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Semi-natural grasslands harbour many of Europe's species of conservation interest. Although larger grasslands are the focus of most conservation activity, many grassland fragments are scattered across landscapes –in small patches or along linear elements– which can form Grassland Green Infrastructure (GGI). GGI has the potential to enhance landscape diversity by creating functioning metacommunities comprising of large semi-natural grasslands and these surrounding fragments. While often highlighted in conservation policy, little is known about the biodiversity supported by green infrastructure itself and thus its conservation potential. To address this issue, we contrasted plant communities in 36 ‘core’ grassland sites across three European countries with communities in the surrounding GGI. We related compositional differences to amount and type of GGI habitat (patches or linear), and the distances for seed dispersal by livestock from core sites. We found substantial differences between the GGI and the core sites, with a mean 54% species turn-over. These differences indicated filtering of stress tolerant species characteristic of low nutrient conditions, and semi-natural grassland specialists. Species with poorer dispersal abilities declined strongly with increasing distances from the core sites. The many additional species in the GGI, not found in the core sites, were predominantly those with a competitive strategy and high seed dispersal ability. We conclude that the biodiversity-supporting role of GGI across Europe is severely constrained by eutrophication, dispersal limitation and external propagule pressure. Actions to improve the quality of GGI might include enhancing dispersal by livestock combined with more type-diversification and less intensively used grassland habitats., This research was funded through the 2015-2016 BiodivERsA COFUND call for research proposals, with the national funders FORMAS (2016-01948), the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency (Naturvårdsverket), the Belgian Science Policy Office (BelSPo, BR/175/A1/FUNgreen), the Germany Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium fuer Bildung und Forschung, FKZ: 01LC1619A) and the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities (Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades, PCIN-2016-077). JMB was funded under UKCEH National Capability project 06895.

Alpine grasslands, local biodiversity hotspots with very high nature conservation and cultural value, belong to the most affected by global change ecosystems. Yet, the potential effects of others than global warming factors on alpine plant functioning is poorly understood. To address this gap, we made use of 360 herbarium specimens from nine vascular plant species collected in the Bavarian Alps, Germany, extending back 200 years to reconstruct historical changes in foliar N content and stable isotope composition (δ15N), indicators of plant response to long-term N atmospheric deposition and rising atmospheric CO2 concentrations ([CO2]). These changes were interpreted in terms of three competing hypothesis (eutrophication, oligotrophication and photorespiration), representing alternative explanations for the response of plants to changes of N and CO2 availability.Foliar δ15N decreased significantly over time but an explanation by an increased input of reactive N from long-distance transport (’eutrophication’ hypothesis) was unlikely because foliar N contents decreased significantly as well. An increased carbon gain due to increasing [CO2] (‘oligotrophication’) also was unlikely because instantaneous water use efficiency remained unchanged and indicated no increase in C gain. The detected patterns agreed well with the ‘photorespiration’ hypothesis that biochemically links N assimilation and carbon assimilation. Increasing concentration of ambient CO2 that decreases photorespiration explained decreasing δ15N values (R2 = 0.84, p < 0.001) and decreasing N contents (R2 = 0.40, p < 0.036).Our results suggest that increasing [CO2] by suppressing photorespiration reduces N availability to alpine plants. These findings contradict the generally accepted assumption of negative effects of eutrophication on alpine grasslands caused by air-borne N deposition. We conclude that increasing [CO2] should be considered as alternative driver of long-term changes in alpine ecosystems, as it affects directly the plant C:N stoichiometry, a key plant trait determining several important ecosystem processes.

Seed movement and delayed germination have long been thought to represent alternative risk-spreading strategies, but current evidence covers limited scales and yields mixed results. Here we present the first global-scale test of a negative correlation between dispersal and dormancy. The result demonstrates a strong and consistent pattern that species with dormant seeds have reduced spatial dispersal, also in the context of life-history traits such as seed mass and plant lifespan. Long-lived species are more likely to have large, non-dormant seeds that are dispersed far. Our findings provide robust support for the theoretical prediction of a dispersal trade-off between space and time, implying that a joint consideration of risk-spreading strategies is imperative in studying plant life-history evolution. The bet-hedging patterns in the dispersal-dormancy correlation and the associated reproductive traits have implications for biodiversity conservation, via prediction of which plant groups would be most impacted in the changing era.

The use of functional information in the form of species traits plays an important role in explaining biodiversity patterns and responses to environmental changes. Although relationships between species composition, their traits, and the environment have been extensively studied on a case-by-case basis, results are variable, and it remains unclear how generalizable these relationships are across ecosystems, taxa and spatial scales. To address this gap, we collated 80 datasets from trait-based studies into a global database for metaCommunity Ecology: Species, Traits, Environment and Space; “CESTES”. Each dataset includes four matrices: species community abundances or presences/absences across multiple sites, species trait information, environmental variables and spatial coordinates of the sampling sites. The CESTES database is a live database: it will be maintained and expanded in the future as new datasets become available. By its harmonized structure, and the diversity of ecosystem types, taxonomic groups, and spatial scales it covers, the CESTES database provides an important opportunity for synthetic trait-based research in community ecology., Measurement(s)species abundance • species trait • environmental feature • latitude • longitudeTechnology Type(s)digital curationFactor Type(s)year of data collection • type of ecosystem • level of human disturbanceSample Characteristic - Environmentterrestrial natural environment • fresh water • marine biome • anthropogenic terrestrial biome • natural environment • area of mixed forest • cultivated environmentSample Characteristic - LocationEarth (planet) Machine-accessible metadata file describing the reported data: 10.6084/m9.figshare.11317790

Plants, fungi and algae are important components of global biodiversity and are fundamental to all ecosystems. They are the basis for human well-being, providing food, materials and medicines. Specimens of all three groups of organisms are accommodated in herbaria, where they are commonly referred to as botanical specimens. The large number of specimens in herbaria provides an ample, permanent and continuously improving knowledge base on these organisms and an indispensable source for the analysis of the distribution of species in space and time critical for current and future research relating to global biodiversity. In order to make full use of this resource, a research infrastructure has to be built that grants comprehensive and free access to the information in herbaria and botanical collections in general. This can be achieved through digitization of the botanical objects and associated data. The botanical research community can count on a long-standing tradition of collaboration among institutions and individuals. It agreed on data standards and standard services even before the advent of computerization and information networking, an example being the Index Herbariorum as a global registry of herbaria helping towards the unique identification of specimens cited in the literature. In the spirit of this collaborative history, 51 representatives from 30 institutions advocate to start the digitization of botanical collections with the overall wall-to-wall digitization of the flat objects stored in German herbaria. Germany has 70 herbaria holding almost 23 million specimens according to a national survey carried out in 2019. 87% of these specimens are not yet digitized. Experiences from other countries like France, the Netherlands, Finland, the US and Australia show that herbaria can be comprehensively and cost-efficiently digitized in a relatively short time due to established workflows and protocols for the high-throughput digitization of flat objects. Most of the herbaria are part of a university (34), fewer belong to municipal museums (10) or state museums (8), six herbaria belong to institutions also supported by federal funds such as Leibniz institutes, and four belong to non-governmental organizations. A common data infrastructure must therefore integrate different kinds of institutions. Making full use of the data gained by digitization requires the set-up of a digital infrastructure for storage, archiving, content indexing and networking as well as standardized access for the scientific use of digital objects. A standards-based portfolio of technical components has already been developed and successfully tested by the Biodiversity Informatics Community over the last two decades, comprising among others access protocols, collection databases, portals, tools for semantic enrichment and annotation, international networking, storage and archiving in accordance with international standards. This was achieved through the funding by national and international programs and initiatives, which also paved the road for the German contribution to the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF). Herbaria constitute a large part of the German botanical collections that also comprise living collections in botanical gardens and seed banks, DNA- and tissue samples, specimens preserved in fluids or on microscope slides and more. Once the herbaria are digitized, these resources can be integrated, adding to the value of the overall research infrastructure. The community has agreed on tasks that are shared between the herbaria, as the German GBIF model already successfully demonstrates. We have compiled nine scientific use cases of immediate societal relevance for an integrated infrastructure of botanical collections. They address accelerated biodiversity discovery and research, biomonitoring and conservation planning, biodiversity modelling, the generation of trait information, automated image recognition by artificial intelligence, automated pathogen detection, contextualization by interlinking objects, enabling provenance research, as well as education, outreach and citizen science. We propose to start this initiative now in order to valorize German botanical collections as a vital part of a worldwide biodiversity data pool.

Plant species differ in their ecological amplitude, with some species occurring in very different habitats under strongly differentiated environmental conditions. We were interested in to what extent the occurrence of Linum catharticum in dry calcareous grasslands (Bromion) and wet litter meadows (Molinion), two habitats on opposing ends concerning, for example, moisture level, is reflected on the genetic and epigenetic level. Using AFLP (amplified fragment length polymorphisms) and MSAP (methylation sensitive amplification polymorphisms) analyses, we studied the genetic and epigenetic variation of L. catharticum from calcareous grasslands and litter meadows. From each habitat, we included five study sites with 16 individuals per sampling location. We observed lower genetic than epigenetic diversity, but considerable differentiation among habitats, which was stronger on the genetic than the epigenetic level. Additionally, we observed a strong correlation of genetic and epigenetic distance, irrespective of geographic distance. The dataset included a large portion of fragments exclusively found in individuals from one or the other habitat. Some epigenetic fragments even occurred in different methylation states depending on the habitat. We conclude that environmental effects act on both the genetic and epigenetic level, producing the clear differentiation among plant individuals from calcareous grasslands and litter meadows. These results may also point into the direction of ecotype formation in this species., In this study, we investigated the genetic and epigenetic variation of Linum catharticum. Using AFLP and MSAP analyses, we studied the differences among populations originating from different habitats: dry calcareous grasslands and wet litter meadows. We observed large genetic as well as epigenetic differences among populations from different habitats and conclude that Linum catharticum likely forms ecotypes depending on the environmental conditions.

Question: A better understanding of species distribution and establishment requires in-depth information on their seed ecology. We hypothesised that seed traits of mudflat species may indicate a strong environmental adaptation in their highly specialised habitat. Furthermore, we asked the question, do seeds of mudflat species have a specific trait value to contribute high adaptability to small-scale variation in their unpredictable habitat?. Location: Central Europe. Methods: Seeds of 30 typical mudflat species were used to measure 15 traits that govern seed dispersal (buoyancy and production), persistence (seed desiccation, mass and persistence in soil), and germination and establishment (germination response to different light, temperature and oxygen conditions). Cluster analysis and phylogenetic principal components analysis (pPCA) were conducted to define potential mudflat species functional groups as per their ecological optima. Results: Seed production and seed mass displayed extremely high variation while seed buoyancy, desiccation and persistence in soil showed almost no variation. All study species produced buoyant, desiccation-tolerant and long-term persistent seeds. Germination and establishment traits also displayed similarity in their responses to different germination treatments as the majority (73%) of species has a moderate seed germination niche width. They germinated well under light/aerobic conditions irrespective to temperature fluctuations. The cluster analysis and pPCA separated species into three potential plant functional groups as ‘true’, ‘flood-resistant’ and ‘facultative’, mudflat species. Conclusion: Moderate variation in the seed traits of mudflat plants suggests they employ different ecological strategies that seem highly predictive to the peculiarity of their specific micro-habitats, which are largely controlled by the hydroperiod gradient. It implies that seed trait information, which further needs to be tested for their adaptability, can advance our understanding of how community composition at the micro-habitat level depends on trait values of participating species.

The use of functional information in the form of species traits plays an important role in explaining biodiversity patterns and responses to environmental changes. Although relationships between species composition, their traits, and the environment have been extensively studied on a case-by-case basis, results are variable, and it remains unclear how generalizable these relationships are across ecosystems, taxa and spatial scales. To address this gap, we collated 80 datasets from trait-based studies into a global database for metaCommunity Ecology: Species, Traits, Environment and Space; “CESTES”. Each dataset includes four matrices: species community abundances or presences/absences across multiple sites, species trait information, environmental variables and spatial coordinates of the sampling sites. The CESTES database is a live database: it will be maintained and expanded in the future as new datasets become available. By its harmonized structure, and the diversity of ecosystem types, taxonomic groups, and spatial scales it covers, the CESTES database provides an important opportunity for synthetic trait-based research in community ecology., This work was funded by the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig (funded by the German Research Foundation; DFG FZT 118). We thank Jitendra Gaikwad for his precious help with the technical aspects of the database storage and management through the iDiv Biodiversity Portal (https://idata.idiv.de/, https://doi.org/10.25829/idiv.286-21-2695) and the iDiv IT Support for their help in the CESTES website development (https://icestes.github.io/). The datasets provided by A. Jeliazkov were collected with financial support from the Fédération d’Ile-de-France pour la Recherche en Environnement (FIRE FR-3020). The dataset provided by R. Carvalho and F.L. Tejerina-Garro had financial support from the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq No. 471283/2006-1) granted to FLTG. The datasets provided by R. van Klink, J.-Y. Humbert, R. Arlettaz and M.H.M. Menz were collected with financial support from the Swiss National Science Foundation (grants 31003A_125398/2 and 31003A_149656) awarded to RA.

The majority of variation in six traits critical to the growth, survival and reproduction of plant species is thought to be organised along just two dimensions, corresponding to strategies of plant size and resource acquisition. However, it is unknown whether global plant trait relationships extend to climatic extremes, and if these interspecific relationships are confounded by trait variation within species. We test whether trait relationships extend to the cold extremes of life on Earth using the largest database of tundra plant traits yet compiled. We show that tundra plants demonstrate remarkably similar resource economic traits, but not size traits, compared to global distributions, and exhibit the same two dimensions of trait variation. Three quarters of trait variation occurs among species, mirroring global estimates of interspecific trait variation. Plant trait relationships are thus generalizable to the edge of global trait-space, informing prediction of plant community change in a warming world., It is unclear whether plant trait relationships found at the global scale extend to climatic extremes. Here the authors analyse six major aboveground traits to show that known plant trait relationships extend to the tundra biomes and exhibit the same two dimensions of variation detected at the global scale.

Molecular markers such as AFLPs are frequently applied in molecular ecology and conservation genetics to determine the genetic diversity of plant populations. However, despite the extensive utilization there is little consensus about the number of loci and individuals which should be used to estimate genetic diversity. As a consequence, these two parameters strongly vary among investigations. In our study we analysed the impact of loci and individual number on the determined level of genetic diversity of 15 calcareous grassland species using AFLP. We investigated curve progressions of genetic diversity with an increasing number of individuals and computed the appropriate number of loci and plant individuals to reach 90% and 95% of a population’s genetic diversity. According to our results approximately 120 loci are sufficient for a stable estimation of genetic diversity. Regarding the number of analysed individuals on average about 14 samples are needed to cover 90% and about 23 samples are needed to cover 95% of the total genetic diversity. Wind-pollinated species require, however, larger sample sizes than insect-pollinated species. Since funding is often limited, especially in conservation, our results may help to avoid time-consuming and costly surveys and may contribute to a more efficient use of the financial resources available for the determination of genetic variation.

Mudflats are the most endangered habitats in Central Europe. In Germany, 60% of mudflat plant species are listed as endangered on the national Red List. The main causes are human activities such as the straightening and construction of barrages along large rivers and the abandoning or changing management of fish ponds. Species from ephemeral habitats, such as mudflats, typically have a persistent soil seed bank. However, it has not yet been examined whether mudflat species are still present but hidden in the sediment seed bank. To answer this question, we studied the seed bank of 108 ponds in Southern Germany. More than 300,000 seeds from mudflat species germinated from the sediment samples. Species listed on the national or regional Red Lists were found in all but three ponds, with all ponds containing up to 11 species. Some Red List species were present at very high density (up to nearly 3000 seeds/l). Although the pond locations in this study had been intensively floristically monitored for over half a century some species with >20 records were determined to be new in two study locations. Based on the last drainage date or record we conclude that seeds of mudflat species may survive between 50 years or even a century. It is, therefore, important that this hidden diversity should be considered in future conservation management practices. Furthermore, Red Lists should revise their entries on species with extremely long-term persistent seed banks by stating that they may be not extinct but hidden.

Trapa natans is an aquatic annual plant that grows in stagnant water and occupies an extremely wide, yet discontinuous native range across temperate Europe, Asia, and Africa, and is naturalized in North America and Australia. Despite its wide distribution and invasion success, its seed germination ecology is poorly known. We hypothesized that, due to its wide distribution range, T. natans seeds should germinate under a broad spectrum of environmental conditions. In the present study, freshly matured seeds were cold stratified and tested for germination over a range of temperatures in light/dark, and dark under aerobic and hypoxia conditions. Seed and seedling tolerance to freezing and desiccation also were determined. Freshly matured seeds were physiologically dormant, requiring 9 weeks of cold stratification to overcome the dormancy. Seeds tolerated freezing down to −14 °C, whereas those with an emerged hypocotyl exhibited a high sensitivity to freezing down to −4 °C. The non-dormant seeds germinated (75–100%) under almost all environmental conditions, i.e. constant 22 °C and alternating temperature of 14/6 °C to 30/22 °C and 30/10 °C, light and darkness, oxic and hypoxia, thus supporting our proposed hypothesis. Finally, seeds were found to be highly desiccation-sensitive, even at high relative humidity. Our findings suggest that the wide germination niche could help explain its broad distribution and invasion success at local and global scales.

Life span (the age of death for individuals that survived the establishment phase) is a key trait in plant life history. Despite its importance for understanding plant–environment relationships, there are still numerous substantial knowledge gaps about variation in plant maximum life spans and the ecological processes underlying these patterns. Based on plant age data obtained by means of herbochronology, we analysed patterns of intraspecific plant maximum life span variation in three perennial species (Campanula scheuchzeri, Helianthemun nummularium and Lotus corniculatus) along environmental gradients of mean annual temperature, soil depth and soil nutrients. This variation was compared with predictions from the ‘death-by-starvation hypothesis’ proposed by Hans Molisch in 1938, an unjustly forgotten ‘extrinsic’ theory on plant life span variation. Our study suggests that plant age variation within populations responds sensitively to growing conditions. The most important finding is that mean annual temperature or environmental conditions related to it seems to be a driving factor for intraspecific variation in plant maximum life span in all species studied. Despite large within-population variation, individuals of C. scheuchzeri, L. corniculatus and H. nummularium generally had a longer life span under colder climates (uplands in our case). In addition, soil depth (as a proxy for habitat susceptibility to drought) was found to have a significant positive effect on the age values in the case of C. scheuchzeri. These findings, therefore, are in line with Molisch’s “death-by-starvation hypothesis”: extended maximum life span results from reduced production of sink tissues and slow vegetative growth. We conclude that the analysis of plant life span adjustments along gradients of environmental factors can considerably contribute to our understanding of how plants may cope with changing environmental conditions, e.g., due to global change.

We assessed the effect of historical management on the vegetation and habitat properties of semi-dry grasslands on a regional scale in the Swabian Alb (South Germany). Grasslands were categorized into ancient, old, young and recent sites according to the management over the last 200 years. With around two species, diversity of vascular plants was moderately higher in grasslands with at least six decades of continuous management, which was supported by the GLM. With seven and ten species, diversity of cryptogams and threatened plants significantly increased from recent to ancient grasslands. Short-term managed grasslands exhibited a strong similarity in species composition along increased proportions of species from cultivated grasslands with high forage values, different from most long-term management grasslands. The shift in species composition from mainly typical semi-dry grassland plants for long-term management towards ubiquitous plants from cultivated grasslands was emphasized by a set of indicator species for each time span. The effect of fertilizing in the arable field use was still lingering in recent grasslands, reflected in higher levels of nutrients. Plant available phosphorous was even three times higher with averagely 37 mg/kg soil. Long-term managed grasslands are relicts of pasturing for centuries in the traditional or improved three field rotation systems and harbour a higher diversity, whereas recent grasslands are marked by the shift to modern agriculture and provide a higher fodder quality. Our results suggest that different managements are required to maintain the grassland’s quality depending on the time span of establishment. Particularly short-term managed grasslands may need more intensive grazing to re-develop them into the direction of long-term grasslands.

A common ecological restoration approach is the reestablishment of vegetation using seed mixtures. To preserve the natural genetic pattern of plant species local seed material should be used. Consequently, seed transfer zones (seed production areas and seed provenance regions) have been delineated for ecological restoration in Germany. Although it is assumed that these transfer zones represent genetic variation, there remains a lack of empirical data. In this study, we analyzed whether seed transfer zones reflect the genetic variation of the common grassland species Lathyrus pratensis. We sampled 706 individuals from 37 populations in Bavaria, Germany and analyzed genetic variation using amplified fragment length polymorphisms. In our study, we observed higher levels of genetic variation and fragment rarity in the southern Bavarian populations compared to northern populations. Our analyses revealed a strong genetic differentiation between southern and northern Bavarian populations delineated along the Danube River. However, seed production areas and seed provenance regions reflected genetic variation of L. pratensis only to a limited degree. Our study illustrates that the level of genetic variation within populations strongly depends on population history. Furthermore, the geomorphological and climatic attributes, which have been used to delineate seed provenance regions, do not reduce gene flow among populations. Seed collections for gene banks and seed production should comprise seeds from populations in southern and northern Bavaria representing the strong genetic variation between both regions, but prioritize southern populations due to higher levels of variation.

Regarding the functional traits of macromycetes, at present there are only few studies available, and these mostly deal with more specific questions or single traits. In the present study we are interested in functional traits that may explain the lifestyle and threat of these fungi. For this purpose, we assembled a database on 31 traits that cover a broad range of features of, e.g., fruit body morphology, hymenial structure, spore morphology, and propagule dispersal of 636 macromycete species. To allow an easier classification of hymenium size we introduce two new measures, volume index and surface index. Lifestyle and Red List classification were used to detect differences in functional trait adaptation of species. Both were used as predictors in these analyses. Lifestyle type accounts for significant differences in 28 traits, which shows that different lifestyle types are based on specific trait combinations. Red List classification accounted for significant differences in four traits. We describe the differentiations and discuss them against the background of ecological and morphological research, including the causes of threat and niche adaptation.

Small Natural Features (SNFs) are analogous to keystone species in that they have ecological importance that is disproportionate to their size. Thus the recognition and management of SNFs can be an efficient way to conserve biodiversity and ecosystem services. In particular, while the size of SNFs can engender threats (e.g., they are often overlooked and are relatively vulnerable to complete destruction), small size also leads to special conservation opportunities (e.g., integration with resource uses such as forestry or fisheries). Commonly, SNF conservation begins with education and inventory to form a foundation for appropriate, targeted protection and/or sustainable management. However, in cases of severe degradation or loss, more intensive activities such as restoration or creation may be required. Diverse approaches to conservation action are possible. For example, sometimes SNF conservation is undertaken incidentally to other efforts or on a voluntary basis; sometimes it involves substantial economic incentives or restrictive regulations. In general, the required investment for SNF conservation is likely to be smaller than that for larger areas, with disproportionate benefits given the substantial spatio-temporal influence of these features. In practice, conservation of SNFs should be complementary to traditional, larger-scale, forms of conservation by fostering creative, constructive efforts to conserve some seemingly minor features; features that have previously unknown or unappreciated roles critical to their broader ecosystems and to biodiversity.

Throughout history traditional land uses have created small natural features (SNFs) that can serve as biodiversity hotspots or remnants in agricultural landscapes that may otherwise support little biodiversity. SNFs in these landscapes include field and pasture margins, forest fringes, hedges, hollow ways (sunken lanes), stone walls, sand and gravel pits, and quarries. Many of these SNFs were established thousands of years ago as humans began to establish agricultural practices in Europe and other parts of the world. In some cases, these SNFs are old enough to have allowed unique ecological communities to develop or even new species to evolve. The consolidation of lands and intensification of agriculture and mining practices, however, have eradicated many of these SNFs; this decline started in the 19th century and has accelerated in recent years. Conservation practices that aim to maintain these anthropogenic SNFs are increasing, largely due to the growing recognition of their conservation value. New government initiatives, agro-environmental schemes, and greenways and ecosystem networks are being implemented with some success. These efforts, however, are far from perfect; much more work on management, restoration, and re-creation of anthropogenic SNFs is required to ensure that they persist and continue to support biodiversity in highly modified landscapes.

Ellenberg indicator values (EIVs) describe the realized niche of species and habitat parameters, and are commonly used for vascular plants, bryophytes, and lichens. We provide a methodology for EIVs and an EIV list for nearly 650 species of macromycetes. We propose a new EIV scale, namely substrate openness (O). We also give the results of two applications and compare EIV values related to the Red List classification with those related to lifestyle classification. Mycorrhizal species on average have higher demands on substrate openness and are less tolerant of high nutrient levels than saprotrophic or parasitic species. Critically endangered species have on average distinctly higher demands on openness of habitat and substrate than not threatened or less strongly threatened species, which in turn have higher demands for nutrient availability. This pattern clearly highlights the points of threat for many macromycete species.

The liver leaf, Hepatica nobilis (Ranunculaceae), is a perennial forest understory herb with specific habitat requirements, which occurs on calcareous soils in beech and oak forests. In Bavaria it can be found, therefore, only in four geographic regions, which are Franconia, the Franconian-Swabian Jura, the prealpine transitions region and the prealpine moraine belt with the Alps. In German forestry, provenance delineations are used since 1987. Similarly for herbs seed provenances and production areas are applied in commercial seed production and restoration. In this study we analyzed whether the genetic variation of H. nobilis reflects the geographic distribution of the species in Bavaria or the provenance delineations used for seed production. We applied AFLPs to study genetic variation within and between 24 populations of H. nobilis. Our analysis revealed high levels of genetic variation within and moderate variation between populations. Variation between seed production areas and seed provenances was low and comparable to the variation between geographic regions. Genetic variation within populations or rare fragments did not differ between production areas, provenances or geographic regions. A significant positive relation of genetic and geographic distances was present within 100 km. Pollination and seed dispersal seem mainly to happen within populations of the myrmecochorous H. nobilis, whereas long-distance dispersal is presumably occasional and random. Our study supports the relevance of dispersal traits for seed collections used in conservation. The protection of historically old beech and oak forests is exceedingly important to preserve the genetic variation of H. nobilis in Bavaria.

Here, we conducted a meta-analysis of experimental drought manipulation studies using rainout shelters in five sites of natural grassland ecosystems of Europe. The single studies assess the effects of extreme drought on the intraspecific variation of the specific leaf area (SLA), a proxy of plant growth. We evaluate and compare the effect size of the SLA response for the functional groups of forbs and grasses in temperate and sub-Mediterranean systems. We hypothesized that the functional groups of grasses and forbs from temperate grassland systems have different strategies in short-term drought response, measured as adjustment of SLA, with SLA-reduction in grasses and SLA-maintenance in forbs. Second, we hypothesized that grasses and forbs from sub-Mediterranean systems do not differ in their drought response as both groups maintain their SLA. We found a significant decrease of SLA in grasses of the temperate systems in response to drought while SLA of forbs showed no significant response. Lower SLA is associated with enhanced water-use efficiency under water stress and thus can be seen as a strategy of phenotypic adjustment. By contrast, in the sub-Mediterranean systems, grasses significantly increased their SLA in the drought treatment. This result points towards a better growth performance of these grasses, which is most likely related to their strategy to allocate resources to belowground parts. The observed SLA reduction of forbs is most likely a direct drought response given that competitive effect of grasses is unlikely due to the scanty vegetation cover. We point out that phenotypic adjustment is an important driver of short-term functional plant response to climatic extremes such as drought. Differential reactions of functional groups have to be interpreted against the background of the group's evolutionary configuration that can differ between climatic zones.

Many species that are typical of calcareous, semi-natural grasslands (“typical grassland species”) are declining in Europe as a result of habitat-loss and -fragmentation. Whereas populations of these species are expected to be largest in old semi-natural grasslands, these species may also occur in successional grasslands on previously arable fields. We used a space-for-time approach to analyse changes in the frequencies of typical grassland species, and changes in soil properties, over a 280-year arable-to-grassland succession within a Swedish landscape. Our study revealed that a number of typical grassland species had higher frequencies in mid-successional (50–279 years) than in old (≥ 280 years) grasslands. Mid-successional grasslands also contained many of the typical grassland species that were present in old grasslands, but at lower frequencies, and had soil conditions similar to those of old grasslands. Early-successional (5–14 and 15–49 years) grasslands contained few typical grassland species. In highly fragmented landscapes, mid-successional grasslands provide additional habitat for many typical grassland species, and can function as temporary refugia (“substitute habitat”) for these species until old grasslands are “restored”. The overall population sizes of some typical grassland species and red-listed species are likely to be substantially increased by the presence of mid-successional grasslands within the landscape. Our study suggests that, rather than focussing solely on old grassland fragments, conservation strategies for typical grassland species should adopt a dynamic, landscape-based perspective that recognizes the role of successional grasslands. Ensuring a continuous development of mid-successional grasslands is expected to be beneficial for populations of many typical grassland species.

In ecological research, plant functional trait analyses are widely applied to understand to what extent the inter-specific variation in trait attributes has an adaptive value or to predict ecosystem processes and changes. Compared to vascular plants, trait studies using bryophytes are scarce, which is likely due to missing trait information for bryophyte species. With the BryForTrait database, we want to reduce this deficit. Our database represents a compilation of autecological information and morphological and regenerative trait data on different stages of the life cycle of bryophytes occurring in forest ecosystems. The database contains information for 35 traits and 721 Central European bryophyte species; in total more than 23,000 trait values. The BryForTrait database will enable future trait studies, providing new insights into bryophyte-dominated ecosystems.

Questions: What is the functional trait variation of European temperate grasslands and how does this reflect global patterns of plant form and function? Do habitat specialists show trait differentiation across habitat types?. Location: Europe. Methods: We compiled 18 regeneration and non-regeneration traits for a continental species pool consisting of 645 species frequent in five grassland types. These grassland types are widely distributed in Europe but differentiated by altitude, soil bedrock and traditional long-term management and disturbance regimes. We evaluated the multivariate trait space of this entire species pool and compared multi-trait variation and mean trait values of habitat specialists grouped by grassland type. Results: The first dimension of the trait space accounted for 23% of variation and reflected a gradient between fast-growing and slow-growing plants. Plant height and SLA contributed to both the first and second ordination axes. Regeneration traits mainly contributed to the second and following dimensions to explain 56% of variation across the first five axes. Habitat specialists showed functional differences between grassland types mainly through non-regeneration traits. Conclusions: The trait spectrum of plants dominating European temperate grasslands is primarily explained by growth strategies which are analogous to the trait variation observed at the global scale, and secondly by regeneration strategies. Functional differentiation of habitat specialists across grassland types is mainly related to environmental filtering linked with altitude and disturbance. This filtering pattern is mainly observed in non-regeneration traits, while most regeneration traits demonstrate multiple strategies within the same habitat type., EL, BJA, MTI, AM, PI and CB acknowledge the research leading to these results has received funding from the People Programme (Marie Curie Actions) of the European Union's Seventh Framework Programme FP7/2007–2013 under REA grant agreement no. 607785, as a part of the NAtive Seed Science TEchnology and Conservation (NASSTEC) Initial Training Network (ITN). BJA was further funded by the Marie Curie Clarín‐COFUND program of the Principality of Asturias and the European Union (ACB17‐26). BJA and HB acknowledge support from the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle–Jena–Leipzig funded by the German Research Foundation (DFTG FZT 118) through the sPlot research platform. PI acknowledges support from the Rural & Environment Science & Analytical Services Division of the Scottish Government. KÖ thanks RO1567‐IBB03/2018 for financial support.

Background and Aims Hydroperiod drives plant community composition in wetlands, resulting in distinct zonation patterns. Here, we explored the role of seed germination traits in shaping wetland community assembly along a hydroperiod gradient. Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that seeds of reed, mudflat, swamp, shallow- and deep-water communities only germinate under a specific set of environmental factors characterized by the community-specific optimal conditions for seedling survival and growth. Methods In a three-factorial experiment, we tested the seed germination response of 50 species typical for temperate wetlands of Europe to temperature fluctuations (constant vs. fluctuating temperature), illumination (light vs. darkness) and oxygen availability (aerobic vs. hypoxia). Phylogenetic principal component analysis, cluster analysis and phylogenetic linear regressions were used to confirm the community-specific seed germination niches. Key Results Our study revealed the presence of five distinct, community-specific seed germination niches that reflect adaptations made by the study communities to decreasing light intensity, temperature fluctuations and oxygen availability along the hydroperiod gradient. Light as a germination trigger was found to be important in mudflats, swamps and shallow water, whereas the seeds of reed and deep-water species were able to germinate in darkness. A fluctuating temperature is only required for seed germination in mudflat species. Germination of species in the communities at the higher end of the hydroperiod gradient (reed and mudflat) demonstrated a strict requirement for oxygen, whereas swamp, shallow- and deep-water species also germinated under hypoxia. Conclusions Our study supports the recent argument that the inclusion of seed germination traits in community ecology adds significant insights to community response to the abiotic and biotic environment. Furthermore, the close relationship between seed germination adaptations and community assembly could help reach a better understanding of the existing patterns of wetland plant distribution at local scales and wetland vegetation dynamics, as well as facilitate nature conservation measures and aquatic habitat restoration.

Trait-based approaches have improved our understanding of plant evolution, community assembly and ecosystem functioning. A major challenge for the upcoming decades is to understand the functions and evolution of early life-history traits, across levels of organization and ecological strategies. Although a variety of seed traits are critical for dispersal, persistence, germination timing and seedling establishment, only seed mass has been considered systematically. Here we suggest broadening the range of morphological, physiological and biochemical seed traits to add new understanding on plant niches, population dynamics and community assembly. The diversity of seed traits and functions provides an important challenge that will require international collaboration in three areas of research. First, we present a conceptual framework for a seed ecological spectrum that builds upon current understanding of plant niches. We then lay the foundation for a seed-trait functional network, the establishment of which will underpin and facilitate trait-based inferences. Finally, we anticipate novel insights and challenges associated with incorporating diverse seed traits into predictive evolutionary ecology, community ecology and applied ecology. If the community invests in standardized seed-trait collection and the implementation of rigorous databases, major strides can be made at this exciting frontier of functional ecology., Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation. Grant Number: R‐90470‐01

Temperate grasslands belong to the most diverse plant communities of Central Europe. However, there is still a lack of information about glacial refugia and migration processes of herbaceous grassland and especially steppe species in Central Europe. Therefore, we analyzed the survival and postglacial immigration of Scorzonera purpurea to Central Europe. We investigated 348 individuals from 37 populations in Europe using amplified fragment length polymorphisms and chloroplast microsatellite analyses. Our study revealed two major genetic groups along the European distribution range consisting of western populations on the one hand and closely related central and (south)eastern populations on the other hand. Genetic variation was highest within populations from the Pannonian basin and decreased toward Western and Central Europe. Our study gives evidence for the long-term survival of S. purpurea in Western Europe and the postglacial immigration from the southeastern parts of Europe, maybe by domestic livestock of migrating farmers during the Neolithic age to Central Europe. Immigration presumably followed two routes from Pannonia along the river Danube into Southern Germany and from Pannonia along the northern border of the Carpathians to Northern Germany. In Central Germany, the different genetic lineages may have met and formed contact zones. Our data show that steppe species may both have survived in and immigrated to Western and Central Europe. Further and more detailed studies on other steppe species are, therefore, needed to investigate the origin of these rare and often endangered species more generally.

Background and Aims Although plant distribution patterns are well documented, our understanding of the ecophysiological mechanisms that control the geographical ranges of plant species remains poor. We used a largely ignored method, the performance of the male gametophyte in vitro, to assess whether the thermal range of pollen germination and tube growth controls species distribution ranges, in this case along an elevational gradient. Methods Using in vitro pollen germination experiments, we obtained cardinal temperatures (minimal, optimal and maximal) of pollen germination and pollen tube growth for 25 herbaceous species along a mean annual temperature gradient of about 5 A degrees C. These temperatures were correlated with temperatures of the sites where the species were collected. The presence of a phylogenetic signal in the data set as well as an effect of species flowering phenology were also estimated. Key Results and Conclusions We found a strong positive relationship between temperature conditions at our collection sites and the minimum temperature for both pollen germination and pollen tube growth. In addition, a significant correlation between maximum temperature of pollen tube growth and temperature of flowering month was apparent. We conclude that the restriction of pollen germination and growth by low temperatures is an important contributor to the climatic restriction of plant species distributions. Improved knowledge of this thermal precursor to seed production could, from a functional perspective, enhance our understanding of species distributions along climatic gradients and our ability to predict how anthropogenic climate change might affect plant community composition.

An important aspect of niche theory is the position of species' optima along ecological gradients. It is widely believed that a species' ecological optimum takes its shape only under competitive pressure. The ecological optimum, therefore, is thought to differ from the physiological optimum in the absence of interspecific competition. Ellenberg's Hohenheim water table experiment has been very influential in this context. However, the water table gradient in Ellenberg's experiment was produced by varying the soil thickness above the water table, which confounded the potentially disparate impacts of water table depth (WTD) and soil depth on species growth. Accordingly, here we have re-evaluated Ellenberg's work. Specifically, we tested the hypothesis that physiological and ecological optima are identical and unaffected by interspecific interaction. We used the same six grasses as in Ellenberg's experiments, but in our mesocosms, WTD was varied but soil depth kept constant. The design included both an additive component (with/without plant interaction) and a substitutive component (monocultures vs. species mixtures). The results show that the physiological optima along the hydrological gradient varied greatly between species, even in the absence of interspecific interaction. Within species, however, physiological and ecological optima appeared identical in most cases, irrespective of the competition treatment. We conclude that the 'physiological capacity' of species largely determines where they are able to persist and that any impact of interspecific interaction is only marginal. These findings are at variance with Ellenberg's rule, where competition is considered to shift the distribution of a species away from its physiological optimum.

Temporarily flooded depressions in arable fields support populations of specialised plant species that are affected by flooding and agricultural management. Depending on the degree of flooding, different proportions of wetland and arable species contribute to the seed bank. This is reflected by high inter-annual variations in plant communities with a high conservation value. Due to ongoing agricultural intensification, the biodiversity of temporarily flooded depressions has declined, and several plant species have become regionally extinct. Because seed banks harbour persistent seeds over long periods, they play a crucial role in the conservation and restoration of temporary wetland vegetation. This study focuses on the effects of different flooding regimes on plant species emerging from seed banks of temporarily flooded depressions in arable fields in northeast Germany. We cultivated soil samples from upper and lower wetland zones under short, intermediate and long-term flooding (5, 15 and 40 cm above soil surface) in a common garden experiment over 2 years. We observed significant changes in species composition depending on the flooding duration. Species richness declined and evenness increased with increasing flooding duration. Upper and lower zones showed similar species richness and evenness, but species compositions differed. Red List species emerged from all treatments although the species differed, indicating that all communities emerging under different flooding regimes have a high conservation value. Seed banks under fluctuating site conditions can constitute a series of alternating plant communities. This could be used to develop management strategies that benefit different communities with high conservation values.

This study examined the relationship between genetic variation and the mean age of individuals within populations of the alpine cushion plant Silene acaulis (L.) Jacq. along a chronosequence on a glacier foreland in the Central European Alps. We studied 67 individuals of S. acaulis from four populations located at 2390, 2530, 2680, and 2820 m a.s.l. on the glacier foreland and applied a combined approach of growth-ring analysis and individual size measurements to determine the mean age of individuals within populations. Genetic variation was studied using amplified fragment length polymorphism analysis. The mean age of individuals within populations ranged from 11 to 20 years and increased with decreasing altitude toward the older stages of the chronosequence, reaching a maximum age of 50 years. According to regression analysis, genetic variation increased slightly from early to late successional stages and was associated with the mean age of individuals within populations. The results suggest that genetic variation in S. acaulis depends on the mean age of individuals within populations, and emphasize that both species diversity and genetic diversity in plant species can increase during succession on glacier forelands. Integration of age determination methods proves to be a promising approach in the analysis of genetic variation in plant species.

To maintain the high biodiversity of semi-natural grasslands, management by grazing or mowing is needed. Given the limited resources and few remaining areas, the best management method should be used. However, only a few studies comparing the effects of mowing and grazing on grassland biodiversity exists. Therefore, the goal of the present review was to extract as much data as possible from the literature and evaluate them using a meta-analysis approach. We searched scientific and grey literature for studies comparing the effects of grazing and annual mowing on outcomes relevant for biodiversity conservation. We identified 35 relevant studies on grazing and annual mowing that provided data suitable for the meta-analysis. We found that grazing generally had a more positive effect on the conservation value of semi-natural grasslands compared to mowing, but effect sizes were generally small to moderate for most contrasts. Furthermore, effects varied across some grassland characteristics e.g. for different grassland types, with grazing and mowing having a similar effect or mowing having a more positive effect in certain cases. Our results suggest, that in most cases grazing should be the preferred management method when managing for grassland conservation.

Analyses of functional traits have become fundamental tools for understanding patterns and processes in plant community ecology. In this context, regenerative seed traits play an important, yet overlooked, role because they largely determine the ability of plants to disperse and re-establish. A survey of recent publications in community ecology suggests that seed germination traits in particular are neglected at the expense of other relevant but overused traits based only on seed morphology. As a response to this bias, we discuss the functional significance of seed germination traits in comparison with morphological and biophysical seed traits, and advocate their use in vegetation science. We also demonstrate how research in community assembly, climate change and restoration ecology can benefit from the inclusion of germination traits, encompassing functions that cannot be explained solely by adult plant traits. Seed germination experiments conducted in the laboratory or field to quantify these traits provide ecologically meaningful and relatively easy-to-obtain information about the functional properties of plant communities. We argue that bridging the gap between seed physiologists and community ecologists will improve the prediction of plant assemblages, and propose further perspectives for including seed traits into the research agenda of functional community ecologists.

Climate optima, but also climate pessima, are shown to have strongly affected the origin of settlement in central Europe and the development of the man-made landscape and its habitat and species diversity. Driving forces for climate changes, until recently, were fluctuations of solar activity and radiation, but also comet impacts and volcano eruptions. It could be shown that climate optima increased landscape, habitat and species diversity as well as the expansion of open man-made habitats. Four climate optima were identified to have had a strong impact. In the Neolithic Age the climate optimum favoured the settlement of people which created the first man made habitats, arable fields, pastures and heathlands. High precipitations resulted in the expansion of wetlands and the origin of raised bogs. In a short climate optimum period in the Bronze Age Alp farming started creating new habitats through e.g. grazing practices. The climate optimum which started at the end of the Iron Age resulted in the first diversity revolution in the landscape during the following Roman Empire Period. Meadows, orchards and vineyards were established. Archaeobotanical remains have shown that during the Roman period most new species/100 years have established in arable fields and grasslands. The medieval climate optimum finally resulted in the largest expansion of open man-made habitats but also new habitats such as fish ponds. In contrast, during climate pessima abandonment of man-made habitats occurred. During the Migration Period and the Little Ice Age starting at the end of the Medieval Period forests increased. During the climate pessima in the Bronze Age we had the lowest number of new species/100 years. Actually, through recent laws concerning renewable resources as a reply to the recent climate warming, landscape is changing again. IANSA 2015 ● VI/2 ● 197–221 Peter Poschlod: The Origin and Development of the Central European Man-made Landscape, Habitat and Species Diversity as Affected by Climate and its Changes – a Review 198 (Weninger et al. 2006; Berger, Guilaine 2008; Clare et al. 2010). The movement started at many places at the same time (Ozdogan 2002; 2011). Ozdogan (2002) described this process as following: “Almost of a sudden we start seeing more habitation, (...) not only in Central Anatolia, but also in the Western Aegean regions, to be accompanied quickly by the Balkans. (...) the number of Pottery Neolithic sites increases dramatically, and almost all of a sudden. In the East, however, there is a decrease in the number of settlements, or the existing ones become smaller (...)... there must have been an endemic movement which started (...) towards the end of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B. There must have been some kind of beginning stage of this westward movement. There is clearly a kind of a momentum to migrate in masses before the end of the thing. (...) All of a sudden you see that people are moving.” The flooding of the Black Sea through the Bosporus by the rising level of the Mediterranean Sea, often synonymous with Noah’s flood (Ryan, Pitman III 1998; Haarmann 2003; 2011; different dating of the start of flooding, earliest moment around 8500 BC, latest 5600 BC, see Poschlod 2015), might have caused another movement (Milisauskas 2011). However, the date, height and rate of the flooding are still under debate (Ryan et al. 1997; 2003; Bahr et al. 2006; Yanko-Hombach et al. 2007; Giosan et al. 2009; Lericolais et al. 2009; Thom 2010). Also, the origin of the man-made landscape in central Europe around 5500 BC started during a climate amelioration (Schonwiese 1995; Gronenborn, Sirocko 2010; see also Birks 2003 etc.) caused partially by an increased sun activity which started already in the Mesolithic Age (Steinhilber et al. 2009). The first farmers belonging to the LBK culture spread quite fast from the southeastern edge of central Europe and even Anatolia during this climate optimum which was shown through recent molecular studies of early LBK populations (Haak et al. 2010). Genetic discontinuity to the Mesolithic hunters supports the hypothesis that the first farmers were immigrants (Bramanti et al. 2009; Malmstrom et al. 2009). Since then the climate has changed in central Europe (see also Figure 1). Several climate optima and pessima have been described by several authors which, have had clear and distinct impacts on the history of mankind and its cultures (Lamb 1995; Le Roy Ladurie 2004; 2006; 2009a; 2009b; 2009c; Blumel 2006; Behringer 2007; Sirocko 2010). However, climate also affected land use and land use intensity (Bork et al. 1998; Bork 2006) and therefore the man-made landscape, the origin and development of habitats as well as their species diversity (Poschlod 2015). The latter were only reviewed on a local or regional level for certain periods (e.g. Zolitschka et al. 2003) but not for the whole time span since settlement started. This is therefore the aim of this review. Furthermore, the most recent knowledge on the causes of each particular climate change was included. 2. Climate and the origin of sedentism in central Europe The first climate optimum after the last ice age started around 6000 BC and lasted until 3250 BC (Figure 1; Table 1). Causes were an increased solar activity at the beginning and an increased solar radiation during this period (Steinhilber et al. 2009; Nussbaumer et al. 2011). Warmer temperatures permitted a much higher treeline than today. In the central Austrian Alps the treeline laid at Figure 1. Global average annual mean temperature trend during the Holocene after Schonwiese (1995) and Eitel (2007). Dotted line: Trend reversal in the temperature pattern during the Atlantic Period. PA – Palaeolithic, RE – Roman Empire period, MP – Migration period, MA – Modern Age, LG – Last glacial, PB – Preboreal. IANSA 2015 ● VI/2 ● 197–221 Peter Poschlod: The Origin and Development of the Central European Man-made Landscape, Habitat and Species Diversity as Affected by Climate and its Changes – a Review 199 Table 1. Characterization of the climate and its chronological classification into zones and respective archaeological and historical epochs. Historical and climate data after Poschlod (2015), mainly according to Schonwiese (1995) and Nelle (2002); biostratigraphical zones after Mangerud et al. (1974)1 and Walker et al. (2012)2. Biostratigraph. zone1 Biostratigraph. zone2 Archaeological/historical epochs Year BC/ AD Characterisation of the climate

International audience; The nutrient-poor grasslands of Western Europe are of major conservation concern because land use changes threaten their high biodiversity. Studies assessing their characteristics show that their past and ongoing dynamics are strongly related to human activities. Yet, the initial development patterns of this specific ecosystem remain unclear. Here, we examine findings from previous paleoecological investigations performed at local level on European grassland areas ranging from several hundred square meters to several square kilometers. Comparing data from these locally relevant studies at a regional scale, we investigate these grasslands' spatiotemporal patterns of origin and long-term dynamics. The study is based on taxonomic identification and radiocarbon AMS dating of charcoal pieces from soil/soil sediment archives of nutrient-poor grasslands in Mediterranean and temperate Western Europe (La Crau plain, Mont Lozère, Grands Causses, Vosges Mountains, Franconian Alb, and Upper-Normandy region). We address the following questions: (1) What are the key determinants of the establishment of these nutrient-poor grasslands? (2) What temporal synchronicities might there be? and (3) What is the spatial scale of these grasslands' past dynamics? The nutrient-poor grasslands in temperate Western Europe are found to result from the first anthropogenic woodland clearings during the late Neolithic, revealed by fire events in mesophilious mature forests. In contrast, the sites with Mediterranean affinities appear to have developed at earlier plant successional stages (pine forest, matorral), established before the first human impacts in the same period. However, no general pattern of establishment and dynamics of the nutrient-poor grasslands could be identified. Local mechanisms appear to be the key determinants of the dynamics of these ecosystems. Nevertheless, this paleoecological synthesis provides insights into past climate or human impacts on present-day vegetation.

Both agricultural intensification and abandonment have led to the loss of European semi-natural grasslands. Nature conservation management measures like mowing are essential for preserving the biodiversity of remaining grasslands. However, there are no conclusive results from studies examining effects of different mowing frequencies across Europe. To fill this gap, we evaluated data from European studies comparing mowing frequencies to determine which are the most beneficial from a nature conservation viewpoint. We searched literature for short- and long-term studies comparing the effects of different mowing frequencies on outcome measures relevant for biodiversity conservation. We found 29 relevant studies where mowing once per year was compared to higher or lower mowing frequencies. The studies covered various grassland types and organisms. The effects were analysed using response ratios, where mowing once per year, i.e. the traditional mowing frequency in semi-natural grasslands, was compared to mowing every fifth, third or second year and mowing two, three or four times a year. Overall, we found similar effects of the different mowing frequencies on the biodiversity of flora and fauna. More frequent mowing generally had a more positive effect, but differences between frequencies were small. Effects were habitat-specific, differing between site and study conditions. For example, a higher mowing frequency was more beneficial in more productive grasslands. These results suggest that in most European semi-natural grasslands, mowing less frequently is a way of using the limited funds available for management more efficiently while still maintaining grassland conservation values, but e.g. site productivity must be considered when determining a suitable mowing frequency.

International audience; Global and local environmental changes lead to frequent plant extinctions many of which occur in man-made habitats such as agricultural fields. Plant traits and site conditions modify risks of extinction, but strength and sense of their effect are not known yet. Here, we present a long-term survey of population sizes for Mediterranean annual plants that we revisited 20 years after their first record to evaluate climate, population size, traits and habitat requirements as drivers of local extinctions. Small populations had an increased probability of extinction in our data-set. Our analyses revealed that seed production and survival of seeds in the soil seed bank decreased extinction rate, whereas plant size increased extinction probability. Mean annual temperature increased extinction rates of annual plants in cereal fields. We discuss these effects as a response to recent and ongoing habitat changes, and discuss how traits may be used to guide conservation practices in the face of local extinctions.

Altres ajuts europeus: P.A.W. was additionally supported by the European Union Fourth Environment and Climate Framework Programme (Project Number ENV4-CT970586)P.A.W. was additionally supported by the European Union Fourth Environment and Climate Framework Programme (Project Number ENV4-CT970586). The tundra is warming more rapidly than any other biome on Earth, and the potential ramifications are far-reaching because of global feedback effects between vegetation and climate. A better understanding of how environmental factors shape plant structure and function is crucial for predicting the consequences of environmental change for ecosystem functioning. Here we explore the biome-wide relationships between temperature, moisture and seven key plant functional traits both across space and over three decades of warming at 117 tundra locations. Spatial temperature-trait relationships were generally strong but soil moisture had a marked influence on the strength and direction of these relationships, highlighting the potentially important influence of changes in water availability on future trait shifts in tundra plant communities. Community height increased with warming across all sites over the past three decades, but other traits lagged far behind predicted rates of change. Our findings highlight the challenge of using space-for-time substitution to predict the functional consequences of future warming and suggest that functions that are tied closely to plant height will experience the most rapid change. They also reveal the strength with which environmental factors shape biotic communities at the coldest extremes of the planet and will help to improve projections of functional changes in tundra ecosystems with climate warming.

Summary Ellenberg indicator values (EIVs) can be used as a numerical system to classify species’ habitat niches and their peak occurrence along gradients. By finding correlations of EIVs with morphological or ecophysiological properties, it is possible to identify determinants of species distributions with respect to environmental factors. We surveyed existing literature containing species comparisons from controlled experiments and combined them with EIVs. The picture emerging is that multiple determinants can be identified for nutrient numbers (N), soil reaction numbers (R) and also soil moisture numbers (M), while only few can be found for light numbers (L) and especially for continentality (C) and temperature numbers (T). Functional characterizations of the different EIV can thus be deduced which help to understand the mechanisms and processes driving the ecological niche of a plant. The described approach is a powerful tool to analyse the ecological significance of different plant properties. Species screenings specifically designed to allow for correlations with EIV have large potential for high explanatory power.

Although specific leaf area (SLA) has been proposed to reflect plant responses to climatic changes, the link between SLA and temperature has never been systematically evaluated. Using in situ measured SLA values for 223 species occurring in 29 calcareous grasslands along a temperature gradient in the Bavarian Alps, we explored the SLA–temperature relationship at population (intraspecific), species (interspecific) and community level and investigated the relative impact of other environmental factors on SLA variation along the temperature gradient at the community level. Only 14 % of the studied species showed significant changes in their SLA values along the temperature gradient, despite high intraspecific variability of the SLA values. At the species level, we revealed a very weak positive SLA–temperature relationship (r 2 = 0.04, p

M.B.A. acknowledges support from the Integrated Program of IC&DT (no. 1/SAESCTN/ALENT-07-0224-FEDER-001755)

Background and Aims While the 'worldwide leaf economics spectrum' (Wright IJ, Reich PB, Westoby M, et al. 2004. The worldwide leaf economics spectrum. Nature428: 821-827) defines mineral nutrient relationships in plants, no unifying functional consensus links size attributes. Here, the focus is upon leaf size, a much-studied plant trait that scales positively with habitat quality and components of plant size. The objective is to show that this wide range of relationships is explicable in terms of a seed-phytomer-leaf (SPL) theoretical model defining leaf size in terms of trade-offs involving the size, growth rate and number of the building blocks (phytomers) of which the young shoot is constructed. Methods Functional data for 2400+ species and English and Spanish vegetation surveys were used to explore interrelationships between leaf area, leaf width, canopy height, seed mass and leaf dry matter content (LDMC). Key Results Leaf area was a consistent function of canopy height, LDMC and seed mass. Additionally, size traits are partially uncoupled. First, broad laminas help confer competitive exclusion while morphologically large leaves can, through dissection, be functionally small. Secondly, leaf size scales positively with plant size but many of the largest-leaved species are of medium height with basally supported leaves. Thirdly, photosynthetic stems may represent a functionally viable alternative to 'small seeds + large leaves' in disturbed, fertile habitats and 'large seeds + small leaves' in infertile ones. Conclusions Although key elements defining the juvenile growth phase remain unmeasured, our results broadly support SPL theory in that phytometer and leaf size are a product of the size of the initial shoot meristem (a parts per thousand... seed mass) and the duration and quality of juvenile growth. These allometrically constrained traits combine to confer ecological specialization on individual species. Equally, they appear conservatively expressed within major taxa. Thus, 'evolutionary canalization' sensu Stebbins (Stebbins GL. 1974. Flowering plants: evolution above the species level. Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press) is perhaps associated with both seed and leaf development, and major taxa appear routinely specialized with respect to ecologically important size-related traits.

Calcareous grasslands belong to the most species-rich and endangered habitats in Europe. However, little is known about the origin of the species typically occurring in these grasslands. In this study we analysed the glacial and post-glacial history of Sanguisorba minor, a typical plant species frequently occurring in calcareous grasslands. The study comprised 38 populations throughout the whole distribution range of the species across Europe. We used molecular markers (AFLP) and applied Bayesian cluster analysis as well as spatial principal components analysis (sPCA) to identify glacial refugia and post-glacial migration routes to Central Europe. Our study revealed significant differences in the level of genetic variation and the occurrence of rare fragments within populations of S. minor and a distinct separation of eastern and western lineages. The analyses uncovered traditional southern but also cryptic northern refugia and point towards a broad fronted post-glacial recolonisation. Based on these results we postulate that incomplete lineage sorting may have contributed to the detected pattern of genetic variation and that S. minor recolonised Central Europe post-glacially from Iberia and northern glacial refugia in France, Belgium or Germany. Our results highlight the importance of refugial areas for the conservation of intraspecific variation in calcareous grassland species.

Altres ajuts: this research was partially funded by a Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Grant to BS. VO was supported by the Russian Science Foundation (#14-50-00029). The study has been supported by theTRY initiative on plant traits (http://www.try-db.org).The TRY initiative and database is hosted at the MaxPlanck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany.TRY is currently supported by DIVERSITAS/FutureEarth and the German Centre for Integrative Biodiver-sity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig. Questions: Heinz Ellenberg classically defined "indicator" scores for species representing their typical positions along gradients of key environmental variables, and these have proven very useful for designating ecological distributions. We tested a key tenent of trait-based ecology, i.e. the ability to predict ecological preferences from species' traits. More specifically, can we predict Ellenberg indicator scores for soil nutrients, soil moisture and irradiance from four well-studied traits: leaf area, leaf dry matter content, specific leaf area (SLA) and seed mass? Can we use such relationships to estimate Ellenberg scores for species never classified by Ellenberg? - Location: global. - Methods: cumulative link models were developed to predict Ellenberg nutrients, irradiance and moisture values from Ln-transformed trait values using 922, 981 and 988 species, respectively. We then independently tested these prediction equations using the trait values of 423 and 421 new species that occurred elsewere in Europe, North America and Morocco, and whose habitat affinities we could classify from independent sources as three-level ordinal ranks related to soil moisture and irradiance. The traits were SLA, leaf dry matter content, leaf area and seed mass. - Results: the four functional traits predicted the Ellenberg indicator scores of site fertility, light and moisture with average error rates of

Background and aims – It is a key conservation aim to maintain genetic diversity within populations of rare and threatened species. The flora of the Sinai Peninsula is unique and, therefore, of strong interest. However, in only few studies genetic structure and variation within and among populations of Sinai plants have been analysed. In the study presented here, we analysed the genetic structure of Hypericum sinaicum and Origanum syriacum subsp. sinaicum, which are two rare respectively near-endemic and endemic medicinal perennial plants with overlapping ranges restricted to the mountainous region of southern Sinai in Egypt. Methods and key results – We used AFLP markers and calculated standard genetic diversity measures. Both species exhibited much higher genetic diversity and lower genetic differentiation than generally reported for endemic plants. Although the taxa differed in distribution range and density of populations in the study region (local scale), molecular variation within populations was not significantly different between both taxa. H. sinaicum, the taxon with the narrower range and fewer populations, exhibited a stronger population differentiation than O. syriacum subsp. sinaicum, the taxon with the wider range and more populations at the scale of the study. Populations of both species followed the isolation-by-distance model. Bayesian clustering of individuals was successful in identifying several populations with distinct gene pools in both taxa. Conclusions – We discussed recommendations for conservation of each taxon and concluded that the conservation of genetic diversity occurring naturally in these taxa should still be possible by a combination of in situ and ex situ conservation efforts.