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The results of the annual excursion of the Working Group for Vegetation Science of the Italian Botanical Society, held in the Egadi Islands, Mount San Giuliano and Mount Cofano (W Sicily) on April 23--27 2022, are presented. This paper includes: (1) general information on the visited sites; (2) geology and geomorphology; (3) climatology and bioclimatology with tables of climatic data; (4) description of the following five geobotanical itineraries -- accompanied by 29 original vegetation relevés and 11 synthetic relevés, proceeding from different bibliographic references: (a) Mount San Giuliano; (b) Marettimo Island: coastal and subcoastal stretch of the southern part, between Punta Bassana and Contrada Chiappera; (c) Marettimo Island: Case Romane, Mount Pizzo Falcone and the north-western coastal stretch; (d) Island of Levanzo; (e) Mount Cofano -- with catenal pictograms of the vegetation, surveys and description of the plant communities and related syntaxonomic scheme; (5) list of the surveyed plant taxa, collected specimens and herbaria in which they are deposited. A new syntaxon is also described (Catapodio pauciflori-Moraeetum sisyrinchii ass. nova), referring to an ephemeral dry grassland located along the north-western coastal stretch of Marettimo. The new association is framed in the Plantagini-Catapodion balearici, alliance of the Stipo-Bupleuretalia semicompositi order of the class Stipo-Trachynietea distachyae (order Stipo-Bupleuretalia semicompositi, alliance Plantagini-Catapodion balearici). An original synoptic table, regarding 17 different plant communities with high frequency of Moraea sisyrinchium, provides a comparative framework of the new association with allied vegetation units so far described throughout the Mediterranean region. Syntaxonomical and nomenclatural remarks regarding the Mediterranean vegetation occurring in this territory are also given throughout the text. Some floristic updates for the study sites are also reported, including the discovery for the first time in Sicily of Lysimachia loeflingii. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Altai-Sayan mountain region (ASMR) is the Western part of the South Siberian mountain belt and is characterized by diverse climatic conditions. As a result, the forest-steppe belt forms areas of different size at various altitudes. This work presents the analysis of over 4000 relevés and over 100 geobotanical transects characterizing all forest-steppe landscapes of the ASMR. The biodiversity of basic vegetation communities comprises 5 classes, 6 orders, 9 alliances, and 43 associations. Areas with similar spectra of vegetation communities were unified into 8 forest-steppe landscapes. Two generalized types of ASMR forest steppes were proposed: Altai-Sayan and North-Mongolian. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Studies on the structural-dynamic organization and spatiotemporal variation of plant communities at the forest-extrazonal steppe junction and in the zonal forest-steppe have made it possible to reveal some specific features of vegetation formation in certain parts of the Baikal region. It has been shown that processes of paragenesis in the formation of plant communities are characteristic of southwestern Baikal region, while forest expansion to steppe areas is characteristic of the zonal forest-steppe of southwestern Transbaikalia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vegetation Science is a scientific discipline devoted to the study of vegetation at all levels of complexity spanning populations, plant communities and biomes. It attempts to explain vegetation patterns and the processes governing vegetation assembly and dynamics in all temporal and spatial scales. Vegetation analysis serves to record anthropo-zoogenic effects and portrays similarly structured vegetation formations with characteristic vegetation complexes and plant communities. These plant communities consist of recognisable and reproducible associations of plant types which are subject to natural laws under the same ecological conditions. Wherever one finds similar habitat conditions in comparable bioregions or floristic zones on the planet, similar communities exist and can be typified. Such determinative plant community-habitat-type systems possess high bioindicator value for different biotic and abiotic habitat conditions. The floristic compositions and structure of plant communities and biotope-types can be categorised, and such vegetation units can be abstracted as elementary types, marked by their characteristic species combination under certain habitat-dependent conditions. Phytosociology provides the scientific background and method to address these questions. It was established by Josias Braun-Blanquet (Braun-Blanquet J. 1918. Eine pflanzengeographische Exkursion durch Unterengadin und in den schweizerischen Nationalpark. Beitr Geobot Landesaufnahme 4: 1–80.) and promoted for example in Germany by Reinhold Tüxen (Tüxen R. 1937. Die Pflanzengesellschaften Nord-Westdeutschlands. Mitt. Flor. Soz. Arbeitsgemein. Nieders. 3, Hannover, 170 p.). The Flora-Fauna-Habitat-Guideline (FFH-Natura 2000), enacted on 21 May 1992 established homogenous criteria for endangered biotypes throughout Europe, founded on a modern phytosociological basis. Phytosociological terminology also forms the basis of biotype-differentiation in the UNESCO Convention on Biodiversity (COP9). Vegetation science is a socially and politically critical discipline, serving to benefit and progress human society and sustainable usage of its natural resources. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]