National parks play a key role in biodiversity conservation, but the vegetation data collected within them often remain fragmented, heterogeneous, or difficult to access. Structured vegetation databases are therefore essential for transforming historical and contemporary records into accessible resources for environmental management, scientific research, and future monitoring initiatives. Here we present the Vegetation Database of the Gran Paradiso National Park, Italy’s first national park, registered in GIVD under the ID EU-IT-025. The park is a hotspot of alpine biodiversity, harbouring over 1,100 vascular plant species, including more than 80 alpine endemic species. The database integrates decades of botanical research. This comprehends vegetation surveys derived from different research projects based on different sampling methods, including a subset of permanent plots. To ensure consistency and interoperability, records were georeferenced and harmonised. The database includes 1,203 vegetation plots, associated metadata, and 853 recorded taxa, largely from high-elevation environments above 2,000 m a.s.l. More than 100 species are of conservation concern, and nearly 7% are alpine endemics. Most plots (89%) were assigned to EUNIS habitat categories, with grasslands as the dominant type. The database is accessible through a dedicated web application, facilitating data exploration and supporting its use in conservation planning, habitat assessment, and future vegetation monitoring. Taxonomic references : Bartolucci et al. (2024) for native vascular plants, Galasso et al. (2024) for alien vascular plants, Aleffi et al. (2023) for bryophytes.
We outline the nomenclatural novelties that became necessary following a comprehensive inventory of the syntaxonomic diversity of the class Mulgedio-Aconitetea in Russia. This inventory was conducted as part of the ongoing project “Vegetation Classification of Russia”. As a result, we present four nomenclatural proposals, validate one alliance name and four association names, and publish five new associations. We also raise two suballiances to alliance rank and four subassociations to association rank. In addition, one class name, one order name and two alliance names are mutated. (48) Rubo-Cardaminetum macrophyllae Guinochet 1982 nom. ambig. propos. Typus: relevé 4 in table 2 in Guinochet (1982) (holotypus) (49) Trollio asiatici-Crepidion sibiricae Guinochet ex Chytrý, Pešout et Anenkhonov 1993 typus cons. propos. Typus: Veratro lobeliani-Caricetum altaicae Lashchinskiy et Gorshkova 1995 nom. cons. propos. (50) Veratro lobeliani-Caricetum altaicae Lashchinskiy et Gorshkova 1995 nom. cons. propos. Typus: Lashchinskiy and Gorshkova (1995), p. 37; relevé 63, table 2 (=) Carici altaicae-Allietum schoenoprasi Krasnoborov 1961 Typus: Krasnoborov (1961), pp. 141–142, relevé 233a (51) Aconito paskoi-Geranion albiflori Zhitlukhina et Onishchenko ex Ermakov, Shaulo et Maltseva 2000 nom. cons. et typus cons. propos. Typus: Saussureo frolowii-Bupleuretum aurei Zhitlukhina et Onishchenko ex Ermakov, Shaulo et Maltseva 2000 typus cons. propos. (≡) Athyrion distentifolii Lashchinskiy 1999 Typus: Athyrietum distentifolii Lashchinskiy et Gorshkova 1995 nom. illeg. (Art. 31) Taxonomic reference : POWO (2026) for vascular plants, except for Chrysosplenium sibiricum (Ser.) A. P. Khokhryakov 1989 and Geranium krylovii Tzelev 1993, and WFO (2026) for bryophytes. Abbreviations : ICN = International Code of Nomenclature for algae, fungi, and plants (Turland et al. 2025); ICPN = International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature (Theurillat et al. 2021).
Aims: When vegetation mapping does not match well to vegetation on the ground, it becomes difficult to manage and regulate appropriately. Here, we conducted field validation of regulatory vegetation map units known as Plant Community Types (PCTs) in the Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area (GBMWHA) assessing the potential extent of PCT misclassification, and generating new mapping and descriptions of rainforest communities. Location: Greater Sydney, Australia. Methods: We estimated cover-abundance for vascular species and presence of bryophytes species at 55 plots. We compared field data to that of locally mapped and other regional PCTs using ordination, PERMANOVA and government-developed tools for end users. We assessed the utility of bryophytes, which are typically overlooked in vegetation classification, for delineating between vegetation types. High-resolution spatial data and ground truthing were used to map the putative extent of rainforest in the study area. Results: We identified clear mismatches between local floristic composition and mapped PCTs. Vegetation at our field sites comprised two distinctive communities and did not correspond well to any locally defined PCT or other regional PCTs. Bryophyte assemblages also differed between our two surveyed communities. 65% of sites surveyed were in areas mapped as sclerophyll-dominated forest but had floristic assemblages consistent with rainforest. More broadly, >90% of putative rainforest identified by our mapping approach is mapped as sclerophyll forest under PCT mapping, with rainforest extent likely three to four times greater than PCT mapping indicates. Conclusions: We propose two new vegetation types in the GBMWHA and recommend these be included in revisions to the PCT classification: ‘Hawkesbury Warm Sheltered Gully Rainforest’ and ‘Hawkesbury Subtropical-Dry Bench Rainforest’. Fires and pressures from urban development will likely threaten the integrity of these rainforests in future. Revision of PCT mapping and measures aimed at mitigating threats to remaining patches is urgently required to protect the Outstanding Universal Values of the World Heritage Area. Taxonomic reference: Australian Plant Census, IBIS database (http://www.chah.gov.au/apc/index.html) [accessed 27 Jan 2026]. Abbreviations: GBMWHA = Greater Blue Mountains World Heritage Area; HK = Hawkesbury; NSW = New South Wales; PCT = Plant Community Type; SVTM = State Vegetation Type Map.
Background : The majority of vegetation plots has been and still is being recorded on ordinal scales, meaning that the values have to be back-transformed to percent for many typical analyses. Little is known about how different back-transformation approaches affect this procedure. While generally the midpoints of the class borders are recommended for back transformation, one of the most widely used back-transformation for the 7-step Braun-Blanquet scale (as the most widely used ordinal scale) is the default back transformation in the software TURBOVEG. Thus, we asked whether this approach possibly biases results. Case study : We selected three datasets of different vegetation types recorded with percent and calculated how the use of the 7-step Braun-Blanquet scale with three possible back-transformations (arithmetic and geometric mid-point, TURBOVEG) would have influenced Shannon diversity, Shannon evenness and Simpson diversity. We found small and inconsistent changes for the first two but always substantial increases in case of the TURBOVEG back-transformation. Conclusions : The default TURBOVEG translation of the 7-step Braun-Blanquet scale can strongly bias analyses of vegetation plots stored in regional and collaborative databases in the case of cover-based biodiversity metrics, but likely also for any other analysis that involves species cover. It should thus be avoided.
This article presents the results of regional documentary research concerning two publications by Josias Braun-Blanquet and Aimé Luquet from 1926. Each contains numerous names of associations and alliances that were previously considered homonyms of equal age in the International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature (Art. 33). We show that Braun-Blanquet’s publication predates Luquet’s, and draw nomenclatural conclusions. We discuss several alliances that are widespread in Western Europe and were published by these authors or others in the same year: Adenostylion alliariae, Nardion strictae, Cardamino-Montion, Genisto pilosae-Vaccinion, Arrhenatherion elatioris, Caricion nigrae, Sphagnion medii, Fagion sylvaticae, Calamagrostion arundinaceae, Festucion variae, Piceion abietis, as well as their type associations. The discussion focuses on their nomenclatural status under the ICPN and how they are included in the current European classification (EuroVegChecklist) and in the Prodrome of French vegetations, according to their syntaxonomic concept. Taxonomic reference: WFO (2025). Abbreviations: Art. = ICPN article; CLF = Clermont-Ferrand university herbarium; EVC = EuroVegChecklist; EVCC = European Vegetation Classification Committee; GPN = IAVS Working Group for Phytosociological Nomenclature; ICPN = International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature; MPU = Montpellier university herbarium; PVF1 = Prodromus of French Vegetation, first version at the level of the alliance; PVF2 = Prodromus of French Vegetation, second version at the level of the plant association.
