Federico Fernández-González

University of Castilla-La Mancha · Department of Environmental Sciences

We report the decisions made by the Assembly of the Group of Phytosociological Nomenclature (GPN) in 2023 on previous recommendations of the Committee for Change and Conservation of Names (CCCN). Further, we discuss eight Requests for a binding decision and nine nomenclatural Proposals. Recommendations on acceptance or rejection of these Proposals...

The first comprehensive phytosociological classification of all vegetation types in Europe (EuroVegChecklist; Applied Vegetation Science, 2016, 19, 3-264) contained brief descriptions of each type. However, these descriptions were not standardized and mentioned only the most distinct features of each vegetation type. The practical application of th...

The alliance name Poo-Astragalion has been widely used by Iberian phytosociologists for nearly fifty years to indicate a type of sheep pastures thriving on base-rich substrates. This alliance is currently classified in the order Poetalia bulbosae and class Poetea bulbosae . However, the revision of its original diagnosis highlights that this allian...

The alliance name Agrostion castellanae has been widely used for nearly sixty years to indicate a type of acidophilic perennial grasslands occurring in the Iberian Peninsula. At present, the alliance is classified in the order Agrostietalia castellanae , and the class Stipo giganteae-Agrostietea castellanae . However, the nomenclatural type (lectot...

Desert dust intrusions cause the transport of airborne particulate matter from natural sources, with important consequences for climate regulation, biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and dynamics, human health, and socio-economic activities. Some effects of desert intrusions are reinforced or aggravated by the bioaerosol content of the air during...

In this Report, three previously published nomenclatural proposals are discussed, and recommendations on acceptance or rejection of these proposals are provided. The proposals concern the following syntaxa: Berberidion Braun-Blanquet 1950, Aceretalia pseudoplatani Moor 1976 and Festucetalia valesiacae Braun-Blanquet et Tüxen ex Braun-Blanquet 1950....

Aim The number of naturalized (i.e. established) alien species has increased rapidly over recent centuries. Given the differences in environmental tolerances among species, little is known about what factors determine the extent to which the observed size of the naturalized range of a species and hence the extent to which the observed richness of n...

After a nomenclatural revision of the higher rank syntaxa of the class Isoeto-Nanojuncetea , the conservation of the order name Nanocyperetalia against Nanocypero-Polygonetalia and a conserved type for the order Isoetetalia are proposed. (26) Nanocyperetalia Klika 1935: 292, nom. cons. propos. Typus: Nanocyperion flavescentis Koch 1926: 20–28 (holo...

Airborne particulate matter such as mineral dust comes mainly from natural sources, and the African regions of Sahara and Sahel originate large amounts of the aerosols dispersed worldwide. There is little knowledge about the influence of dust episodes on airborne pollen concentrations, and although the centre and southeast of the Iberian Peninsula...

Aims Biodiversity is traditionally studied mostly at the species level, but biogeographical and macroecological studies at higher taxonomic levels can provide valuable insights into the evolutionary processes at large spatial scales. Our aim was to assess the representation of vascular plant families within different vegetation formations across Eu...

Questions European woodlands harbor at least 386 alien plant species but the factors driving local invasions remain unknown. By using a large vegetation‐plot database, we asked how local richness and abundance of alien species vary by regions, elevation, climate, soil properties, human disturbance, and habitat types. Location Western, Central and S...

Global warming impacts plant phenology and the effect of climate change will be more intensely experienced at the edges of a plant’s distribution. This work focuses on Iberian alder’s climatic range (Alnus lusitanica Vít, Douda & Mandák). The Iberian Peninsula constitutes the Southwestern edge of the global chorological distribution of European bla...

Aim Vegetation types of Mediterranean thermophilous pine forests dominated by Pinus brutia, P. halepensis, P. pinaster, and P. pinea were studied in various areas. However, a comprehensive formal vegetation classification of these forests based on a detailed data analysis has never been developed. Our aim is to provide the first broad‐scale classif...

Many ornamental species growing in cities have considerable allergenic potential and pose a risk to allergy sufferers. Such species include members of the genus Platanus, or London plane tree, which is increasingly prevalent in a number of southern European cities. Analysis of airborne pollen concentrations enables biological air quality to be asse...

Semi-natural grasslands have an important conservation value in Europe but have been in continuous decline since the early twentieth century. Valuable and well-preserved semi-natural grasslands must be identified in order to plan conservation and restoration strategies. The main aim of this paper is to develop an expert system based on diagnostic s...

The 4th edition of the International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature (ICPN) was prepared by the Steering Committee of the IAVS Working Group for Phytosociological Nomenclature (GPN). The edition consists of 14 Definitions, 7 Principles, 53 Articles, and 7 Appendices. When compared with the previous edition, the main amendments are (1) the ac...

The different species of the genus Platanus, commonly known as plane trees, are widely grown as an ornamental species in Mediterranean cities over recent years. The pollen of these species is a major source of allergens. However, surprisingly little published research has addressed methods for predicting the allergy risk prompted by this pollen. In...

Supporting information for the article Alpha diversity of vascular plants in European forests Article DOI: 10.1111/jbi.13624 Read-only version: https://rdcu.be/bGrNA

Spatial distribution of forest vegetation plots, ranging from 100 to 1,000 m2 in plot size, used as an input dataset for modelling alpha‐diversity patterns (n = 73,134). The colours indicate the total number of vascular plant species recorded per plot (i.e., alpha diversity). For this visualization, alpha‐diversity values displayed on the map were...

Integrated relative importance of predictor variables for explaining alpha‐diversity patterns for all forests and for each forest type separately. The black part of the bars indicates the contribution of the “Mean decrease in node impurity” to the integrated relative importance, while the grey part indicates the contribution of the “Mean decrease i...

Effects of the three top‐ranked predictor variables on alpha diversity for all forests and for each forest type separately (partial dependence plots). The integrated importance scores are shown in parentheses. AET, actual evapotranspiration; PET, potential evapotranspiration; VRM, vector ruggedness measure. The effects of the lower‐ranked predictor...

Predicted alpha diversity of vascular plants across European forests based on Random Forest models for (a) all forests (n = 73,134); (c) deciduous broadleaf forests (n = 54,521); (d) coniferous forests (n = 15,978); and (e) sclerophyllous forests (n = 2,635). All maps are provided in a UTM 5 × 5 km grid, with species numbers predicted for a plot si...

Aim The former continental‐scale studies modelled coarse‐grained plant species‐richness patterns (gamma diversity). Here we aim to refine this information for European forests by (a) modelling the number of vascular plant species that co‐occur in local communities (alpha diversity) within spatial units of 400 m²; and (b) assessing the factors likel...

The conservation of habitat types has been recognized to be of relevant importance for the conservation of biodiversity and is a major concern in the European Union. With the 92/43/EEC Habitats Directive, the European Commission targeted these habitat types, which conservation must be ensured by Member States. In this context, the Habitat type 9330...

Halo-nitrophilous scrubs are characterised by their floristic richness in species of the family Amaranthaceae (include Chenopodiaceae) and the Mediterranean saltbush (Atriplex halimus L.) is one of the most characteristic species in the Mediterranean region. Pollen from Amaranthaceae is the main cause of pollinosis at the end of summer and autumn....

The phytogeographic sector of La Mancha is located in central-eastern Spain and encompasses the vast plateau of La Mancha and the peripheral areas of transition to the surrounding mountain ranges. Sedimentary rocks (marls, limestone and gypsum) and base-rich soils are predominant. The climate is prevalently dry mesomediterranean with continental tr...

Aim Woodlands make up a third of European territory and carry out important ecosystem functions, yet a comprehensive overview of their invasion by alien plants has never been undertaken across this continent. Location Europe. Methods We extracted data from 251,740 vegetation plots stored in the recently compiled European Vegetation Archive. After...

Grass pollen is the main cause of pollen allergy in Europe, and-given its marked allergenic potential and elevated airborne concentrations-constitutes a major public health risk. This study sought to identify the grass species triggering allergies during the highest-risk periods, and to measure the contribution of each species to airborne grass pol...

Questions Which are the main vegetation types of lowland hay meadows and pastures in Western and Central Europe? What are the main environmental gradients that drive patterns of species composition? Is it possible to classify these grasslands to phytosociological alliances that reflect management practices? Location Western and Central Europe (exc...

Analysis of airborne pollen concentrations provides valuable information on plant phenology and is thus a useful tool in agriculture—for predicting harvests in crops such as the olive and for deciding when to apply phytosanitary treatments—as well as in medicine and the environmental sciences. Variations in airborne pollen concentrations, moreover,...

It remains hotly debated whether latitudinal diversity gradients are common across taxonomic groups and whether a single mechanism can explain such gradients. Investigating species richness (SR) patterns of European land plants, we determine whether SR increases with decreasing latitude, as predicted by theory, and whether the assembly mechanisms d...

Questions: Quercus suber L. woods are rare, as most of them have been transformed into agricultural areas, pastureland, exotic forest plantations and agro-silvo-pastoral systems. The latter maintain a variable amount of tree cover, sometimes resembling the original forests, yet quite far from a veritable forest structure. Our aim was to study how c...

Aerobiological research into airborne pollen diversity and seasonal variations in pollen counts has become increasingly important over recent decades due to the growing incidence of asthma, rhinitis and other pollen-related allergic conditions. Airborne pollen in Guadalajara (Castilla-La Mancha, Spain) was studied over a 6-year period (2008–2013) u...

The European Vegetation Archive (EVA) has been developed since 2012 by the IAVS Working Group European Vegetation Survey as a centralized database of European vegetation plots. It stores copies of national and regional vegetation-plot databases on a single software platform. Data storage in EVA does not affect the ongoing independent development of...

Abstract: Di Pietro, R., Theurillat, J.P., Capelo, J., Fernández-González, F., Terzi, M., Carni, A. & Mucina, L. Nomenclature and syntaxonomic notes on some high-rank syntaxa of the European grassland vegetation. Lazaroa 36:79-106 (2015). We present descriptions of a new order (Ranunculo cortusifolii-Geranietalia reuteri) and of a new alliance (Sta...

The interpretation of airborne pollen levels in cities based on the contribution of the surrounding flora and vegetation is a useful tool to estimate airborne allergen concentrations and, consequently, to determine the allergy risk for local residents. This study examined the pollen spectrum in a city in central Spain (Guadalajara) and analysed the...

We present descriptions of a new order (Ranunculo cortusifolii-Geranietalia reuteri) and of a new alliance (Stachyo lusitanicae-Cheirolophion sempervirentis) for the herbaceous fringe communities of Macaronesia and of the southwestern Iberian Peninsula, respectively. A new alliance, the Polygalo mediterraneae-Bromion erecti (mesophilous post-cultur...

Abstract A phytosociological revision of the Cynosurus cristatus grasslands in the Iberian Peninsula is presented. Resampling techniques and numerical and indicator species analysis were applied to assess the diagnostic species of the community types recognized and the ecological patterns that best explain their floristic composition. The main patt...

From an initial database of 1539 relevés with 1199 species, covering the whole distribution of Q. suber in Europe, we obtained a subset of 1270 samples with 1171 species after resampling. -Cluster analysis and Twinspan classification showed similar results for 5 clusters, which were relatively well interpreted in their geogrpahic distribution and s...

QuestionsWhat is the diversity and main vegetation types in mesic grasslands on the Iberian Peninsula? What are the main diagnostic species of each type? What are the main environmental gradients that drive patterns of species composition? To what extent does biogeography influence community diversity?LocationIberian Peninsula (Portugal and Spain,...

From an initial database of 1539 relevés with 1199 species, covering the whole distribution of Q. suber in Europe, we obtained a subset of 1270 samples with 1171 species after resampling. -Cluster analysis and Twinspan classification showed similar results for 5 clusters, which were relatively well interpreted in their geogrpahic distribution and s...

European Vegetation Archive (EVA) was announced as a new initiative of the European Vegetation Survey at the EVS Meeting in Vienna in 2012. The aim of EVA is to create a centralized database of European vegetation plots by storing copies of national and regional databases on a single software platform using a unified taxonomic reference database. E...

European Vegetation Archive (EVA) was announced as a new initiative of the European Vegetation Survey at the EVS Meeting in Vienna in 2012. The aim of EVA is to create a centralized database of European vegetation plots by storing copies of national and regional databases on a single software platform using a unified taxonomic reference database. E...

QuestionsWhat changes have occurred in Mediterranean high-mountain communities during the last 50 yr? Do these changes reflect upward shifts and decline in dry grassland specialists due to climate warming?LocationUpper belt (1900–2400 m a.s.l.) in Sierra de Guadarrama, Spain.Methods We re-surveyed dry grassland communities in 50 summits that were p...

In spite of the biases and errors of the open access biodiversity databases we need to take advantage of the occurrences stored in those databases for analyzing the global patterns of biodiversity. Here, we aimed to test which modelling method produces better predictions when calibrated with data samples that have biases and errors. We tested two d...

Ecological niche models represent key tools in biogeography but the effects of biased sampling hinder their use. Here, we address the utility of two forms of filtering the calibration data set (geographic and environmental) to reduce the effects of sampling bias. To do so we created a virtual species, projected its niche to the Iberian Peninsula an...

This paper reports a floristic and phytocenologic review of the mesic and dry grasslands of the southwestern Iberian Mountain System (Spain) based on numerical and indicator species analysis. The crispness of classification was checked resulting in four main groups that classify grasslands in mesic (Molinio-Arrhenatheretea and Nardetea), semi-dry c...

The SIVIM website was born six years ago. After a first stage of fast growing, the number of queries to its database has currently surpassed 100,000 per year. SIVIM offers its users the opportunity to access to large datasets facilitating phytosociological reviews, plant conservation management and taxonomic chorological studies, amongst others. Th...

This paper deals with the recent debate on the potential natural vegetation (PNV) concept. After reviewing its limitations with respect to understanding of the processes involved in secondary succession, spatial and temporal scaling and data processing, we still consider it a useful tool for summarizing knowledge about a territory in a way that can...

Farmland biodiversity is affected by factors acting at various spatial scales. However, most studies to date have focused on the field or farm scales that only account for local (alpha) diversity, and these may underestimate the contribution of other diversity components (beta diversity) to total (gamma) farmland diversity. In this work, we aimed t...

We have carried out a study on the pastures growing at high altitudes on calcareous substrata in the central-eastern Iberian Peninsula. The study comprised two areas: the Gúdar and Javalambre mountain areas, and the calcareous outcrops of the Sierra de Guadarrama. Two datasets were analysed: relevés taken in the Sierra de Guadarrama in the summer o...

Several herbaceous communities from the southwestern Iberian System poorly known from the phytosociological perspective are documented and framed into their correspondent syntaxa, including calcareous (Epipactido palustris-Primuletum farinosae) and siliceous sedge fens (Caricetum echinato-nigrae), Nardus swards (Genisto anglicae-Nardetum strictae),...

Gavilán, R.G., Vilches de la Serna, B. & Fernández-González, F. Syntaxonomical review of Cytisetea scopario-striati communities in central Spain. Lazaroa 32: 29-72 (2011). A syntaxonomical study was carried out using techniques of multivariate analysis on the nanophanerophytic vegetation of Genistées included in the class Cytisetea scopario-striati...

A study was made of airborne pollen counts in Cuenca (east-central Iberian Peninsula, Spain), using data obtained over a 3-year period (2008-2010). This is the first such study carried out in the World Heritage city of Cuenca, situated in the large region of Castilla-La Mancha. Air monitoring was performed using the sampling and analysis procedures...

The influence of meteorological variables on airborne Cupressaceae pollen levels in central Spain was analyzed, and prediction models based on polynomial and multiple regressions were used to predict pollen counts throughout the pollen season. The Cupressaceae pollen type was selected in view of both its abundance in the atmosphere of the central I...

La mayoría de los tipos de vegetación que se desarrollan en las depresiones endorreicas manchegas constituyen tipos de hábitat naturales escasos, limitados, vulnerables y de importancia para la biodiversidad. En este artículo mostramos la cartografía de la vegetación de El Salobral (Ocaña-Ontígola) a escala 1:6500, y la Laguna del Altillo Chica (Li...