The whole and its parts : why and how to disentangle plant communities and synusiae in vegetation classification

Most plant communities consist of different structural and ecological subsets, ranging from cryptogams to different tree layers. The completeness and approach with which these subsets are sampled have implications for vegetation classification. Non‐vascular plants are often omitted or sometimes treated separately, referring to their assemblages as “synusiae” (e.g. epiphytes on bark, saxicolous species on rocks). The distinction of complete plant communities (phytocoenoses or holocoenoses) from their parts (synusiae or merocoenoses) is crucial to avoid logical problems and inconsistencies of the resulting classification systems. We here describe theoretical differences between the phytocoenosis as a whole and its parts, and outline consequences of this distinction for practise and terminology in vegetation classification. To implement a clearer separation, we call for modifications of the International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature and the EuroVegChecklist. We believe that these steps will make vegetation classification systems better applicable and raise the recognition of the importance of non‐vascular plants in the vegetation as well as their interplay with vascular plants

Vascular plants flora of the railway grounds of Łask

In the paper a list and general characterization of vascular plants flora recorded on railway grounds of Łask is presented. The great diversity of habitats within the railway grounds as well as their readiness to accept numerous introduced species result in high variety of vascular plants there. This flora consists of 369 taxa.Zadanie pt. „Digitalizacja i udostępnienie w Cyfrowym Repozytorium Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego kolekcji czasopism naukowych wydawanych przez Uniwersytet Łódzki” nr 885/P-DUN/2014 dofinansowane zostało ze środków MNiSW w ramach działalności upowszechniającej naukę

Vascular plants flora of the railway grounds of Zduńska Wola

In the paper a list and general characterization of vascular plants flora recorded on railway grounds in the city of Zduńska W ola is presented. The great diversity of habitats within the railway grounds as well as their readiness to accept numerous introduced species result in a high variety of vascular plants there. This flora consists of 366 taxa.Zadanie pt. „Digitalizacja i udostępnienie w Cyfrowym Repozytorium Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego kolekcji czasopism naukowych wydawanych przez Uniwersytet Łódzki” nr 885/P-DUN/2014 dofinansowane zostało ze środków MNiSW w ramach działalności upowszechniającej naukę

Plant Transcription Factors @ uni-potsdam.de

We present the Plant Transcription Factor Database (PlnTFDB), and the putative complete set of TFs in the algae _Chlamydomonas reinhardtii_, _Ostreococcus tauri_ and the vascular plants _Oryza sativa_ and _Arabidopsis thaliana_

New floristic data of alien vascular plants from Sicily

New records of Commelina communis, Euphorbia hypericifolia, Melia azedarach, Nicotiana tabacum, and Xanthoceras sorbifolium are reported for the Sicilian flora

Aportaciones al conocimiento florístico de la Sierra de Aracena (Huelva, España)

A check�list of the Sierra de Aracena (Huelva, Spain) is presented. A total of 900 vascular plants have been identificated.Se ha realizado un catálogo floristico de la Sierra de Aracena (Huelva, España), en el que se citan 900 táxones de plantas vasculares

Three-year vegetation change in the Arctic environment as observed in a permanent plot in Ny-Alesund, Svalbard

A permanent plot was established in 1997 to monitor vegetation development in a recently abandoned coal mine in Ny-_lesund, Svalbard. A 1 mx1 m quadrat was set up and further divided into one hundred small 10 cmx10 cm cells. All the vascular plants occurring in the plot were recorded for each of the 100 cells. In 1999, the plot was revisited and examined for occurrences of vascular plants. Further, in 2002, the plot was re-surveyed and all the vascular plants were measured for their coverage. Data were compared and coverage change over the past three years was detected. Vascular plants significantly increased, indicating that the vegetation succession is currently in progress

Divergent responses of functional diversity to an elevational gradient for vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens

Question: Cold environments are stressful for vascular plants, and stress-tolerant non-vascular photoautotrophs, e.g. bryophytes and lichens, become relatively more important as competition from vascular plants decreases towards higher elevations. Under increasingly stressful climatic conditions, species assembly of vascular plants is commonly driven more by environmental filtering, and abiotic constraints may lead to increased similarity between species and thus low functional diversity. Because bryophytes and lichens are less constrained by harsh environments, environmental filtering may be less strong. Instead, reduced competition from vascular plants can potentially free up niche space for non-vascular vegetation. Therefore, we hypothesized that functional diversity of vascular plants, bryophytes and lichens are likely to show contrasting responses to elevation. Location: Finse Alpine Research Centre, Southern Norway. Methods: We utilized measurements of species abundance and functional traits of the three groups along a 500-m elevational gradient in alpine southern Norway and calculated multi-trait and single-trait functional dispersion. Results: Functional diversity of vascular plants declined with elevation, indicating increased environmental filtering. By contrast, functional diversity of lichens and bryophytes increased along the same gradient, suggesting they are less exposed to environmental filtering, in line with our hypothesis. Instead, they likely benefit from the lower abundance of vascular plants at higher elevation. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that different photoautotroph groups vary in how they respond to the same environmental gradient, which may contribute to contrasting community assembly processes across groups. These divergent responses likely occur because non-vascular vegetation differs from vascular plants in terms of nutrient acquisition and water economy strategies, meaning that they respond differently to the same factors. This highlights the need to explicitly consider bryophytes and lichens in community-level studies whenever these groups are abundant.acceptedVersio

Natural Areas and Reference Collections for Environmental Education in Some Arkansas Schools

A survey of 20 school campuses throughout Arkansas showed that most lack natural areas for outdoor environmental education. For most Arkansas schools no checklists of local plants are available, and there are no reference collections at the schools. Projects are underway at State College of Arkansas to establish herberia for the woody plants of Arkansas and the vascular plants of Faulkner County