THE IAVS-BULLETIN
1999
The city of Bilbao (Guggenheim museum), venue of the 43th Symposium of the IAVS.
THE IAVS-BULLETIN1999The city of Bilbao (Guggenheim museum), venue of the 43th Symposium of the IAVS. |
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ˇ From
the Secretary General
ˇ Results of the election for the new Advisory Council
ˇ Minutes of the Advisory Council Meeting on 27 July 1998
ˇ Minutes of the General Assembly on 30 July 1998
ˇ Miscellaneous
ˇ The 42nd IAVS Symposium in Bilbao, Spain, July 1999
ˇ Diary
With a big applause at the General Assembly on 30 July 1998, professor Hartmut Dierschke was thanked for all the great work he has done during the last 16 (!) years as Secretary General of our association. During the same meeting, I was elected as new Secretary General. I would like to express my thanks for your confidence and will do my best not to disappoint you. It is clear to me that this task will bring quite some work, but I hope that I will handle it as accurately and thoroughly as Hartmut Dierschke has done all the time, and that I (in not too few and not too many years) may look back on many delightful experiences and international friendships.
Let me introduce myself. As a member of the younger Dutch generation (as Hartmut stated in the last IAVS Bulletin), I had the fortune to be a pupil of both Jan Barkman and Victor Westhoff, who introduced me into vegetation science. For many years they acted as supervisors, for instance during my (doctoral) research on subalpine heathlands in Central France, but also on many other occasions. Especially Victor Westhoff has been, and still is, a constant source of inspiration and some kind of a walking encyclopedia, always at hand. At the moment I am working at the Institute for Forestry and Nature Research in Wageningen, where I am in charge of the National Vegetation Classification of The Netherlands, and of allied projects. As a member of the Working Group Council of the European Vegetation Survey, I am also involved in the work of this group of phytosociologists, who are meeting each spring in Rome to discuss and encourage vegetation research throughout Europe.
Joop Schaminée Wageningen, December 1998
In the first IAVS Bulletin an election list for the new Advisory Council (1998-2001) was printed, as established by the old Council at the IAVS Symposiumin Ceské Budejovice in 1997. Here, the results of the election are given. Only 187 forms were returned. As the council exists of at least 40 members and several candidates got an equal amount (49 votes), the new AdvisoryCouncil will count 42 members altogether. The persons marked with an asterisk have been elected; the names of the previous council members are in italics.
The list of attendance (20 persons) was signed by: E Box (US), S. Collins(US), H. Dierschke (DE), K. Fujiwara (JP), D. Goldberg (US), O. Hegg (CH),M. Hill (GB), A. Miyawaki (JP), L. Mucina (KW), E. van der Maarel (SE),D. Mueller-Dombois (US), J. Oksanen (SF), M. Palmer (USA), S. Pignatti (IT),R. Peet (US), R. Pott (DE), J. Schaminée (NL), V. Westhoff (NL),P. White (US) and M. Zobel (EE).
The president, E.O. Box, opened the meeting at 15.00.
The Symposium in Ceské Budejovice (1997) was attended by ca. 250 participants from 31 countries. Thanks to the excellent organisation by our Czech colleagues, the symposium was a great success with many interesting lectures, posters and discussions. For the first time a student-poster-competition was organised (see further under 'Miscellaneous'). The post-symposium excursion went to Bulgaria.
Other IAVS-events included the 7th International Workshop on the 'EuropeanVegetation Survey' in Rome (27-30 March 1998) with ca. 60 participants from24 countries. Main topics included the preparation of a Synopsis of Higher Syntaxa in Europe and European meadow vegetation.
The number of IAVS members has risen from 1460 in July 1997 to 1490 inJuly 1998. Of those, 850 members are subscribing to JVS, and 350 to AVS.
Financial situation at the end of 1997:
- Income 1997: 6 493.00 DEM
- Expenditures 1998: 928.16 DEM
- Balance on 31-12-1997: 62 920.87 DEM
After a vote by ballot (some council members, that were absent, delegated their vote to another member) and a break for a short meeting of the new Executive Committee for the election of the President, Secretary General,Treasurer and Publication Officer, the following Committee was established:
- Elgene Box (President)
- Joop Schaminée (Secretary General)
- Hartmut Dierschke (Treasurer)
- Eddy van der Maarel (Publication Officer)
- Akira Miyawaki (Vice-President)
- Javier Loidi (Vice-President)
- Ladislav Mucina (Vice-President)
Ladislav Mucina accepted the special task to collect information on homepages (see agenda item 5), working groups and regional sections, etc. Aproposal was accepted to invite observers from 'remote areas' to participate in the meetings of the Advisory Council, as far as these areas are not represented.
The Annual Meeting of the IAVS in 1999 will be held in Bilbao, Spain,in the last week of July (26-30). There will be a 15-day pre-symposium excursion traversing the Iberian Penninsula, and a 6-day post-symposium excursion to the Pyrenees.
The Annual Meeting of the IAVS in 2000 will be held in Nagano, Japan, also in the last week of July (23-28 July). There will be a pre-symposium excursion of 4 days to Honsui, and a post-symposium excursion of 2 weeks from Hokaido to the south (visiting the four main islands).
Suggestions for annual meetings in the coming years comprise:
- München, Germany (August 2001)
- Southern Brasil (January 2002)
- South Africa
- Moscow
- South Korea
- Costa Rica
- Argentina
Other activities of the IAVS within the coming period will be:
- The 8th Workshop of the 'European Vegetation Survey' in Rome in March 1999 on high mountain vegetation.
- The South African Meeting of Botany in January 1999 in Untata (Transkey),with a special session of the Regional Section of the IAVS.
- The Regional Section of North America will meet in August 1998 in Spokane (Washington State) during the meeting of the Ecological Society of America.
- The publication of the Third Edition of the Code of Nomenclature.
A proposal by Elgene Box asking for annual reports of the Working Groups was accepted. At the moment there are five Working Groups and two Regional Sections (contact persons are given in brackets):
- Long Term Dynamics (J.P. Bakker)
- European Vegetation Survey (J. Rodwell)
- Vegetation Theory (E. van der Maarel)
- Nomenclature Commission (H. Weber)
- Disturbance dynamics in Boreal forests (O. Engelmark)
- Regional Section South Africa (G. Bredenkamp)
- Regional Section North America (J. Runkle)
The Publication Officer (Eddy van der Maarel) reported on some changes in the board of editors and the editorial office of the Journal of Vegetation Science and Applied Vegetation Science (for further details see the Minutes of the General Assembly).
The IAVS Bulletin was welcomed as a useful and good-looking newsletter of our society, and it was decided to continue with it. This Bulletin will be published yearly (during the winter).
It was recommended to also put the information on Internet. Until now, IAVS did not have an own Home Page. So far we have been guests at the HomePage of Opulus Press, but recently we established our domain name: www.iavs.org.
Information for the Bulletin and the Internet news can be sent to the Secretary General.
7. Free journals
It was decided on that Honorary Members will receive one journal free of their own choice (JVS or AVS).
It was concluded that the IAVS does not bear responsibility for the annual Symposia which are organised by local institutions. In other words, thepeople who actually organise a meeting are financially responsible.
9. Other items
Richard Pott announced that he has become Editor-in-Chief of Kluwer's series
'Handbook of Vegetation Science'.
1. The President, E. Box, opened the Assembly at 18.15. All members had been notified of, and invited to, the General Assembly through the Circular of November 1997, which identified the most important agenda items. Therewere more than 100 members present, which constituted a quorum for decision making.
2. The President and the Secretary General, H. Dierschke, reported on the results of the Advisory Council Meeting of 27 July 1998 (see Minutesof this meeting). Some additional information was given concerning forthcoming meetings and excursions. The election results of the new Advisory Council were presented and the constitution of the new Executive Committee was announced; the task of Secretary General will be taken over by Joop Schaminée. Hartmut Dierschke received a big applause for all the work he has done in this function for the IAVS during the last 16 years. A new Membership List will be published and all IAVS members were asked to send any changes inaddresses and E-mail to the new Secretary General.
3. Information was presented about the publication of the symposium contributions. First of all, there will be Proceedings of the Symposium in Uppsala. All people who contributed to the Symposium with a lecture or a poster are invitedto submit a short manuscript (max. 4 pp. of print). The Proceedings willbe edited under the chairmanship of Peter S. White. This book will be published in 1999 by Opulus Press. It will be sent for free to the participants.
In addition Special Features will be prepared for various journals, including the Journal of Vegetation Science, Applied Vegetation Science, Folia Geobotanica and Acta Phytogeographica Suecica. Several topics have been suggested andattendants have been invited to submit papers to the various contact persons mentioned during the Symposium. Which Special Features will be prepared depends on the quantity and quality of submitted papers.
With regard to the Journal of Vegetation Science (JVS) and Applied Vegetation Science (AVS), there have been some changes in the editorial board and the editorial organisation. Eddy van der Maarel will resign as one of the Editors of both journals. From January 1999 Peter S. White, Ladislav Mucina, J.Bastow Wilson and Jari Oksanen will be the Editors; Peter White will act as chairperson. The number of Associate Editors will increase to 8 for JVS and 4 for AVS. Associate Editors will act largely independently.
The Editorial Office of both journals will move to the Main Office of Opulus Press in Länna, outside Uppsala and a professional Head of the Office will be appointed.
4. The meeting was concluded at 19.15.
On February 25, 1998, Ing. Karel Kopecky, Dr. Sc., formerly a leading researcher at the Institute of Botany of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic in Pruhonice, passed away.
From 1955 to 1995, K. Kopecky published 168 scientific works, which were devoted mainly to phytosociology and the dynamics of riparian and synanthropic vegetation (K. Kopecky's bibliography was published in Preslia 65: 8388,1993 and updated in Preslia 70: 184, 1998).
He compared natural plant communities with their human-influenced derivatives on ruderalized habitats. From his work, he was able to attack problems of apophytization of native species and resulting implications for the typification of their plant communities. This work also served as an inspiration for the elaboration of the deductive method of syntaxonomic classification first theoretically proposed by K. Kopecky in 1971 and extensively developed from1973 until 1995. Through this method, Karel Kopecky was able to describe and understand plant communities whose typification by former methods had proven unsatisfactory. His deductive method was received well by his colleagues,also internationally and has been a valued tool in various investigations, particularly in the Czech Republic and The Netherlands.
His publications are remarkable for their original approach and methods of elaboration; in many respects they are pioneering works. Their impact can be seen by the considerable number of citations of, and responses to, his research in botanical literature.
Karel Kopecky was more than an excellent specialist; he possessed a broad outlook, clear thinking, and a pleasant, modest personality. He was always willing to assist his colleagues. It was a great personal pleasure to have known him and have the good fortune to be able to cooperate with him. He will be missed by many.
At the 41st IAVS Symposium at Uppsala 1998, five posters were awarded. Specially commended were posters by Henning Schröder and Sophie Karrenberg.The 3rd price, a one-year subscription to Folia Geobotanica, was given to Ivana Kotorová (Czech Republic) for the work on 'Establishment ofseedlings and young plants in an oligotrophic wet meadow'. Fernanda Vendramini (Argentina) was ranked second with 'Plant functional types and climate incentral Argentina'and received a one-year subscription to Applied Vegetation Science. The winner was Natalia Ruiz (Israel): 'Signal selection in a desertlily'. She received a one-year subscription to the Journal of Vegetation Science.
Since more than a year, in various correspondence of our Association a logo has been used, for instance in the IAVS Bulletin and in all correspondence of the Uppsala symposium. This logo, presenting the terrestrial globe witha set of three leaves on top, has been designed be Adriaan Honcoop.
The 42nd Annual Meeting of the IAVS will be held in Bilbao (Spain) from July 26-30, 1999. The second circular has been sent for final subscription; all details are given in this circular. The Symposium will accept contributions on all topics related to vegetation science, although the main theme will be 'Vegetation and Climate':
Pre- and Post-symposium excursions are also being organized (see minutes of meeting of Advisory Council)
Address for communication:
Depto. de Biologia Vegetal y Ecologia (Botanica), Facultad de CienciasUPV/EHU, Ap. 644, E-48080 Bilbao, Spain; Fax: +34 94 4648500; E-mail: iavs99@lg.ehu.es
This symposium deals with vegetation classification using the approach of Braun-Blanquet and its application in natural resource management. Topics: Concepts of the floristic system, especially comparisons and contrasts with systems (especially habitat types) familiar to vegetation scientists in North America
Methods of the Braun-Blanquet approach, field and synthetic, qualitativeand quantitative ˇ recent classifications - overview of vegetation
Application of classifications - mapping, management direction, etc.
Info: Toby Spribille, U.S. Forest Service, Kootenai National Forest,Fortine Ranger District, P.O. Box 116, Fortine, MT 59918, USA; fax +1 406 882 4835;
E-mail tspribille/r1_kootenai@fs.fed.us.
Halkidiki, Greece.
Info: Secretariat Eureco '99, Department of Ecology, U.P.B. 119, Aristotle University, GR-54006 Thessaloniki, Greece; Fax +30 31 998379;
E-mail administration@eureco99.auth.gr
Jaen, Spain.
Info: Dr. Carlos Salazar Mendías, Dept. de Biología Animal,Vegetal y Ecología; Universidad de Jaen, Paraje las Lagunillas s/n,E-23071 Jaen, Spain; Fax +34 953 2121451;
E-mail fitosoc@ujaen.es
Vladivostok, Russia.
Info: This conference is organized by Prof. Yuri Iv. Man'ko and his staffand will be dedicated to the Russian forester Boris Kolesnikov at the occasion of his 90th birthday. Please, send your application and preliminary title of your contribution to the secretary of the Conference, Dr. Galina Gladkova, Inst. of Biology and Soil Science, Russian Academy of Sciences, Far East Branch, 159, 100 let Vadivostok Pr., Vladivostok 690022, Russia.
Fax +9 4232 310193;
Harrogate, England
Info: British Grassland Society, 1, Earley Gate, University of Reading, Reading RG6 6AT, England;