of plot sizes of 1–25 m2 may be safely merged in broad‐scale analyses of fen vegetation without introducing substantial bias, at least when compared with other possible uncertainty sources.

Questions Species–area relationships (SARs) are fundamental for understanding biodiversity patterns and are generally well described by a power law with a constant exponent z. However, z‐values sometimes vary across spatial scales. We asked whether there is a general scale dependence of z‐values at fine spatial grains and which potential drivers influence it. Location Palaearctic biogeographic realm. Methods We used 6,696 nested‐plot series of vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens from the GrassPlot database with two or more grain sizes, ranging from 0.0001 m² to 1,024 m² and covering diverse open habitats. The plots were recorded with two widespread sampling approaches (rooted presence = species “rooting” inside the plot; shoot presence = species with aerial parts inside). Using Generalized Additive Models, we tested for scale dependence of z‐values by evaluating if the z‐values differ with gran size and tested for differences between the sampling approaches. The response shapes of z‐values to grain were classified by fitting Generalized Linear Models with logit link to each series. We tested whether the grain size where the maximum z‐value occurred is driven by taxonomic group, biogeographic or ecological variables. Results For rooted presence, we found a strong monotonous increase of z‐values with grain sizes for all grain sizes below 1 m². For shoot presence, the scale dependence was much weaker, with hump‐shaped curves prevailing. Among the environmental variables studied, latitude, vegetation type, naturalness and land use had strong effects, with z‐values of secondary peaking at smaller grain sizes. Conclusions The overall weak scale dependence of z‐values underlines that the power function generally is appropriate to describe SARs within the studied grain sizes in continuous open vegetation, if recorded with the shoot presence method. When clear peaks of z‐values occur, this can be seen as an expression of granularity of species composition, partly driven by abiotic environment.