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Aim: Leaf traits strongly impact biogeochemical cycles in terrestrial ecosystems. Understanding leaf trait variation along environmental gradients is thus essential to improve the representation of vegetation in Earth system models. Our aims were to quantify relationships between leaf traits and climate in permanent grasslands at a biogeographical scale and to test whether these relationships were sensitive to (a) the level of nitrogen inputs and (b) the inclusion of information pertaining to plant community organization. Location: Permanent grasslands throughout France. Methods: We combined existing datasets on climate, soil, nitrogen inputs (fertilization and deposition), species composition and four traits, namely specific leaf area, leaf dry matter content and leaf nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations, for 15,865 French permanent grasslands. Trait–climate relationships were tested using the following four climatic variables available across 1,833 pixels (5 km × 5 km): mean annual temperature (MAT) and precipitation (MAP), and two indices accounting for the length of the growing season. We compared these relationships at the pixel level using either using community-level or species’ trait means. Results: Our findings were as follows: (a) leaf traits related to plant nutrient economy shift consistently along a gradient of growing season length accounting for temperature and soil water limitations of plant growth (GSLtw); (b) weighting leaf traits by species abundance in local communities is pivotal to capture leaf trait–environment relationships correctly at a biogeographical scale; and (c) the relationships between traits and GSLtw weaken for grasslands with a high nitrogen input. Main conclusions: The effects of climate on plant communities are better described using composite descriptors than coarse variables such as MAT or MAP, but appear weaker for high-nitrogen grasslands. Using information at the community level tends to strengthen trait–climate relationships. The interplay of land management, community assembly and bioclimate appears crucial to the prediction of leaf trait variations and their effects on biogeochemical cycles.

Aim: Formalized classifications synthesizing vegetation data at the continental scale are being attempted only now, although they are of key importance for nature conservation planning. Therefore, we aim to provide a vegetation classification and to describe the main biogeographical patterns of floodplain forests and alder carrs in Europe. Location: Europe. Methods: A database of more than 40 000 vegetation plots of floodplain forests and alder carrs across Europe was compiled. After geographic stratification, 16 392 plots were available for classification, which was performed using the supervised method Cocktail. We also searched for new associations using semi-supervised K-means classification. The main biogeographic patterns and climate-related gradients in species composition were determined using detrended correspondence analysis and cluster analysis. Results: Thirty associations of floodplain forests and alder carrs were distinguished, which belong to five alliances. The Alnion incanae includes riparian, seepage and hardwood floodplain forests in the nemoral and hemiboreal zones (dominated by Alnus glutinosa and Fraxinus excelsior) and in the boreal zone (dominated by A. incana). The Osmundo-Alnion represents oceanic vegetation dominated by Alnus glutinosa, Fraxinus angustifolia and F. excelsior distributed mostly on the Iberian Peninsula and composed of species with Atlantic distribution and Iberian endemics. The Populion albae comprises floodplain forests frequently dominated by Fraxinus angustifolia, Populus alba and P. nigra that are widespread in floodplains of large rivers under summer-dry climates in the Mediterranean region. The Platanion orientalis represents eastern Mediterranean floodplain forests dominated by Platanus orientalis. The Alnion glutinosae includes forest swamps dominated by Alnus glutinosa distributed mostly in the nemoral and hemiboreal zones. The main biogeographic patterns within European floodplain forests and alder carrs reflect the climatic contrasts between the Mediterranean, nemoral, boreal and mountain regions. Oceanic floodplain forests differ from those in the rest of Europe. The hydrological regime appears to be the most important factor influencing species composition within regions. Conclusions: This study is the first applying a formalized classification at the association level for a broad vegetation type at the continental scale. The proposed classification provides the scientific basis for the necessary improvement of the habitat classification systems used in European nature conservation.

International audience; Aim. We investigate whether (1) environmental predictors allow to delineate the distribution of discrete community types at the continental scale and (2) how data completeness influences model generalization in relation to the compositional variation of the modelled entities. Location. Europe. Methods. We used comprehensive datasets of two community types of conservation concern in Europe: acidophilous beech forests and base‐rich fens. We computed community distribution models (CDMs) calibrated with environmental predictors to predict the occurrence of both community types, evaluating geographical transferability, interpolation and extrapolation under different scenarios of sampling bias. We used generalized dissimilarity modelling (GDM) to assess the role of geographical and environmental drivers in compositional variation within the predicted distributions. Results. For the two community types, CDMs computed for the whole study area provided good performance when evaluated by random cross‐validation and external validation. Geographical transferability provided lower but relatively good performance, while model extrapolation performed poorly when compared with interpolation. Generalized dissimilarity modelling showed a predominant effect of geographical distance on compositional variation, complemented with the environmental predictors that also influenced habitat suitability. Main conclusions. Correlative approaches typically used for modelling the distribution of individual species are also useful for delineating the potential area of occupancy of community types at the continental scale, when using consistent definitions of the modelled entity and high data completeness. The combination of CDMs with GDM further improves the understanding of diversity patterns of plant communities, providing spatially explicit information for mapping vegetation diversity and related habitat types at large scales.

Cet article presente une synthese des relations entre plantes et climats a l'echelle de la France grâce a une classification probabiliste de 1874 taxons bio-indicateurs. Cette classification definit des groupes de plantes indicatrices des variables du climat, appeles phytoclimats, exprimant des gradients climatiques. Au total l'analyse a produit 210 groupes phytoclimatiques repartis en dix niveaux de synthese. Les deux premiers nivaux de synthese montrent une distinction entre deux grands phytoclimats temoignant de l'effet des masses marines et de l'altitude. L'analyse du troisieme niveau de synthese de la classification montre des phytoclimats particuliers qui seraient difficilement identifiables par la seule etude de la superposition entre territoires floristiques et climatiques. Cette classification permet ainsi de selectionner des taxons indicateurs du climat dont le suivi ou l'estimation de la repartition devrait montrer l'effet des changements climatiques globaux sur les ecosystemes = This article presents a synthesis of the relationships between plants and climates at the scale of France, based on a probabilistic classification of 1874 bio-indicators. This classification defines plants groups that indicate the climate, named phytoclimates, expressing the climatic gradients in France. This classification shows 210 phytoclimatic groups distributed into ten cluster levels. The analysis of the various hierarchical levels shows two main phytoclimates testifying the importance of the marine masses and the altitude. The analysis of the third hierarchical level underlines particular phytoclimates which would not be easily recognizable by only analysing the overlapping of floristic and climatic territories. This classification allows one to select taxa that are indicators of the climate. The distribution monitoring or modeling of these taxa should show the effects of the global change on the ecosystems

Biurrun, Idoia/0000-0002-1454-0433; Rojo, Maria Pilar Rodriguez/0000-0001-5449-9386; Ermakov, Nikolai/0000-0001-7550-990X; De Sanctis, Michele/0000-0002-7280-6199; Svenning, Jens-Christian/0000-0002-3415-0862; Virtanen, Risto/0000-0002-8295-8217; Agrillo, Emiliano/0000-0003-2346-8346; Onyshchenko, Viktor/0000-0001-9079-7241; Marceno, Corrado/0000-0003-4361-5200; Willner, Wolfgang/0000-0003-1591-8386; Fernandez-Gonzalez, Federico/0000-0003-1234-4065; Jansen, Florian/0000-0002-0331-5185; Swacha, Grzegorz/0000-0002-6380-2954; Dengler, Jurgen/0000-0003-3221-660X; Guarino, Riccardo/0000-0003-0106-9416; Sopotlieva, Desislava/0000-0002-9281-7039; Venanzoni, Roberto/0000-0002-7768-0468; Chytry, Milan/0000-0002-8122-3075; Kuzemko, Anna/0000-0002-9425-2756; Danihelka, Jiri/0000-0002-2640-7867; Kuzemko, Anna/0000-0002-9425-2756; Venanzoni, Roberto/0000-0002-7768-0468; Gavilan, Rosario G./0000-0002-1022-445X; Jansen, Florian/0000-0002-0331-5185; Wohlgemuth, Thomas/0000-0002-4623-0894; Svenning, Jens-Christian/0000-0002-3415-0862; Sibik, Jozef/0000-0002-5949-862X; Casella, Laura/0000-0003-2550-3010; Lenoir, Jonathan/0000-0003-0638-9582; Attorre, Fabio/0000-0002-7744-2195; Kacki, Zygmunt/0000-0002-2241-1631; Jandt, Ute/0000-0002-3177-3669; Carni, Andraz/0000-0002-8909-4298; Jirousek, Martin/0000-0002-4293-478X; GARCIA-MIJANGOS, ITZIAR/0000-0002-6642-7782; Campos, Juan Antonio/0000-0001-5992-2753; Fanelli, Giuliano/0000-0002-3143-1212; Haveman, Rense/0000-0001-9127-4549; Acic, Svetlana/0000-0001-6553-3797; De Bie, Els/0000-0001-7679-743X; Font, Xavier/0000-0002-7253-8905; Moeslund, Jesper Erenskjold/0000-0001-8591-7149; Martynenko, Vasiliy/0000-0002-9071-3789; Jimenez-Alfaro, Borja/0000-0001-6601-9597; Ejrnaes, Rasmus/0000-0003-2538-8606; Carlon Ruiz, Luis/0000-0003-3442-8710; Angelini, Pierangela/0000-0002-5321-9757; Silc, Urban/0000-0002-3052-699X; Landucci, Flavia/0000-0002-6848-0384; Ewald, Jorg/0000-0002-2758-9324; Dziuba, Tetiana/0000-0001-8621-0890 WOS: 000368074600018 The European Vegetation Archive (EVA) is a centralized database of European vegetation plots developed by the IAVS Working Group European Vegetation Survey. It has been in development since 2012 and first made available for use in research projects in 2014. It stores copies of national and regional vegetation-plot databases on a single software platform. Data storage in EVA does not affect on-going independent development of the contributing databases, which remain the property of the data contributors. EVA uses a prototype of the database management software TURBOVEG 3 developed for joint management of multiple databases that use different species lists. This is facilitated by the SynBioSys Taxon Database, a system of taxon names and concepts used in the individual European databases and their corresponding names on a unified list of European flora. TURBOVEG 3 also includes procedures for handling data requests, selections and provisions according to the approved EVA Data Property and Governance Rules. By 30 June 2015, 61 databases from all European regions have joined EVA, contributing in total 1 027 376 vegetation plots, 82% of them with geographic coordinates, from 57 countries. EVA provides a unique data source for large-scale analyses of European vegetation diversity both for fundamental research and nature conservation applications. Updated information on EVA is available online at http://euroveg.org/eva-database. Czech Science Foundation (Centre of Excellence PLADIAS) [14-36079G] Our major thanks go to thousands of European vegetation scientists of several generations who collected the original vegetation-plot data in the field, published them or made their unpublished data available to others, and to those who spent myriad hours digitizing data and managing the contributing databases. EVA data management has been partly funded by the Czech Science Foundation (Centre of Excellence PLADIAS, 14-36079G).

The influence of climate on plants geography is studied through a probabilistic calibration between a botanical database, containing 12 000 plots, and a meteorological database composed of 574 climatic stations. The calibration measures the climatical optimum (position) and the indicator power (concentration) of 1874 plants for six climatic variables. The validation of these relations is based upon the comparison of the estimation of climate by plants and the values measured by climatic stations near the plots. This validation underlines that plants are accurate (accuracy = 88.5%) and stable (stability = 96.5%) bio-indicators of climate variables =L'influence du climat sur la geographie des plantes est etudiee a partir d'un etalonnage probabiliste entre une banque de donnees botaniques, de 12 000 releves, et un reseau d'observation meteorologique en France de 574 postes pluvio-thermiques. L'etalonnage definit l'optimum climatique (position) et le pouvoir indicateur (concentration) de 1874 plantes pour six variables climatiques. La validation de ces relations repose sur la comparaison entre l'estimation du climat par les plantes et les valeurs mesurees dans les postes climatiques a leur voisinage. Elle montre ainsi que les plantes sont des bio-indicateurs du climat, avec une justesse moyenne de 88,5% et une stabilite moyenne de 96,5%

The application of the criterion of fidelity of plants to plants over four millions botanical observations in France is considered to characterize the ecology of 215,000 phytosociological surveys. Among those discriminant plants, some are missing of the surveys, but they can have a certain probability of occurrence: these plants are called "probable plants" and they represent the "probable flora" of a territory. The study of their geographical distribution shows ecological gradients of flora across France in a better way than only considering the botanical observations. In fact, this method mitigates the discontinuities of taxa observations whose absence may be due to historical and/or anthropogenic factors.

Article available on; http://www.biodiversity-plants.de/biodivers_ecol/publishing/b-e.00074.pdf Special Volume: Vegetation databases for the 21st century, edited by Jürgen Dengler, Jens Oldeland, Florian Jansen, Milan Chytrý, Jörg Ewald, Manfred Finckh, Falko Glöckler, Gabriela Lopez-Gonzalez, Robert K. Peet & Joop H.J. Schaminée; International audience; This article draws attention to the botanical and ecological database SOPHY (GIVD ID EU-FR-003), which is hosted at the University Paul Cézanne at Marseille, France. Initiated in the 1970es, this database was first dedicated to the study of the relationships between plants and climate (phytoclimatology) at the scale of France. In the early 1980s it was central to the development of socio-ecology, which studies the statistical relationships between plant species. At present the SOPHY database contains more than 200,000 plots located in France and in some areas close to the French border. The managers of the database have developed methods and algorithms dedicated to the control of data quality and to the characterisation of socio-ecology and phytoclimatology. The principles and results obtained in these two domains using the SOPHY database are presented.

This article presents a synthesis of the relationships between plants and climates at the scale of France, based on a probabilistic classification of 1874 bio-indicators. This classification defines plants groups that indicate the climate, named phytoclimates, expressing the climatic gradients in France. This classification shows 210 phytoclimatic groups distributed into ten cluster levels. The analysis of the various hierarchical levels shows two main phytoclimates testifying the importance of the marine masses and the altitude. The analysis of the third hierarchical level underlines particular phytoclimates which would not be easily recognizable by only analysing the overlapping of floristic and climatic territories. This classification allows one to select taxa that are indicators of the climate. The distribution monitoring or modeling of these taxa should show the effects of the global change on the ecosystems.

The influence of climate on plants geography is studied through a probabilistic calibration between a botanical database, containing 12 000 plots, and a meteorological database composed of 574 climatic stations. The calibration measures the climatical optimum (position) and the indicator power (concentration) of 1874 plants for six climatic variables. The validation of these relations is based upon the comparison of the estimation of climate by plants and the values measured by climatic stations near the plots. This validation underlines that plants are accurate (accuracy=88.5%) and stable (stability=96.5%) bio-indicators of climate variables.

The goal of the Environmental Ministry to establish zones of ecological, faunal and floral importance using a multidisciplinary approach in each region based on a common national methodology encountered several difficulties in the Provence-Alps-French Riviera (PACA) region due primarily to : - contraints for sampling and parameters to be sampled ; - problems of the size of the ZNIEFF (National Zones of Ecological, Faunal and Floral Importance), i.e. the scale, and the ecological links, the organizational level of information within each zone ; - reflexions on unit structure, and thus on the zoning considering the differences which exist, particularly for fauna, between the biology of, for example, invertebrate populations and that of the large predatory birds. The authors who analyzed these constraints nevertheless propose a trial ranking of the ZNIEFF which includes : * either classic concepts for sectors with a large altitudinal range (altitudinal-spatial variability, exposure, topography, main dynamic units) or for geopedological structures (nature of rock, microtopography, soil catena)-(sector ZNIEFF) ; * or the concept of ecocomplexes for ZNIEFF which had microregional distributions where several interactive ecosystems were included within one zone and whose ecological ecosystems were well-characterized with levels of intrasystem or intersystem heterogeneities depending on the exchange or transfer situations. In conclusion, the authors examine several different points : - ZNIEFF and land management, particularly on the coastline where building and tourist pressures are high ; - ZNIEFF and non-usage often due to rural depopulation in a large number of territories where crucial problems of management and diversity need to be dealt with. An area for reflexion appears on how to manage diversity in new dynamic systems which are in the process of being installed (fruticeae and preforests) and which make highlyrich biological environments commonplace., L'objectif du Ministère de l'Environnement d'établir dans chaque région, par une approche multidisciplinaire, des zones naturelles d'intérêt écologique, faunistique et floristique, à partir d'une méthodologie nationale commune, a rencontré plusieurs difficultés en région PACA, liées principalement : - à des contraintes d'échantillonnage et de paramètres à échantillonner ; - à des problèmes de taille des ZNIEFF, et donc d'échelle, et, au sein de chacune d'elle, de mailles et de niveaux d'organisation de l'information ; - à des réflexions sur la structuration des unités et donc sur le zonage compte tenu des disparités existant, en particulier pour la faune, entre la biologie des populations d'invertébrés et celle de grands rapaces par exemple. Les auteurs, qui ont analysé ces contraintes, proposent néanmoins un essai de classement des ZNIEFF en prenant en compte : * soit des concepts classiques pour les secteurs de large amplitude altitudinale (variabilité altitudino-spatiale, exposition, topographie, principales unités dynamiques) ou pour les structures géopédologiques (nature de la roche, microtopographie, catena de sols) - (ZNIEFF sectorielles). * soit le concept d'écocomplexes pour les ZNIEFF répondant à des répartitions microrégionales et réunissant, dans une zone, plusieurs écosytèmes interactifs et dont les infrastructures écologiques sont bien caractérisées avec des niveaux d'hétérogénéités intrasystèmes ou intersystèmes suivant les situations d'échanges ou de transfert. En conclusion, les auteurs abordent diverses questions : - ZNIEFF et aménagement notamment sur le littoral où les pressions du bâti et la fréquentation sont fortes ; - ZNIEFF et non usage en raison souvent de la dépopulation de très nombreux territoires en déprise rurale où se posent des problèmes aigus de gestion pour le maintien de la diversité. Une réflexion se dessine : comment gérer la diversité dans les nouveaux systèmes dynamiques qui se mettent en place (fruticées et préforêts) qui banalisent des milieux biologiquement très riches ?, Barbero Marcel, Brisse Henry, Quézel Pierre. Échantillonnage, paramètres, hiérarchie, contraintes de l'information écologique, en vue de la protection des espaces : l'exemple des ZNIEFF en région Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur (P.A.C.A.). In: Ecologia mediterranea, tome 15 n°3-4, 1989. pp. 33-46.

WetVegEurope is a research project (http://www.sci.muni.cz/botany/vegsci/wetveg) whose goal is to provide a synthesized formalized classification of the aquatic and marsh vegetation across Europe at the level of phytosociological associations. In order to achieve the project objective, a WetVegEurope database has been created (GIVD ID: EU-00-020, http://www.givd.info/ID/EU-00-020), which currently contains 375,212 vegetation plots of aquatic, marsh and wet vegetation types from 33 European countries. The WetVegEurope database includes datasets from pre-existing national and thematic databases and also 10,616 plots previously not digitalized or even unpublished. This database offers an extensive source of data for future studies on aquatic and marsh plant species and vegetation types at the European scale.