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Appl Veg Sci 2019 Jan 27;22(1):150-167. Epub 2019 Feb 27.

Alaska Geobotany Center Institute of Arctic Biology & Department of Biology and Wildlife University of Alaska Fairbanks Alaska.

Questions: How do plant communities on zonal loamy vs. sandy soils vary across the full maritime Arctic bioclimate gradient? How are plant communities of these areas related to existing vegetation units of the European Vegetation Classification? What are the main environmental factors controlling transitions of vegetation along the bioclimate gradient?

Location: 1700-km Eurasia Arctic Transect (EAT), Yamal Peninsula and Franz Josef Land (FJL), Russia.

Methods: The Braun-Blanquet approach was used to sample mesic loamy and sandy plots on 14 total study sites at six locations, one in each of the five Arctic bioclimate subzones and the forest-tundra transition. Read More

Appl Veg Sci 2017 Apr 8;20(2):282-292. Epub 2017 Feb 8.

The Forest Management Institute, Vrázova 1, 616 00 Brno, Czech Republic.

Questions: Did high densities of wild ungulates cause a decline in plant species richness in a temperate oakwood? How did species composition change after nearly five decades? Did ungulates facilitate the spread of ruderal species and supress endangered species? Did dispersal strategies play a role in these processes?

Location: Krumlov Wood, SE Czech Republic.

Methods: In 2012, we resampled 58 quasi-permanent vegetation plots first surveyed in 1960s. Between the surveys, 36 plots were enclosed in a game preserve with artificially high density of ungulates (mostly deer, mouflon and wild boar; ca. Read More

Appl Veg Sci 2017 Jan 16;20(1):143-158. Epub 2016 Sep 16.

Institute of Botany Slovak Academy of Sciences Ďumbierska 1 97411 Banská Bystrica Slovakia.

Questions: What are the main floristic patterns in the Pannonian and western Pontic steppe grasslands? What are the diagnostic species of the major subdivisions of the class (temperate Euro-Siberian dry and semi-dry grasslands)?

Location: Carpathian Basin (E Austria, SE Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, N Croatia and N Serbia), Ukraine, S Poland and the Bryansk region of W Russia.

Methods: We applied a geographically stratified resampling to a large set of relevés containing at least one indicator species of steppe grasslands. The resulting data set of 17 993 relevés was classified using the TWINSPAN algorithm. Read More

Appl Veg Sci 2016 Jul;19(3):369-370

Institute of Plant Sciences, University of Bern, Altenbergrain 21, 3013 Bern, Switzerland.

Shrub encroachment, a global phenomenon with management implications, is examined in two papers in the current issue of . Barbosa da Silva et al. show that encroachment simplifies herbaceous community, and Pittarello et al. Read More

Appl Veg Sci 2016 Oct;20(2):164-171

Department of Biology, University of Bergen, Thormøhlensgate 53A, 5020 Bergen, Norway.

Background: Resurveying historical vegetation plots has become more and more popular in recent years as it provides a unique opportunity to estimate vegetation and environmental changes over the past decades. Most historical plots, however, are not permanently marked and uncertainty in plot location, in addition to observer bias and seasonal bias, may add significant error to temporal change. These errors may have major implications for the reliability of studies on long-term environmental change and deserve closer attention of vegetation ecologists. Read More

Appl Veg Sci 2015 Oct 13;18(4):569-578. Epub 2015 Jun 13.

Institute of Botany, Department of Vegetation Ecology, The Czech Academy of Sciences, Lidická 25/27, Brno, 602 00, Czech Republic.

Question: What is the impact of simulated historical tree litter removal on understorey plants and soil properties in a temperate deciduous forest? What is the role of seasonal timing of tree litter removal on understorey plants?

Location: Podyjí National Park, Czech Republic.

Methods: We conducted an experiment in a randomized complete block design of 45 plots (5 × 5 m). Each block (N = 15) consisted of one plot for each of the three treatments. Read More