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This article aims to quantitatively assess how different formal aspects – beyond the relevance and quality of a study – influence how often a scientific paper is cited. As a case study, I retrieved all publications co-authored by myself from the Scopus database, of which 174 could be used for regression modelling. The citation impact was quantified as Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI), which is the citation number normalised by year, subject area and article type. I examined 13 easily accessible numeric and binary predictor variables, including the Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP), open access, special feature, number of authors, length of article and title, as well as formal aspects of the title. In the minimal adequate model, these formal aspects explained 50.2% of the variance in FWCI, with the SNIP alone explaining only 26.8%. Other strong positive predictors were title brevity, article length, special feature and the use of a colon in the title. By contrast, open access and the formulation of titles as factual statements did not have a significant effect. For authors who wish to make their articles more impactful, the main recommendation is to shorten the title and to disregard using factual statements that make the title longer. Abbreviations: FWCI = Field-weighted Citation Impact; JIF = Journal Impact Factor; OA = open access; SNIP = Source Normalized Impact per Paper: VCS = Vegetation Classification and Survey.

After a nomenclatural revision of the available names for the order of rocky grasslands of the Balkan Peninsula within the class Festuco-Brometea, based on Article 52 ICPN we propose the conservation of the name Koelerietalia splendentis against the name Halacsyetalia sendtneri. In syntaxonomic concepts not combining the limestone and serpentine rocky grasslands of the Balkans in a single order, the latter name would still be available as it is based on a different nomenclatural type. (39) Koelerietalia splendentis Horvatić 1973 nom. cons. propos. Typus: Chrysopogono grylli-Koelerion splendentis Horvatić 1973 (holotypus) (=) Halacsyetalia sendtneri Ritter-Studnička 1970 Typus: Potentillion visianii Ritter-Studnička 1970 (lectotypus: Kuzmanović et al. 2016) Taxonomic reference: Mucina et al. (2016). Abbreviations: ICPN = International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature, 4th edition (Theurillat et al. 2021).

This Long Database Report describes the historical background and current contents of the Nordic-Baltic Grassland Vegetation Database (NBGVD) (GIVD-code EU-00-002). NBGVD is the EDGG-associated collaborative vegetation-plot database that collects vegetation-plot data of grasslands and other open habitats (except segetal and deep aquatic vegetation) from the Nordic-Baltic region excluding Germany, namely Belarus, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, Norway, N Poland, NW Russia, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, and Sweden. Target vegetation types are lowland grasslands and heathlands, arctic-alpine communities, coastal communities, non-forested mires and other wetlands, rocky, tall-herb and ruderal communities. As of March 2024, it included 12,694 relevés recorded between 1910 and 2023. These were mainly digitised from literature sources (84%), while the remainder comes from individual unpublished sources (16%). The data quality is high, with bryophytes and lichens being treated in more than 80% of all plots and measured environmental variables such as topography and soil characteristics often available in standardised form. A peculiarity of the Nordic-Baltic region are the relatively small plot sizes compared to other regions (median: 4 m2). The available data stem from 35 vegetation classes, with Koelerio-Corynephoretea, Festuco-Brometea, Sedo-Scleranthetea, Molinio-Arrhenatheretea and Scheuchzerio-Caricetea being most frequent. We conclude that NBGVD provides valuable data, allowing interesting analyses at the regional scale and fills gaps in continental to global analyses. Still, since there are many more data around, we ask interested readers to contribute their own data or help find and digitise old data from the literature. Taxonomic reference: TURBOVEG species list “Europe”. Syntaxonomic reference: Mucina et al. (2016). Abbreviations: EDGG = Eurasian Dry Grassland Group, EVA = European Vegetation Archive, GIVD = Global Index of Vegetation-Plot Databases, NBGVD = Nordic-Baltic Grassland Vegetation Database

Aim: To provide the first syntaxonomic, plot-based classification of the dry grasslands and thorn-cushion communities in Armenia. Study area: Armenia. Methods: We sampled 111 vegetation plots (10 m2) and recorded environmental and structural parameters. We collected additional 487 relevés from surrounding countries for a broad-scale comparison. We used modified TWINSPAN to derive a syntaxonomic classification system, whose units were then compared among each other regarding species composition, structure, site conditions and distribution. Results: The classification of Armenian vegetation plots resulted in a 12-cluster solution. Unsupervised classification of the broad-scale dataset yielded five main groups, which were used for the high-level syntaxonomic assignments of the Armenian data. We assigned about half of the plots of the Armenian dataset to the Festuco-Brometea, while the remaining represented a potential new class, preliminarily called “Ziziphora tenuior-Stipa arabica grasslands”. Most of the syntaxa below class level are new to science, therefore we provide formal descriptions of three orders (Plantagini atratae-Bromopsietalia variegatae, Onobrychido transcaucasicae-Stipetalia pulcherrimae, Cousinio brachypterae-Stipetalia arabicae), four alliances (Acantholimono caryophyllacei-Stipion holosericeae, Artemision fragrantis, Onobrychido michauxii-Stipion capillatae, Onobrychido transcaucasicae-Stipion pulcherrimae) and six associations. We found significant differences in the topographic, climatic and soil characteristics, and structural parameters, species life forms and distribution range types between the grassland types at different syntaxonomic levels. The mean species richness was 47.3 (vascular plants: 46.8, bryophytes: 0.4, lichens: 0.1). Conclusions: We found remarkable differences of the Armenian dry grasslands from the previously known units and described most of the higher syntaxa and all the associations as new to science. Our study provides arguments for a potential new class of Ziziphora tenuior-Stipa arabica grasslands separate both from the Euro-Siberian Festuco-Brometea and the Anatolian Astragalo-Brometea. Finally, we found plot scale richness of vascular plants clearly above the Palaearctic average of dry grasslands and that of non-vascular plants clearly below, which calls for further biodiversity analyses. Taxonomic reference: Euro+Med (2023) for vascular plants, Hodgetts et al. (2020) for bryophytes, Nimis et al. (2018) for lichens except for Xanthoparmelia camtschadalis (Ach.) Hale. Abbreviations: EDGG = Eurasian Dry Grassland Group; DCA = detrended correspondence analysis; ICPN = International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature (Theurillat et al. 2021); TWINSPAN = two-way indicator species analysis.

On the occasion of the completion of the fourth volume of Vegetation Classification and Survey (VCS), we have analysed the performance of the journal since its inception. The number of papers and pages show a moderate increase over the years. VCS has been included in the Scopus database for more than a year and received its first CiteScore of 2.0 in summer 2023 but is not yet included in the Web of Science Core Edition. We therefore used data from the Scopus database to compare the citation impact of articles in VCS with that of 29 other ecological journals. By calculating normalized citation rates per journal and publication year, we found that VCS started at the bottom of the rankings in the first two years (28th out of 30) but improved to 26th in 2022 and 14th in 2023. Together with the known time lag and the strong positive relationships between the different citation metrics, this allows a projection of the future development of the CiteScores and, after inclusion in the Web of Science, the Journal Impact Factor (JIF). Using the Field-Weighted Citation Impact (FWCI) from the Scopus database, we identified the top 12 out of 95 VCS articles published in the first four years that received more citations than expected for their age and field. We also present the four Editors’ Choice papers of 2023, among which Strohbach and Strohbach (2023; Vegetation Classification and Survey 4: 241–284) received the Editors’ Award in 2023. We conclude that VCS is on the right track, supported by the fact that in 2024 most authors will still be charged no or very low article processing charges (APCs). Abbreviations: APC = article processing charge; IAVS = International Association for Vegetation Science; JIF = Journal Impact Factor; OA = open access; VCS = Vegetation Classification and Survey; WoS = Web of Science Core Edition.

With this Forum contribution I wish to shed light on the problematic developments in scientific publishing resulting from the strong push of science funders towards gold open access (OA). This has given rise to numerous “predatory” journals, that maximise profit at the expense of scientific quality. With a bibliometric analysis in the field of ecology I demonstrate that over the period 2014–2022 the publication numbers in “predatory” OA journals have grown exponentially (+44% annually), while in all other journal types, article numbers were stagnating or even decreasing since a few years. Then I highlight how different OA publication models from society-owned journals to publisher-owned “predatory” journals, differ in the prices authors pay and how the income is split between effective costs, pure profit and money transferred back to science. To help with the recognition of the different journal types, I provide a list journals in the fields of ecology and organismal botany that are owned by academic societies, as well as a list of criteria to recognize “predatory” journals. Authors, reviewers and editors should consider carefully where they submit papers or provide volunteer service. My suggestion is to prioritize society-owned journals, while avoiding cooperation with “predatory” journals. Science funders and libraries have played a major role in the negative developments reviewed in this paper, but at the same time they have the capacity to change the course, mainly by two steps: In the short term they should link the payment of article processing charges (APCs) to strict quality criteria, while in the medium term, they should overcome the gold OA system towards a diamond OA system that would avoid the inflation of low-quality publications and remove barriers not only from readers, but also from authors, while at the same time likely reducing the overall costs. Abbreviations: APC = article processing charge; AVS = Applied Vegetation Science; IAVS = International Association for Vegetation Science; COVID-19 = Coronavirus disease 2019; DOAJ = Directory of Open Access Journals; JIF = 2-year Journal Impact Factor of the Web of Science; JVS = Journal of Vegetation Science; OA = open access; VCS = Vegetation Classification and Survey; WoS = Web of Science Core Collection.

Question: We explored the error resulting from different methods for recording the cover of plants in vegetation plots, specifically the direct estimation of percent cover vs. the use of ordinal cover scales (7-step Braun-Blanquet and 5-step Hult-Sernander-Du Rietz). Methods: We simulated 121 plant species of different cover, sampled with 13 different levels of estimation precision. Estimation precision was either based on a constant coefficient of variation (0.1–1.0) across all cover values or on empirical data from Hatton et al. (1986, Journal of Range Management 39: 91–92) (× 0.5, × 1.0, × 1.5). Each sampling was repeated 10 times. Subsequently, we determined the mean relative and absolute errors that occurred in the data used for ensuing numerical analyses. Results: Except for few cases with unrealistic settings (very high estimation error and ignorance of species with lower cover values), direct estimation in percent yielded better results than the use of ordinal scales. Based on the empirical values of estimation accuracy, the use of ordinal scales inflated the mean absolute and relative errors nearly 2-fold in case of the 7-step Braun-Blanquet scale and about 1.5-fold in case of the Hult-Sernander-Du Rietz scale if only considering cover values above 1%. Conclusions: From our personal experience, the careful application of an ordinal scale is not faster than the direct estimation of percent cover. For this reason, we see no plausible argument supporting the use of ordinal cover scales when essentially all subsequent analyses are numeric. Abbreviations: Br.-Bl. = 7-step variant of the Braun-Blanquet scale and its numerical replacement as in Table 2; CV = coefficient of variation; H.-S. = Hult-Sernander-Du Rietz scale and its numerical replacement as shown in Table 1.

After a nomenclatural review of the available names for the order of mesoxeric grasslands within the class Festuco-Brometea, we propose the conservation of the name Brachypodietalia pinnati (with a conserved type) against the names Brometalia erecti and Scorzoneretalia villosae. In syntaxonomic concepts not accepting a single order for the mesoxeric grasslands of Europe, the latter names could still be used, as they are based on different nomenclatural types. (31) Brachypodietalia pinnati Korneck 1974: 123 nom. cons. propos. Typus: Cirsio-Brachypodion pinnati Hadač & Klika in Klika and Hadač 1944 (lectotypus; Dengler et al. 2003: 608; typus cons. propos.). (=) Brometalia erecti W. Koch 1926: 20. Typus: Bromion erecti W. Koch 1926: 121 (holotypus). (=) Scorzoneretalia villosae Kovačević 1959: 7 Typus: Scorzonerion villosae Horvatić ex Kovačević 1959 (holotypus) Syntaxonomic reference: Mucina et al. (2016). Abbreviations: ICPN = International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature, 4th edn (Theurillat et al. 2021).

This paper presents two sampling-event datasets with occurrences of vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens collected in May-June 2021 in southern Ukraine. We aimed to collect high-quality biodiversity data in an understudied region and contribute it to international databases and networks. The study was carried out during the 15th Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG) Field Workshop in southern Ukraine and the Dark Diversity Network (DarkDivNet) sampling in the Kamianska Sich National Nature Park. By chance, these datasets were collected shortly before the major escalation of the Russian invasion in Ukraine. Surveyed areas in Kherson and Mykolaiv Regions, including established monitoring plots, were severely affected by military actions in 2022. Therefore, collected data are of significant value in the context of biodiversity documentation. The knowledge about the biodiversity of this area will help to assess the environmental impact of the war and plan restoration of the damaged or destroyed habitats. The first preliminary analysis of collected data demonstrates the biodiversity richness and conservation value of studied grassland habitats.We provide sampling-event datasets with 7467 occurrences, which represent 708 taxa (vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens) collected in 275 vegetation relevés. Amongst them, vascular plants are represented by 6665 occurrences (610 taxa), lichens - 420 (46) and bryophytes - 381 (51). Several new species were reported for the first time at the national or regional level. In particular, one vascular plant species (Torilis pseudonodosa) and two lichen species (Cladonia conista, Endocarpon loscosii) were new to Ukraine. One vascular plant (Stipa tirsa), two species of bryophytes (Rhynchostegium megapolitanum, Ptychostomum torquescens) and three species of lichens (Cladonia cervicornis, C. symphycarpa, Involucropyrenium breussi) were recorded for the first time for the Kherson Region. Additionally, these datasets contain occurrences of taxa with narrow distribution, specialists of rare habitat types and, therefore, represented by a low number of occurrences in relevant biodiversity databases and particularly in GBIF. This publication highlights the diversity of natural vegetation and its flora in southern Ukraine and raises conservation concerns.

Climatic variables are useful but often weak predictors of plant functional trait variation across ecosystems. Here the authors investigate how assigning plant communities to a habitat hierarchy improves the explanatory power of climate-trait relationships at the continental scale.

Aims: To develop a consistent ecological indicator value system for Europe for five of the main plant niche dimensions: soil moisture (M), soil nitrogen (N), soil reaction (R), light (L) and temperature (T). Study area: Europe (and closely adjacent regions). Methods: We identified 31 indicator value systems for vascular plants in Europe that contained assessments on at least one of the five aforementioned niche dimensions. We rescaled the indicator values of each dimension to a continuous scale, in which 0 represents the minimum and 10 the maximum value present in Europe. Taxon names were harmonised to the Euro+Med Plantbase. For each of the five dimensions, we calculated European values for niche position and niche width by combining the values from the individual EIV systems. Using T values as an example, we externally validated our European indicator values against the median of bioclimatic conditions for global occurrence data of the taxa. Results: In total, we derived European indicator values of niche position and niche width for 14,835 taxa (14,714 for M, 13,748 for N, 14,254 for R, 14,054 for L, 14,496 for T). Relating the obtained values for temperature niche position to the bioclimatic data of species yielded a higher correlation than any of the original EIV systems (r = 0.859). The database: The newly developed Ecological Indicator Values for Europe (EIVE) 1.0, together with all source systems, is available in a flexible, harmonised open access database. Conclusions: EIVE is the most comprehensive ecological indicator value system for European vascular plants to date. The uniform interval scales for niche position and niche width provide new possibilities for ecological and macroecological analyses of vegetation patterns. The developed workflow and documentation will facilitate the future release of updated and expanded versions of EIVE, which may for example include the addition of further taxonomic groups, additional niche dimensions, external validation or regionalisation. Abbreviations: EIV = Ecological indicator value; EIVE = Ecological Indicator Values for Europe; EVA = European Vegetation Archive; GBIF = Global Biodiversity Information Facility; i = index for taxa; j = index for EIV systems; L = ecological indicator for light; M = ecological indicator for moisture; N = ecological indicator for nitrogen availability; R = ecological indicator for reaction; T = ecological indicator for temperature.

We report on the completed third volume of Vegetation Classification and Survey (VCS). VCS has been included in the Scopus bibliometric database and will receive its first CiteSore in mid-2023. We announce the 2022 Editors’ Award for a paper selected from the four papers nominated for Editors’ Choice during 2022. We selected Liu et al. (2022; Vegetation Classification and Survey 3: 121–144) for the Editors’ Award. This author team developed a comprehensive hierarchical classification system for the steppe vegetation over China. We present five Special Collections (two concluded and three ongoing) which form a backbone for VCS. Apart from Research Papers, Long and Short Database Reports were the prevailing article category in 2022. By contrast, there were no VCS Methods paper in 2022, and thus we encourage submissions particularly in this category. Finally, we welcome new members to the Editorial Board and open a call for free applications for our Editorial Review Board or as a Linguistic Editor. Abbreviations: APC = article processing charge; IAVS = International Association for Vegetation Science; VCS = Vegetation Classification and Survey.

Measurement(s) vegetation-plot resurvey data of vascular plant species Technology Type(s) vegetation-plot records Factor Type(s) Cover of species in plots Sample Characteristic - Organism Vascular plant species Sample Characteristic - Environment Terrestrial habitats Sample Characteristic - Location Germany

Global patterns of regional plant diversity are relatively well known, but whether they hold for local communities is debated. This study created multi-grain global maps of alpha diversity for vascular plants to provide a nuanced understanding of plant diversity hotspots and improve predictions of global change effects on biodiversity.

With this editorial, we introduce the Special Collection “Classification of grasslands and other open vegetation types in the Palaearctic”. In searching the Web of Science for classification papers on Palaearctic grasslands, we found 207 studies from 1972–2021, including 106 typical classification works. These studies originated mainly from Europe, with only few from Asia and only one from Northern Africa. While Europe in the 20th century already had a strong tradition in regional classification studies, the launch of a common plot database (European Vegetation Archive, EVA) and a continental syntaxonomic reference list (EuroVegChecklist) have spurred the developments there in recent years. We then introduce the seven articles of the Special Collection. Four of them present regional studies of certain vegetation types, namely spring vegetation (Montio-Cardaminetea) in Grisons, Switzerland, dry grasslands (Festuco-Brometea) of the inneralpine valleys of Austria, montane to subalpine tall-herb vegetation (Mulgedio-Aconitetea) in the Sudetes Mts., Poland, and steppe depressions (Festuco-Brometea and Molinio-Arrhentatheretea) in Southern Ukraine. A new synthesis of the grassland vegetation of Navarre in Spain (all classes, focus on Festuco-Brometea), started with an unsupervised classification and translated it into a hierarchical expert system, while another study provided the first synthesis of the tall-herb vegetation (mainly Ulopteretea prangae) of Tajikistan. Finally, a study based on the GrassPlot database compared fine-grain beta-diversities across open vegetation types of the Palaearctic. Abbreviations: EDGG = Eurasian Dry Grassland Group, EVA = European Vegetation Archive, IAVS = International Association for Vegetation Science, WoS = Web of Science.

We report on the completed second volume of Vegetation Classification and Survey (VCS), whose content grew by 41% compared to the first volume. We were able to diversify article types, geographic coverage, authors and editorial team, the latter now consisting of 62 researchers from 29 countries with a female ratio of 31%. Three newly started Special Collections focus on the vegetation of the most diverse continents, which are at the same time least represented in the international literature: Africa, Asia and Latin America. We highlight six outstanding papers of the previous year, among them Dembicz et al. (2021b, Vegetation Classification and Survey 2: 293–304), which received the Editors’ Award 2021. In conclusion, we see a good perspective for the journal development and its inclusion in the leading citation databases, but the success strongly depends on authors and readers of VCS. Abbreviations: IAVS = International Association for Vegetation Science; VCS = Vegetation Classification and Survey.

Aims: To clarify the syntaxonomic position of the grasslands in Navarre, with special focus on the dry grasslands, and to characterise the resulting syntaxonomic units in terms of diagnostic species and ecological conditions. Study area: Navarre (northern Spain). Methods: We sampled 119 plots of 10 m2 following the standardised EDGG methodology and analysed them together with 839 plots of similar size recorded in the 1990. For the classification, we used the modified TWINSPAN algorithm, complemented by the determination of diagnostic species with phi coefficients of association, which led to the creation of an expert system. We conducted these steps in a hierarchical manner for each syntaxonomic rank. We visualised the position of the syntaxa along environmental gradients by means of NMDS. Species richness, and structural and ecological characteristics of the syntaxa were compared by ANOVAs. Results: We could clearly identify five phytosociological classes: Lygeo-Stipetea, Festuco-Brometea, Molinio-Arrhenatheretea, Nardetea strictae, and Elyno-Seslerietea. Within the Festuco-Brometea a xeric and a meso-xeric order could be distinguished, with two alliances each, and eight associations in total: Thymelaeo-Aphyllanthetum, Jurineo-Festucetum, Helianthemo-Koelerietum, Prunello-Plantaginetum, Carduncello-Brachypodietum, Helictotricho-Seslerietum, Calamintho-Seselietum and Carici-Teucrietum. Conclusions: The combination of numerical methods allowed a consistent and more objective classification of grassland types in Navarre than previous approaches. At the association level, we could largely reproduce the units previously described with traditional phytosociological methods. By contrast, at higher syntaxonomic level, our analyses suggest significant modifications. Most importantly, a major part of the units traditionally included in the Festuco-Ononidetea seem to fall within the Festuco-Brometea. We could show that bryophytes and lichens are core elements of these grasslands and particularly the Mediterranean ones of Lygeo-Stipetea, both in terms of biodiversity and of diagnostic species. We conclude that the combination of our different numerical methods is promising for deriving more objective and reproducible delimitations of syntaxa in a hierarchical manner. Taxonomic references: Euro+Med (2006–2021) for vascular plants, Hodges et al. (2020) for bryophytes and The British Lichen Society (2021) for lichens, except for Endocarpon loscosii, Heppia lutosa, Psora saviczii and P. vallesiaca, which follow Nimis and Martellos (2021), and Buellia zoharyi, Fulgensia poeltii, Lichenochora clauzadei and Toninia massata, which follow Llimona et al. (2001). Syntaxonomic reference: Mucina et al. (2016), except for those syntaxa specifically treated here and given with authorities. Abbreviations: ANOVA = analysis of variance; EDGG = Eurasian Dry Grassland Group; NMDS: non-metric multidimensional scaling; TWINSPAN = Two-Way Indicator Species Analysis.

Aims: The spring habitats of Central Europe are insular biotopes of high ecological value. Although subject to severe exploitation pressures, they do not yet have a comprehensive protection status in Switzerland. Contributing to this challenge is the controversy involved with their syntaxonomic classification. In the context of the development of a regional conservation strategy and the establishment of a national inventory of Swiss springs, we carried out a regional survey of spring vegetation and aimed to translate this into a classification system. Study area: Montane and subalpine zones of Parc Ela (Grisons, Switzerland). Methods: We selected 20 springs to cover different regions, elevations and bedrock types within the park. In each of them we recorded complete vascular plant and bryophyte composition as well as a range of environmental variables in three 1-m² plots that were placed to reflect the heterogeneity within the spring. After running an unsupervised classification with modified TWINSPAN, the distinguished vegetation units were characterized in terms of diagnostic species, species richness and environmental variables and placed within the syntaxonomic system. Results: Species richness was high (total species 264, mean 21.7 species in 1 m2). The two most important environmental gradients of the ordination were elevation/water conductivity and insolation/water pH/soil reaction EIV. We distinguished seven communities within two main groups. Conclusions: All unshaded springs, including those over siliceous bedrock, could be assigned to a broadly defined Cratoneurion. The petrifying springs were not strongly distinguishable floristically from other base-rich springs. The forest springs, although often not clearly differentiated from their unshaded counterparts, could be provisionally divided into the alliances Caricion remotae and Lycopodo europaei-Cratoneurion commutati. As there is a certain threat to these habitats in the park due to anthropogenic influence, protection measures are recommended, most importantly the appropriate management of alpine pastures. Taxonomic reference: Juillerat et al. (2017) for vascular plants, Meier et al. (2013) for bryophytes. Abbreviations: ANOVA = analysis of variance; DCA = detrended correspondence analysis; EIV = ecological indicator value; FOEN = Federal Office of the Environment (Switzerland); NCHO = Ordinance on the Protection of Nature and Cultural Heritage; SD = standard deviation; TWINSPAN = Two Way Indicator Species Analysis; WPA = Federal Act on the Protection of Waters.

Aims: To quantify how fine-grain (within-plot) beta diversity differs among biomes and vegetation types. Study area: Palaearctic biogeographic realm. Methods: We extracted 4,654 nested-plot series with at least four different grain sizes between 0.0001 m² and 1,024 m² from the GrassPlot database spanning broad geographic and ecological gradients. Next, we calculated the slope parameter (z-value) of the power-law species–area relationship (SAR) to use as a measure of multiplicative beta diversity. We did this separately for vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens and for the three groups combined (complete vegetation). We then tested whether z-values differed between biomes, ecological-physiognomic vegetation types at coarse and fine levels and phytosociological classes. Results: We found that z-values varied significantly among biomes and vegetation types. The explanatory power of area for species richness was highest for vascular plants, followed by complete vegetation, bryophytes and lichens. Within each species group, the explained variance increased with typological resolution. In vascular plants, adjusted R2 was 0.14 for biomes, but reached 0.50 for phytosociological classes. Among the biomes, mean z-values were particularly high in the Subtropics with winter rain (Mediterranean biome) and the Dry tropics and subtropics. Natural grasslands had higher z-values than secondary grasslands. Alpine and Mediterranean vegetation types had particularly high z-values whereas managed grasslands with benign soil and climate conditions and saline communities were characterised by particularly low z-values. Conclusions: In this study relating fine-grain beta diversity to typological units, we found distinct patterns. As we explain in a conceptual figure, these can be related to ultimate drivers, such as productivity, stress and disturbance, which can influence z-values via multiple pathways. The provided means, medians and quantiles of z-values for a wide range of typological entities provide benchmarks for local to continental studies, while calling for additional data from under-represented units. Syntaxonomic references: Mucina et al. (2016) for classes occurring in Europe; Ermakov (2012) for classes restricted to Asia. Abbreviations: ANOVA = analysis of variance; EDGG = Eurasian Dry Grassland Group; SAR = species-area relationship.

Aims: We studied the syntaxonomic position, biodiversity, ecological features, nature conservation value and current status of dry grasslands investigated by Josias Braun-Blanquet more than 60 years ago. Study area: Inner-alpine valleys of Austria. Methods: We sampled 67 plots of 10 m2, following the standardized EDGG methodology. We subjected our plots to an unsupervised classification with the modified TWINSPAN algorithm and interpreted the branches of the dendrogram syntaxonomically. Biodiversity, structural and ecological characteristics of the resulting vegetation units at association and order level were compared by ANOVAs. Results: All the examined grasslands belong to the class Festuco-Brometea. From ten distinguished clusters, we could assign four clusters to validly published associations, while the remaining six clusters were named tentatively. We classified them into three orders: Stipo-Festucetalia pallentis (Armerio elongatae-Potentilletum arenariae, Phleo phleoidis-Pulsatilletum nigricantis, Medicago minima-Melica ciliata community, Koelerio pyramidatae-Teucrietum montani), Festucetalia valesiacae (Sempervivum tectorum-Festuca valesiaca community); Brachypodietalia pinnati (Astragalo onobrychidis-Brometum erecti, Agrostis capillaris-Avenula adsurgens community, Anthericum ramosum-Brachypodium pinnatum community, Ranunculus bulbosus-Festuca rubra community, Carduus defloratus-Brachypodium pinnatum community). Conclusions: The ten distinguished dry grassland communities of the Austrian inner-alpine valleys differ in their ecological affinities as well as their vascular plant, bryophyte and lichen diversity. We point out their high nature conservation importance, as each of them presents a unique habitat of high value. Taxonomic reference: Names of vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens follow Fischer et al. (2008), Frahm and Frey (2004) and Nimis et al. (2018), respectively. Syntaxonomic reference: Names of orders and classes follow Mucina et al. (2016), references for associations and alliances are given in the text. Abbreviations: ANOVA = analysis of variance; DCA: detrended correspondence analyses; EDGG: Eurasian Dry Grassland Group; EIV: ecological indicator value; FL: Fließ; GR: Griffen; GU: Gulsen; KA: Kaunerberg; LA: Laudegg castle in Ladis; MA: Marin; NM: Neumarkt in der Steiermark; OM: Obermauern; PÖ: Pöls; PU: Puxer Loch; TWINSPAN = Two-way indicator species analysis; ZS: Zinizachspitze.

We report on the completed first volume of Vegetation Classification and Survey (VCS), which included ten Research Papers, six Short Database Reports, two Long Database Reports, two Forum Papers and one Report. We highlight three outstanding papers as examples of contributions of which we would like to see more in the future. Finally, we announce a new article type “VCS Methods” and report about the status of two upcoming Special Collections. Lists of colleagues who served as reviewers or linguistic editors in 2020 are included in appendices. Abbreviations: IAVS = International Association for Vegetation Science; VCS = Vegetation Classification and Survey.

With this inaugural editorial, we introduce Vegetation Classification and Survey (VCS), the new gold open access (OA) journal of the International Association for Vegetation Science (IAVS). VCS is devoted to vegetation classification at any spatial and organisational scale and irrespective of the methodological approach. It welcomes equally case studies and broad-scale syntheses as well as conceptual and methodological papers. Two Permanent Collections deal with ecoinformatics (including the standardised Database Reports published in collaboration with GIVD, the Global Index of Vegetation-Plot Databases) and phytosociological nomenclature (edited in collaboration with the respective IAVS Working Group). We discuss the advantages of OA as well as challenges and drawbacks caused by the way it is currently implemented, namely “pay for flaws” and publication impediments for scientists without access to funding. Being a society-owned journal, editorial decisions in VCS are free from economic considerations, while at the same time IAVS offers significant reductions to article processing charges (APCs) for authors with financial constraints. However, it is recognised that sustainable OA publishing will require that payment systems are changed from author-paid APCs to contracts between the science funding agencies and publishers or learned societies, to cover the production costs of journals that meet both quality and impact criteria. Abbreviations: APC = article processing charge, GIVD = Global Index of Vegetation-Plot Databases, IAVS = International Association for Vegetation Science, JVS = Journal of Vegetation Science, OA = open access, VCS = Vegetation Classification and Survey.

Are we entering a new ‘Golden Age’ of biogeography, with continued development of infrastructure and ideas? We highlight recent developments, and the challenges and opportunities they bring, in light of the snapshot provided by the 7th biennial meeting of the International Biogeography Society (IBS 2015). We summarize themes in and across 15 symposia using narrative analysis and word clouds, which we complement with recent publication trends and ‘research fronts’. We find that biogeography is still strongly defined by core sub-disciplines that reflect its origins in botanical, zoological (particularly bird and mammal), and geographic (e.g., island, montane) studies of the 1800s. That core is being enriched by large datasets (e.g. of environmental variables, ‘omics’, species’ occurrences, traits) and new techniques (e.g., advances in genetics, remote sensing, modeling) that promote studies with increasing detail and at increasing scales; disciplinary breadth is being diversified (e.g., by developments in paleobiogeography and microbiology) and integrated through the transfer of approaches and sharing of theory (e.g., spatial modeling and phylogenetics in evolutionary–ecological contexts). Yet some subdisciplines remain on the fringe (e.g., marine biogeography, deep-time paleobiogeography), new horizons and new theory may be overshadowed by popular techniques (e.g., species distribution modelling), and hypotheses, data, and analyses may each be wanting. Trends in publication suggest a shift away from traditional biogeography journals to multidisciplinary or open access journals. Thus, there are currently many opportunities and challenges as biogeography increasingly addresses human impacts on, and stewardship of, the planet (e.g., Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services). As in the past, biogeographers doubtless will continue to be engaged by new data and methods in exploring the nexus between biology and geography for decades into the future. But golden ages come and go, and they need not touch every domain in a discipline nor affect subdisciplines at the same time; moreover, what appears to be a Golden Age may sometimes have an undesirable ‘Midas touch’. Contexts within and outwith biogeography—e.g., methods, knowledge, climate, biodiversity, politics—are continually changing, and at times it can be challenging to establish or maintain relevance. In so many races with the Red Queen, we suggest that biogeography will enjoy greatest success if we also increasingly engage with the epistemology of our discipline.