🌲 In honour of the International Day of Forests (21 March) we invite submissions to Journal of Vegetation Science on forest vegetation, succession, and monitoring.
📄 Author guidelines: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/page/journal...
🌿 ten Kate et al. report that long-term nitrogen and phosphorus addition strongly alters subarctic tundra plant communities. Responses vary with elevation and vegetation type, with graminoids increasing and species richness declining over time.
🌱 Di Stefano et al. show seed germination niches vary along plant zonation in Mediterranean temporary ponds. Temperature and light responses help explain when different species emerge.
⛱️ How have coastal dune slack plant communities changed over nearly four decades?
Millett et al report stable local diversity but shifts in species composition, with fewer indicator species and more shade-tolerant plants despite conservation grazing.
🌱 Do plants compete even in Antarctica?
Huisman et al. found the dominant moss Sanionia uncinata grows faster when paired with other mosses, while neighbouring species decline. Even harsh Antarctic environments include strong plant interactions.
🌳 Where are rainforest refugia under climate change?
Dimon et al. identify persistent and recolonised areas in the Gondwana Rainforests of Australia and project future range contraction to refugia and high altitudes.
🌿 Can canopy reflectance reveal species habitat preferences?
Löfgren et al. show grassland spectra on Öland track nitrogen and phosphorus preferences of plant species, linking remote sensing to ecology.
🔥 How resilient are cool rainforest remnants to fire?
Bale highlights that severe fire damaged Nothofagus moorei forests in New South Wales. Canopy loss and low genetic diversity may limit long-term recovery.
🍃 How we measure leaf traits matters.
Blázquez et al. report that protocols strongly affect estimates, especially for compound leaves. Including petiolar tissues improves comparability across studies.
🔥🌿 Johnson et al. found that over 30 years in DuPage County, Illinois, burns homogenized plant traits, favoring herbaceous species and long-distance dispersal, but did not homogenize species composition.
🌴🔍 Observer error matters.
Klein et al. report that misidentifications weaken species–environment models, while using genus/family levels or excluding rare species can inflate results. Fine taxonomic resolution is recommended.
📊🌿 How has Applied Vegetation Science evolved over 27 years?
A data-driven review highlights restoration & reclamation, grassland management, and vegetation change as the journal’s leading themes.
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How do alpine plants cope with multiday heat? Hanley et al. report that photosystem heat tolerance acclimated during field warming, but recovery was slow and strongly species-specific. These differences may shape future alpine community responses to heatwaves.
🌿🚧 How does road proximity affect vegetation?
A global meta-analysis shows roadside plots host 46% more non-native species, reduced structure, and compositional shifts toward ruderal plants.
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🔥Ghermandi et al. report that seasonal climate and disturbances like drought, wildfire, and volcanic ash strongly influence cover, richness, and recovery in semiarid grasslands in Patagonia, with faster rebound after fire than after drought or ash deposition.
🌊🌱 Floodplain reconnection enhances hydrochorous dispersal.
Schäfer et al. find increased deposition of pioneer and shoreline species, but floodplain forest development may be constrained by limited seed sources.
🐑🌱 What drives functional change in grazed grasslands?
Eshelman et al. report that increased grazing favours avoidance, resistance, and tolerance traits, with most trait shifts arising from intraspecific variation rather than species turnover.
🌿 Erkelenz et al. report that functional diversity declines along south-facing slopes, and that canopy structure mediates elevational and aspect effects in mountain forests.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
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🌿🌳 How does woody encroachment affect savanna ground layers?
Dalbeto et al. report rapid losses of small, sun-loving savanna plants, while shade-tolerant trees and climbers increase, signalling a shift toward forest conditions in the Cerrado.
🌳🌱 Neighbourhood effects in tropical forests depend on mycorrhizae.
Surendra et al. report that AM seedlings perform worse near conspecifics, while EcM dipterocarps tolerate them, helping explain their dominance.
Does fencing out livestock guarantee forest recovery? 🌳 In the Dry Chaco, Trigo et al. show that 9 years of exclusion led to contrasting, species-specific regeneration responses and no overall gains in sapling diversity.
🌱 Karban & Munson examine how photovoltaic panels alter microclimates in the Mojave Desert, influencing annual plant diversity in soil- and vegetation-specific ways. ☀️🌵
🌿 McQuillan et al. explore how satellite-derived phenology captures differences between native, restored, and non-native temperate grasslands. Peak-season metrics closely align restored sites with remnant grasslands. 📡
🌿 von Lampe et al. examine decades of change in standing waters and demonstrate that macrophyte richness and functional diversity have declined despite protection, driven by ongoing eutrophication. 🌊
🌿 Pollo et al. examine two decades of change in Western Alpine mires and demonstrate that warming and drying are reshaping plant communities, leading to losses of Sphagnum and other mire specialists. 🟢
🌿 Kuo et al. examine how drought and warming jointly affect alpine plant communities in Taiwan. Their results indicate stronger declines in productivity and diversity under combined stress, with losses of mesic and cold-adapted species. 🏔️
🌳 Schubert et al. examine how restoration approaches influence spatial patterns of tree recruitment after nearly two decades. Their findings indicate that planting facilitates dispersal-limited, large-seeded species. 🌱
🌿 Espinoza et al. demonstrate that habitat fragmentation and edge effects strongly facilitate alien plant invasion in native kānuka shrublands, with smaller fragments and open canopies most vulnerable.🌱
🌲 Fuentes-Lillo et al. reveal that removing invasive Pinus contorta improves microclimate but does not trigger short-term recovery of native plant diversity in Patagonian ecosystems, highlighting strong invasion legacies 🌿
🌡️ Climate warming affects forest layers differently.
Caron et al. compare adults and juveniles across 2,200+ European plots and report faster thermophilisation in juveniles, driven mainly by gains of warm-adapted species.