Joop Schaminée

• Wageningen University & Research

This article describes FloraVeg.EU, a new online database with open‐access information on European vegetation units (phytosociological syntaxa), vegetated habitats, and plant taxa. It consists of three modules. (1) The Vegetation module includes 149 phytosociological classes, 378 orders and 1305 alliances of an updated version of the EuroVegCheckli...

Despite Saudi Arabia being an interesting area from a floristic perspective, its vegetation is still relatively poorly studied. This certainly applies to the Hijaz Mountains and adjacent coastal zones. We aim to describe the flora and vegetation of the foothills of the Hijaz Mountains regarding the environmental conditions. Hijaz Mountains and adja...

EXPERT – an algorithm for assigning relevés to plant communities and habitat types in the Netherlands An expert system called EXPERT has been developed for the identification of vegetation plot descriptions (relevés) in the Netherlands. It is online available as freeware on www.synbiosys.alterra.nl. The algorithm runs in JUICE as well as in TURBOV...

The vegetation of coastal sand dunes is characterized by high species diversity and comprises some of the rarest vegetation types in NorthWestern Europe. Among them are dune grassland communities whose species richness relies on grazing. Those communities are assessed as a priority habitat type under the Natura 2000 legislation. In autumn 1990, Gal...

Goldilocks aster (Aster linosyris) was presumed never to be observed in its natural biotope in the Nether-lands. During an assessment of Mountain germander in the Netherlands, however, we stumbled upon a vegetation recording made on the 23 rd of May 1950 by Victor Westhoff, mentioning Aster linosyris on a chalk ridge in the Popel-mondedal at the Si...

Question When evaluating forests in terms of their biodiversity, distinctiveness and naturalness, the affinity of the constituent species to forests is a crucial parameter. Here we ask to what extent are vascular plant species associated with forests, and does species’ affinity to forests vary between European regions? Location Temperate and borea...

In een vorig artikel (Schaminée et al., 2022) is ingegaan op de ecologie en verspreiding van een drietal gentianen in het Mergelland: Veldgentiaan (Gentianella campestris), Franjegentiaan (Gentianopsis ciliata) en Duitse gentiaan (Gentianella germanica). In het voorliggende artikel komt de plantensociologische positie van deze soorten aan bod, gevo...

Aim The first comprehensive checklist of European phytosociological alliances, orders and classes (EuroVegChecklist) was published by Mucina et al. (2016, Applied Vegetation Science , 19 (Suppl. 1), 3–264). However, this checklist did not contain detailed information on the distribution of individual vegetation types. Here we provide the first maps...

In dit artikel (deel 1) wordt ingegaan op de ecologie en verspreiding van de drie gentiaansoorten van het Mergelland, waarvoor we de noodklok luiden. De Veldgentiaan (Gentianella campestris) is vermoedelijk uitgestorven, de Franjegentiaan (Gentianopsis ciliata) dreigt te volgen en van de Duitse gentiaan (Gentianella germanica) resteert nog slechts...

In the Netherlands, like in many other European countries, many plant species are under threat, and despite extensive habitat restoration programmes it has been extremely difficult to turn the tide. More than one third of the 1,500 indige�nous plant species in this country are on the Red List of Vascular Plants, of which about 70 are critically...

Aims Although Sinai is a global hotspot for desert vegetation, there is no well-documented overview of the Sinai vegetation. We aim to provide a phytosociological overview of Sinai desert vegetation based on an extensive database and formal classification. We further aim to describe the vegetation communities and provide information on their distri...

From the moment people started to settle, agriculture became a common and rapidly increasing form of land use, having a huge impact on nature and landscape on all continents. An impact much greater than even urbanisation and increasing infrastructure. Nowadays, agricultural activities directly influence more than 38% of the world’s land surface. Tw...

This synthesis report is a meta-analysis of perspectives for biodiversity and ecosystems, with a strong focus on human impacts on the environment, and a work order to enable and manage the protection, survival and evolution of all species on Earth. The goal is to protect nature without any further species loss (Zero Extinction). With this report, w...

Coastal and inland saline habitats are distributed worldwide. The coastal habitats occur at the border between land and sea in various landscape formations, such as rocky shores, shallow coasts and protected bays, as far as to offshore areas. The inland saline habitats are predominantly part of inland steppe ecosystems. The complex underlying geomo...

Aim The EUNIS Habitat Classification is a widely used reference framework for European habitat types (habitats), but it lacks formal definitions of individual habitats that would enable their unequivocal identification. Our goal was to develop a tool for assigning vegetation‐plot records to the habitats of the EUNIS system, use it to classify a Eur...

In 1975, eight exclosures were set up in the coastal dunes of Meijendel to study the effects of grazing by rabbits, each accompanied by a reference plot of the same size. In 1990, livestock was introduced in the area. The exclusion of rabbits resulted in most cases in the establishment of long-living shrub and tree species (Crataegus monogyna and Q...

Net als kalkgraslanden zijn ook pionierbegroeiingen op rotsbodems in Nederland tot Zuid-Limburg beperkt en evenzogoed verdienen ze alle aandacht van de natuurbescherming. Binnen Natura 2000 worden pionierbegroeiingen op rotsbodems beschouwd als een eigen (prioritair) habitattype (H6110; janssen & sChaminée, 2003). Ook in ‘De Vegetatie van Nederland...

De Berggamander is niet alleen een van de zeldzaamste soorten van ons land, maar ook het aantal individuen is minimaal. Het gaat bij deze soort om slechts één locatie en op die plek komt zij slechts met een enkel individu voor. Over de lotgevallen van deze soort in Zuid-Limburg gaat dit artikel, waarbij wordt ingegaan op haar geografische voorkomen...

Aims Vegetation‐plot sampling usually involves estimating species cover. When plots are classified to vegetation types, covers are often transformed to decrease the effect of dominant species. However, it remains unclear which transformation is optimal. We suggest that for vegetation classification, optimal is such transformation as contributes to...

Due to a growing population, urbanization, industrialization and agriculture, the quality of nature and biodiversity globally has decreased enormously. This also applies to The Netherlands. Habitat banking is a market-based instrument for nature conservation and sustainable development to counteract this decrease. We analyze under which conditions...

Questions The spread of alien plant species is one of the main threats to the biodiversity of different natural habitats, and coastal dune habitats are among the most affected. There is a considerable local and regional variation in the level of alien plant invasion on coastal dunes. We asked what are the patterns of invasion across European coasta...

This report advices which native species of the genus Rosa and autochthonous material should be included in the gene bank for native trees and shrubs in Flevoland based on information on the distribution of the species, recent knowledge about taxonomy and genetic information.

Species distribution models (SDMs) are routinely applied to assess current as well as future species distributions, for example to assess impacts of future environmental change on biodiversity or to underpin conservation planning. It has been repeatedly emphasized that SDMs should be evaluated based not only on their goodness of fit to the data, bu...

Aims: Baltic Sea coastal grasslands are influenced by saline or brackish sea water, a narrow tidal range and non-intensive land use. Since their designation as Natura 2000 habitat types under the EU Habitats Directive, they have become an important conservation issue in Europe. Little supra-regional research has been conducted to date on their flor...

This field guide contains a description of all plant communities (at the level of association) which are distinguished in the recently published check list of plant communities in the Netherlands. Provided are shortened synoptic tables, ecological characteristics, and distribution maps. A key is added to enable a quick identification of plant commu...

Aims Present‐day large‐scale and plot‐based vegetation analyses contribute to the transnational characterization and interpretation of biodiversity patterns and to habitat typologies, which are important for planning, monitoring and decision making in nature conservation. Many historical vegetation surveys applied cover‐abundance, relative occurren...

Baltic Sea coastal grasslands are influenced by saline or brackish sea water, a narrow tidal range and non-intensive land use. They have become an important conservation issue at European scale. So far, only little supra-regional research has been conducted. In this study, we analyse their geographical distribution, syntaxonomical variation, large-...

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 Bokkeveld Plateau overlooks the arid plains of the Knersvlakte and rises to an elevation of more than 800 metres. This escarpment marks the western boundary of the great interior plateau of southern Africa. Once the traveller has ascended Van Rhyn’s Pass and entered the Fynbos belt that marks the highest parts of the escarpment, the profound ch...

Background: High-mountain ecosystems are centres of plant diversity that are particularly sensitive to land-use and climate change. Aims: We investigated the ecological trends associated with land use and climate change since the 1950s in different vegetation types in high-mountain habitats in the central Apennines. Methods: We analysed temporal ch...

Over the past half century, nature protection in the European Union has been increasingly controlled by commitments to policy and legislative frames, notably the Habitats Directive, originating from the European Union and adopted by an enlarging constituency of member states. Habitat (or biotope) classifications developed in association with these...

Aims Although many phytosociological studies have provided detailed local and regional descriptions of coastal dune vegetation, a unified classification of this vegetation in Europe and the Mediterranean Basin has been missing. Our aim is to produce a formalized classification of this vegetation and to identify the main factors driving its plant sp...

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...

In rap tempo verdwijnen soorten uit ons land. Het Levend Archief wil een nationale collectie van wilde plantenzaden opbouwen om zo soorten en hun genetische eigenschappen veilig te stellen.

Marginal associations, i.e. floristically impoverished associations at the margin of the distribution area of a higher syntaxon, form a problem in vegetation classification, because true character species are lacking. We propose a new approach for the classification of such marginal associations, making use of the notion of 'chorological tension zo...

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...

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...

Questions What are the main floristic patterns in European beech forests? Which classification at the alliance and suballiance level is the most convincing? Location Europe and Asia Minor. Methods We applied a TWINSPAN classification to a data set of 24 605 relevés covering the whole range of Fagus sylvatica forests and the western part of Fag...

The aim of the research project Ecohydrology of the spring fed fens in South Limburg (NL) is to define the key processes behind the ecohydrological functioning of these fens and their chances for restoration and nature development of H7230 Alkaline fens in particular. Nowadays this type of calcareous spring fed fen vegetation in the hills of South...

An overview is given of the history of vegetation mapping in the Netherlands. This history started with a map of Zostera noltii in 1860, while from 1937 the fi rst phytoso-ciological maps were made. Applications of vegetation mapping are discussed, as well as the comparison of sequential maps of the same area for monitoring purposes. The paper ends...

Bromus racemosus L. is a rather rare grass species of moist meadows. It has strongly decreased in the course of the 20th century due to intensification of agricultural grassland management, and is therefore included in Red Lists of several European countries. Its winter annual life-cycle is remarkable for a species of permanent grasslands. The aim...

Aims: Phytosociological classification of fen vegetation (Scheuchzerio palustris-Caricetea fuscae class) differs among European countries. Here we propose a unified vegetation classification of European fens at the alliance level, provide unequivocal assignment rules for individual vegetation plots, identify diagnostic species of fen alliances, and...

As an introduction to the Special Issue " Halophytic vegetation " , which includes four research studies and one review article, this Editorial briefly touches on problems, challenges and solution approaches related to the classification of vegetation associated with coastal and inland saline habitats. Three central issues, addressed in this introd...

This projects aims at parameterising the grassland units of the revised EUNIS habitat classification across Europe. Using the comprehensive plot dataset from the European Vegetation Archive (EVA), all grassland habitats (habitat group E) of Europe (including the coastal grey dunes, habitat subgroup B1.4) are formally defined with a unanimous floris...

Aims: Syntaxonomic classification is widely used for vegetation survey in Europe. The long history of its use has produced many concepts and names of vegetation units that need to be revised and integrated into a single classification system. Here we (1) present a new, global hierarchical syntaxonomic systems of alliances, orders, classes of the Br...