Classification of grasslands and other open vegetation types in the Palaearctic – Introduction to the Special Collection

Abstract

With this editorial, we introduce the Special Collection “Classification of grasslands and other open vegetation types in the Palaearctic”. In searching the Web of Science for classification papers on Palaearctic grasslands, we found 207 studies from 1972–2021, including 106 typical classification works. These studies originated mainly from Europe, with only few from Asia and only one from Northern Africa. While Europe in the 20th century already had a strong tradition in regional classification studies, the launch of a common plot database (European Vegetation Archive, EVA) and a continental syntaxonomic reference list (EuroVegChecklist) have spurred the developments there in recent years. We then introduce the seven articles of the Special Collection. Four of them present regional studies of certain vegetation types, namely spring vegetation (Montio-Cardaminetea) in Grisons, Switzerland, dry grasslands (Festuco-Brometea) of the inneralpine valleys of Austria, montane to subalpine tall-herb vegetation (Mulgedio-Aconitetea) in the Sudetes Mts., Poland, and steppe depressions (Festuco-Brometea and Molinio-Arrhentatheretea) in Southern Ukraine. A new synthesis of the grassland vegetation of Navarre in Spain (all classes, focus on Festuco-Brometea), started with an unsupervised classification and translated it into a hierarchical expert system, while another study provided the first synthesis of the tall-herb vegetation (mainly Ulopteretea prangae) of Tajikistan. Finally, a study based on the GrassPlot database compared fine-grain beta-diversities across open vegetation types of the Palaearctic. Abbreviations: EDGG = Eurasian Dry Grassland Group, EVA = European Vegetation Archive, IAVS = International Association for Vegetation Science, WoS = Web of Science.

Vegetation Classification and Survey in the third year

“…The first two Special Collections were completed in 2021. The Special Collection Classification of grasslands and other open vegetation types in the Palaearctic comprises eight articles and 176 pages and has been concluded with an editorial which does not only introduce the contributions but also reviews the quite heterogeneous knowledge state of broad-scale classification of open habitats in different parts of the Palaearctic (Nowak et al 2022). The Special Collection The ‚International Vegetation Classification' initiative: case studies, syntheses, and perspectives on ecosystem diversity around the globe also contains eight papers with 146 pages, but is still waiting for its concluding editorial.…”

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“…There is Permanent Section "Phytosociological Nomenclature" together with IAVS' Group on Phytosociological Nomenclature (GPN). The Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG) completed its first Special Collection on "Classification of grasslands and other open vegetation types in the Palaearctic" (Nowak et al 2022). Also in 2022, a Special Collection together with IAVS' Working Group on Vegetation Classification (WGVC) on "The 'International Vegetation Classification' initiative: case studies, syntheses, and perspectives on ecosystem diversity around the globe" was finished.…”

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“…The cooperation with EDGG is quite prominent as VCS's first Special Collection was produced together with EDGG on "Classification of grasslands and other open vegetation types in the Palaearctic" (seeNowak et al 2022). Currently, there is an ongoing Special Collection "Grasslands of Asia" jointly initiated by EDGG and the IAVS Regional Section for Asia and led by Jürgen Dengler, Idoia Biurrun, Victor Chepinoga, Alireza…”