IAVS Working Groups - European Vegetation Survey
European Vegetation Survey
Contact person: John Rodwell, Lancaster, United Kingdom
Email: johnrodwell@tiscali.co.uk.
Annual Reports [2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2003]
2008 Annual Report king Group Report: 2008
The 17th Workshop of the European Vegetation Survey was held from 1-5 May 2008 at Masaryk University in Brno, Czech Republic, by kind invitation of Dr Milan Chytry. Details can be found at the meeting website [http://botzool.sci.muni.cz/EVS/] and in the meeting program.
There were over 200 participants, by far the highest attendance ever, with a record 32 countries represented, including large contingents from Russia and Ukraine, and from Ireland, delegates from Taiwan and for the first time a delegate from Canada.
The central theme was ‘Using phytosociological data to address ecological questions’ with sessions on patterns and processes in woodlands & scrub, grassland diversity and vegetation change. There were also sessions on models of species diversity along gradients and at large scale, on distribution patterns and models, on the effects of invasive species, on concepts & methods of vegetation survey and progress in national vegetation survey programmes. Altogether, there were 42 papers and also 97 posters, presented in three sessions.
Pre-Workshop JUICE courses attracted many participants at both the elementary and advanced levels.
The mid-workshop excursion was to the Devin-Kotel-Souteska National Nature Reserve and Svatý kopecek in the Pavlov Hills & Pouzdrany Steppes, with dry grasslands and forests. The post-workshop excursion was to the forests of the Podyji National Park and the grasslands and heaths around the villages of Popice and Havraníky. There was also a an excursion for accompanying persons.
In the EVS Business Meeting, delegates noted with great pleasure the publication this last year of the first volume of Vegetace Ceské republiky (Vegetation of the Czech Republic, Grassland & Heath Vegetation) and the 4th volume of Rastlinné spolocenstvá Slovenska (Vegetation of Slovakia, High Mountain Vegetation). Dr Chytry summarised the possibilities for publication of the papers presented at the workshop. There was also an update on the revision of the Overview of Alliances from Professor Laco Mucina and news of the possible new journal for larger papers on vegetation classification from Dr Jürgen Dengler.
The 18th Workshop will be held at the Orto Botanico in Rome, from 25-28 March, 2009 and Professor Francesco Spada, Emiliano Agrillo and Laura Casella presented an outline of its possible organisation and cost. The proposed theme will be ‘Thermophilous Vegetation’ with opportunities for papers on patterns and processes in relation to climate, eco-physiological studies of temperature effects and the impacts of global change on vegetation. The subsidiary theme will be ‘What is the meaning of “optimal condition” of vegetation and habitats (as in the Habitats Directive)’. There will be a post-workshop excursion from 30 March – 2 April across Italy to the Gargano region of northern Puglia. For the 19th Workshop in 2010, Dr János Csiky invited the EVS to Pécs in Hungary, the European Capital of Culture for that year, with a probable date in late April.
The participants thanked Dr Chytry and his team for the excellent organisation of the workshop, the stimulating programme and the great Czech welcome, in both the scientific exchanges and the social interaction during the sessions and at the barbecue in the University Botanic Garden.
2007 Annual Report kinWorking Group Report: 2007
The 16th Workshop of the European Vegetation Survey was held from 22-26 March 2007 at the Orto Botanico, University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’, by kind invitation of Professor Sandro Pignatti and with the generous financial support of the Lazio Region. At the opening session, delegates were welcomed by Professoressa Gratani, the Director of the Orto Botanico.
There were over 80 participants, the highest attendance ever, from 17 countries, including for the first time two delegates from Portugal and one from Taiwan.
The central theme was ‘Change in Vegetation’ and there were also papers on a range of different vegetation types and landscapes, on national vegetation surveys and software. Altogether, there were 28 papers and 32 posters. A pre- Workshop Symposium on ‘The Use of Ellenberg Values’ attracted over 40 participants.
Professor Joop Schaminée gave an update on progress with the SynBioSys Europe project which is now appointing national representatives in each country and preparing a proposal for the EU COST Programme.
In the Business Meeting, there was further news of the Overview of Alliances. Meanwhile, the Syntaxa Bibliography and Synonymy will shortly be placed on the EVS web-page.
The excursion, led by Professor Francesco Spada, Laura Casella and Emiliano Agrillo was to Lake Fibreno, a karst spring lake in the Lazio District, by invitation of the Riservo Naturale Regionale ‘Lago di Posta Fibreno’. Here participants saw Sub-Mediterranean deciduous oak forests dominating in the catchment, with fragments of Mediterranean evergreen woody vegetation, together with some striking floristic and vegetational anomalies, particularly in the mires of the floating island and its surrounds.
Delegates received Volume VI of Annali di Botanica with papers from the 2006 15th Workshop in Catania. The deadline for submitting manuscripts for publication in Annali from the current Workshop is 30 May 2007.
The 17th Workshop will be held in Brno, Czech Republic,
from 8-11 May 2008, and Dr Milan Chytry presented an
outline of its possible organisation and cost. The proposed
theme will be ‘Using phytosociological data to investigate
ecological questions’. The 18th Workshop will be in Rome,
probably from 26-30 March, 2009. Professor Attila Borhidi
outlined the possibility of locating the 19th Workshop in
April 2010 in Hungary, where Pécs, a possible location, will
be European Capital of Culture for that year.
Delegates thanked all those responsible for organising the Workshop, especially Dottoressa Andrea Savoia.
2006 Annual Report kin Working Group Report: 2006
The 15th Workshop was held from 24-27 March 2006 at the Orto Botanico, University of Catania, Sicily, by kind invitation of Professor Salvatore Brullo. There were over 70 participants from 16 countries and it was a particular pleasure to welcome delegates from Croatia, Oman and Egypt, attending for the first time. The first main subject this year was Vegetation in Agricultural Landscapes for which there were 16 papers on weed communities, vernal pools, hedgerows, landscape quality and management. The second main subject was ?Natura 2000' for which there were 7 papers on habitat condition monitoring, favourable conservation status, habitat restoration, classification and mapping methodologies. A more general session on other semi-natural vegetation included papers on dry calcifuge and calcicolous grasslands, mountain meadows, ephemeral wetlands and steppes. In total there were 25 posters on a wide variety of subjects. A special session was dedicated to an update on the SynBioSys software by Stephan Hennekens and Joop Schaminée and to a discussion of the use of Ellenberg values in vegetation science. There was also discussion on the progress of the Overview of Alliances, and on making available the syntaxa bibliography and synonymy on the EVS website.
There were two excursions: one to Mt. Etna led by Prof. Emilia Poli Marchese, where snow and the recent eruptions prevented delegates reaching the very summit, and one to Pantalica and the Anapo Valley, led by Riccardo Guarini. There was also opportunity to sample the archaeological, cultural and culinary delights of Catania. Proceedings of the Workshop will be published in the New Series of Annali di Botanica and delegates were given deadline details by Dr. Andrea Savoia. Other particular publishing achievements by EVS members this year included the appearance of the Monitoring Guide for Nature 2000 habitats and species in Greece by a team led by Panyotis Dimopoulos.
The 16th EVS Workshop will be held in Rome on 22-26 March 2007 when the main subjects will be Change in Vegetation and Favourable Conservation Status with a pre-meeting on software.
2005 Annual Report kin Working Group Report:
The European Vegetation Survey held its 14th Workshop at the Orto Botanico in Rome on 11-14 March 2005. Over 35 delegates attended from more than 20 countries and the Working Group was especially pleased this year to welcome participants from Turkey, Albania and Luxembourg. On a more sombre note, the meeting remembered with affection and gratitude the life of Jonas Lawesson who had died since the previous workshop.
The first main subject this year was ‘Dwarf-shrub vegetation’ with 17 papers and posters on vegetation types of the Mediterranean, Temperate and Boreal zones. The other main subject was ‘Vegetation mapping, modelling & monitoring’ on which there were 15 papers and posters. In addition, there was a demonstration of the SynBioSys software by Joop Schaminée and Stephan Hennekens and the Workshop was preceded by a well-attended short course on JUICE software by Milan Chytrý and Lubos Tichý. There was a very enjoyable excursion to the town of Acquasparta and the palazzo of Federico Cesi, the Italian scientist who first coined the term ‘biodiversity’ and who founded the Accademia dei Lincei 400 years ago. The Workshop also incorporated a visit to the Villa Farnesina in Trastevere to see the depictions of biodiversity in the frescoes by Rafael and his school.
This year has also seen the appearance of the proceedings of the 13th EVS Workshop in Ioannina,
Greece as a special edition of Botanika Chronika edited by Panyotis Dimopolous. The delayed papers
from the 9th Workshop on Erice, Sicily in 2000 are due to be published shortly in Annali di Botanica.
Various EVS members also participated in the IAVS Symposium in Hawaii in July 2004 and in the
European Vegetation Conference in Galway, western Ireland in July 2005.
The 15th EVS Workshop will be held in Catania on 24-27 March 2006 when the subjects will be
‘Grasslands in the Agricultural Landscape’ and ‘Natura 2000’. Plans are already in outline for the 16th
Workshop in Italy in 2007 and the 17th Workshop in May 2008 in Brno.
2003 Annual Report kin Working Group Report: 2003
The 11th Workshop of the European Vegetation Survey was held at the Orto Botanico in Rome from 6-9 September 2002. Over 50 participants from 12 countries attended the workshop where papers and
posters were presented on the main theme ‘wetlands’ and a one-day excursion to the Abruzzo national
park in the Apennines. In addition, a pre-Workshop meeting of the SynBioSys Scientific Steering
Committee was held in the Orto Botanico Library on 5 September and an EVS Business Meeting on 9
September at Civitella Alfadena. Sandro Pignatti opened the Workshop and welcomed the participants,
while highlighting some achievements of EVS members during the previous year: the publication of The
Diversity of European Vegetation by an EVS team; and the appearance of Volume 2 of the Atlas of Plant
Communities of the Netherlands and Volume 3 of the Vegetation of Slovakia. On behalf of the SynBioSys
Europe team, Joop Schaminée and Stephan Hennekens gave a presentation of this major new
information system, while John Rodwell provided an outline of links between the software and EUNIS
habitats. Details of progress in national vegetation surveys were provided for the Czech Republic by
Jaroslav Moravec, for Slovakia by Milan Valachovic, and for Hungary by Attila Borhidi. Laco Mucina
gave an update on the publication of the scientific text of the Overview of European Vegetation (due
2003). At the Business Meeting, Ulrich Deil provided an update on the Pignatti Festschrift – a special
two-volume edition of Phytocoenologia which will include papers from the 10th Workshop and some
others on ‘Halophytic Vegetation’, scheduled for publication for the IAVS Napoli meeting in June 2003.
Sandro Pignatti and Dr. Ubrizsy-Savoia gave an update on the publication of papers from the 8th and 9th
EVS Workshops, which had been held up because of production difficulties with Annali di Botanica.
These are now resolved and publication is expected in 2003. The meeting decided simply to publish
abstracts of this year’s papers in Annali, with encouragement for participants to seek full publication
elsewhere or to expand papers for the IAVS meeting in Napoli.
The 12th Workshop would comprise two jointly organized sessions within the IAVS Napoli meeting: one on ‘Ephemeral Vegetation of Wet Habitats’ on the morning of 10 June, and a second on ‘Databases and Information Systems for Vegetation Science’ on the morning of 12 June, 2003. Following an original offer at the 10th EVS Workshop, Panyotis Dimopoulos presented further details of a possible venue for the 13th EVS Workshop in Ioannina in northwestern Greece, some time from late April to mid-May 2004, with possible themes of ‘Abandonment and Vegetation’ and ‘Sub-Mediterranean Vegetation’ and excursions to the Vikos-Aoos Gorge and southern Albania. This offer was very warmly accepted. In March 2005, the 14th EVS Workshop will revert to the Rome venue.
