Announcements of the EDGG working group

Announcements of the EDGG working group

by Stephen Venn and Denys Vynokurov

The Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG) of the IAVS announces the 20th Eurasian Grassland Conference, which will be held at the University of Oulu, Finland, from 7-10th July 2025. The theme of the conference will focus on the peculiarities of the grasslands of this region, and other regions with extreme conditions. During the mid-conference excursion, participants will visit unique Baltic grasslands along the Bothnian Bay. The post-conference excursion will take us to see riparian flood meadows along the Oulanka river, in the Oulanka National Park in NE Finland, where we will stay from 11-13th July, at the Oulanka Research Station of Oulu University. 

Map with approximate locations of the 20th EDGG Field Workshop in Italy (A, 28th May - 5th June 2025) and the 21st EDGG Field Workshop in Finland (B, 28th June - 6th July), and location of the Eurasian Grassland Conference 2025 (EGC), which will be held in Oulu, Finland (7 - 10th July 2025).

In 2025, two EDGG Field Workshops will also take place. The 20th EDGG Field Workshop “Dry Grasslands of the Maritime and Ligurian Alps” (28th May – 5th June 2025) will focus on sampling the most marginal part of the southwestern Alps, in the Italian Maritime Alps (Valle Maira, Valle Stura, Valle Gesso), and the Ligurian Alps (Valle Tanaro), which host the most thermophilic refuge areas and thus show the highest plant diversity and endemicity rate of the Alps.

The 21st EDGG Field Workshop “Diversity of Grasslands and Open Habitats in the Turku Archipelago” (28th June – 6th July 2025) will focus on detailed sampling in diverse types of grasslands and open habitats including the following: semi-natural pastures, rocky dry grasslands, sandy grasslands, coastal meadows, wooded pastures and meadows, and heathlands of southwestern Finland.

The EDGG Field Workshops are research expeditions dedicated to the acquisition of high-quality data on Palaearctic non-forest vegetation types, following a standardized methodology. Participants will engage in vegetation-plot sampling, documenting all encountered vascular plant, bryophyte, and lichen species, as well as key structural and environmental parameters. 

Further details about these events can be found on the EDGG website and in the latest issue of Palaearctic Grasslands. 

A riparian flood meadow from the Korouoma river valley, Posio, Finland. Credit: S. Venn 2020