Historically, large areas of forest in Europe were managed as coppice woodland to produce wood‐based fuel for the smelting industry. We hypothesized that this practice produced a legacy effect on current forest ecosystem properties. Specifically, we hypothesized that the historical form of coppicing may have produced a legacy of elevated stocks of soil organic carbon (SOC), nutrients and black carbon (BC) in soil as fire was routinely used in coppiced woodland to clear land. We further hypothesized that these changes in soil properties would result in increased biodiversity. To test these hypotheses, we sampled the surface soil (0–5, 5–10 and 10–20 cm) from a chronosequence of forest sites found in the Siegerland (Germany) that had been coppiced and burned 1, 2, 3.5, 6, 8, 11 and 17 years before present. Mature beech and spruce forests (i.e., >60 years) were also sampled as reference sites: to provide a hint of what might occur in the absence of human intervention. We measured stocks of SOC, BC, NO3‐N, P, K, Mg, as well as cation exchange and water‐holding capacity, and we mapped plant composition to calculate species richness and evenness. The results showed that coppicing in combination with burning soil and litter improved soil nutrient availability, enhanced biodiversity and increased SOC stocks. The SOC stocks and biodiversity were increased by a factor of three relative to those in the mature beech and spruce forests. This study shows that traditional coppicing practice may facilitate net C accrual rates of 20 t ha−1 yr−1 and maintain high biodiversity, indicating that aspects of traditional practice could be applied in current forest management to foster biodiversity and to mitigate climate change.

The use of charcoal as a soil amendment is currently of great interest to sequester carbon and improve soil fertility, however, studies of sites where charcoal amendments to the soil have been made many years ago are lacking at the moment. In this study we investigated historical charcoal production sites in Germany that have not been in use for >60years, and evaluated the effects of the former charcoal inputs on soil and vegetation parameters relative to those of adjacent, unamended areas. Surface soil samples (0–5, 5–20cm) were taken from five sites located on extremely acidic (Siegerland, pH3.8–4.1) and base rich soils (Eifel, pH4.8–5.3) in species poor (Luzulo-Fagetum) and species rich (Hordelymo-Fagetum) beech forests, respectively. We determined stocks of black carbon (BC) and natural soil organic carbon (SOC=total C minus BC) as well as of soil nutrient stocks (NO3-N, P, K, Mg), cation exchange capacity and water holding capacity, and we mapped plant composition to calculate richness and evenness. The results showed that historical charcoal production sites were enriched with BC and also exhibited increased stocks of natural SOC and total N possibly due to enhanced stabilization of natural SOC by the charcoal. The availability of nitrate-nitrogen, phosphate and potassium was increased when the charcoal was added to the base rich soils and less so when charcoal was added to the extremely acidic soils. Plant biodiversity was not different between the sites of historical charcoal addition and the reference sites. We conclude that charcoal additions may increase soil carbon storage capacity over prolonged periods of time without negatively affecting plant ecological interactions over the long term.

The use of mean value for the analysis of Ellenberg indicator values in plots or plant community types has been criticised by several authors. On the other hand, little attention has been paid to distribution patterns of the respective classes frequencies. Herewith we make a revision of metrics available for the characterization of tendency and distribution patterns of ordinal variables, like in the case of Ellenberg indicator values, and discuss their relation to frequency histogram shapes. We selected three tendencies (mean value, median value and mode) and two distribution metrics (position index and relative dominance). Additionally, we proposed a concentration index, which is analogous to the contagion index commonly used by landscape ecologists. According to our observations, we recommend the use of the median value and the concentration index to quantify respectively the tendency and distribution patterns on indicator spectra (frequency histograms) according to the Ellenberg indicator values. Further studies are required to get better ecological interpretations in the distribution patterns of indicator spectra.

The logging of several spruce plantations is planned for the next years in the Eifel National Park (Western Germany). To understand the ecological mechanisms of spontaneous forest regeneration that follows these impacts, it is crucial to investigate the species composition and functional diversity of the buried germinable seeds in those stands.

Grassland vegetation in temperate Chile is dominated by European plant species.Since those plant communities got established spontaneously, they offer us the possibility to study invasion (dispersal) dynamics at the synecological level.In this ongoing project we are collecting published relevés of the temperate and Antarctic regions of Chile, storing them in a TURBOVEGdatabase (CL-Dataveg; GIVD ID SA-CL-001).Also relevés from the Argentinean Patagonia are included.The main aims of this project are to develop a summarizing classification of the grassland vegetation in the geographical range mentioned above and to confirm its assignment into the class Molinio-Arrhenateretea (included until now in the the Agrostidion chilensis Oberdorfer alliance, 1960).Secondary aims are to describe the geographic patterns of distribution, to compare the South American plant communities with their European counterparts, and to identify missing surveys.The future inclusion of all available data of the vegetation in Chile into CL-Dataveg is also considered.

Small wetlands in East Africa are increasingly converted into sites for agricultural production. The resulting changes in land use and cropping systems will impact on the wetlands’ vegetation. We characterized the plant communities in four wetlands of Kenya and Tanzania, each comprising four types of land use differentiated by the degree of anthropogenic disturbance (cropland, fallow, grazing land and unused). Since no syntaxonomical scheme was available as a reference, a first classification of vegetation units and the identification of diagnostic species is proposed. We collected 207 releves in the representative wetlands in relation to the current land uses. The plant communities were determined using a modified TWINSPAN classification. For each vegetation unit, diagnostic species were selected according to their fidelity index (phi coefficient). Floristic relationships between vegetation units were surveyed by nMDS ordination analyses. We identified 15 plant communities and selected 147 diagnostic species. The communities were differentiated into (1) semi-natural wetland vegetation (associated with less disturbed environments), (2) grassland and fallow vegetation, and (3) weed communities (associated with eu-hemerobic, drained and cultivated cropland). While the semi-natural vegetation was distinctly matched with unused fields, the differential matching of the other plant communities with land use types was less clear. According to the floristic similarity, the weed communities associated with cropland tended to be aggregated in the nMDS configuration while the semi-natural vegetation was dispersed. The results of the ordination did not differ when involving all species or only the selected diagnostic ones. As the plant communities described are rankless syntaxa, the establishment of a comprehensive syntaxonomic classification for African wetlands will require further vegetation surveys as well as their comparison with published data.

SWEA (agricultural use and vulnerability of small wetlands in East Africa) is a multidisciplinary project which task is to evaluate the effects of land use on the ecological and socio-economical functions of small wetlands in Kenya and Tanzania.In order to allow the availability of the collected data for further studies we stored them into SWEA-Dataveg (GIVD ID AF-00-006), a database stored in Microsoft Access (mdb-format).Because this project is dealing not only with vegetation science but also with geography, soil science, hydrology and socio-economy, the database also contains information related to these research fields.Additionally, some functional traits of the plant species occurring in the relevés are included in the species list.The sampling areas are concentrated in four localities, two of them in Kenya (Karatina and Rumuruti) and two in Tanzania (Malinda and Lukozi).The vegetation ecology group is dealing in the project with the classification of the vegetation according to species composition, the correlation of plant communities with environmental factors and land uses, and the survey of potential indicator species for the determination of the resilience of wetlands.Once finished the storage, we are considering an adaptation of SWEA-Dataveg into a TURBOVEG-format as well as its extension to further projects (e.g.SWEA phase II) and relevés collected from publications.

Small wetlands in Kenya and Tanzania cover about 12 million ha and are increasingly converted for agricultural production. There is a need to provide guidelines for their future protection or use, requiring their systematic classification and characterisation. Fifty-one wetlands were inventoried in 2008 in four contrasting sites, covering a surveyed total area of 484 km2. Each wetland was subdivided into sub-units of 0.5–458 ha based on the predominant land use. The biophysical and socio-economic attributes of the resulting 157 wetland sub-units were determined. The wetland sub-units were categorized using multivariate analyses into five major cluster groups. The main wetland categories comprised: (1) narrow permanently flooded inland valleys that are largely unused; (2) wide permanently flooded inland valleys and highlands floodplains under extensive use; (3) large inland valleys and lowland floodplains with seasonal flooding under medium use intensity; (4) completely drained wide inland valleys and highlands floodplains under intensive food crop production; and (5) narrow drained inland valleys under permanent horticultural production. The wetland types were associated with specific vegetation forms and soil attributes. Agricultural land use of wetlands was linked to their physical accessibility and the availability of adjacent upland areas, irrespective of wetland size or soil type.

Demographic growth, degradation of upland soils and increasingly variable climatic conditions have resulted in an increased intensity of agricultural land use of small wetlands in East Africa. These practices have led to negative impacts on natural vegetation patterns and composition. Some wetlands are vulnerable to anthropogenic interventions and hence at risk in case of agricultural use. While abundant in East Africa, little work has been done on the vegetation communities and the distribution and the role of vegetation on small wetlands. Vegetation changes may provide an important tool to assess the potential and vulnerability of wetlands. We determined the relation between habitat factors and species composition, and the impact of land use changes and wetland disturbances on plant communities and their floristic composition. In addition, the origin and life forms of dominants species were documented. Vegetation sampling was carried out based on land use and land cover changes in four representative wetland systems. Releve’s were used during a reconnaissance survey to determine the minimal area required for detailed studies to capture the maximum number of species within the vegetation. Rapid Rural Appraisal was used to collect information from the local people about the characteristics vegetation types as well as past and current land use activities. Preferential and stratification methods were used to describe plant species composition in wetlands with different biophysical characteristics (climate, soil and hydrology). Floristic composition and species cover and abundance were assessed from 10 m×10 m. The vegetation was characterised and classified using statistical, syntaxonomical and ordination approaches to link species composition to environmental and land management factors. Effect of wetland use changes on species composition, the characterisation of wetlands plant communities and their floristic composition will be presented.

Das Programm DiversityCalc ermöglicht mit wenig Aufwand einfache Diversitätsberechnungen an beliebigen Artenlisten, die in gängigen Tabellenformaten digital vorliegen. Für den Einsatz in der Gradientenanalyse und beim Biomonitoring (Dauerbeobachtungen) sind vor allem die α- und β-Diversitätsindizes von Interesse. Ermittelt werden deshalb neben der Artenzahl der Shannon-Index, die Evenness, die Präsenz-Gemeinschaftskoeffizienten nach Jaccard, Sørensen und Ruggiero sowie die Massen-Gemeinschaftskoeffizienten nach Gleason, Ellenberg und Motyka. Ergänzend werden die Stetigkeiten und die Artmächtigkeiten der aufgelisteten Arten ermittelt. Aus der Ergebnisdatei lassen sich anschließend leicht traditionelle Vegetationstabellen erzeugen.

Auf einer nordwestexponierten Basaltblockhalde im Hundsbachtal bei Gerolstein konnte in Gesieben von humosen Material aus den Felszwischenräumen und anhand von Fallenfunden erstmals für die Eifel die als Periglazial- bzw. Glazialrelikt interpretierte Leptusa simoni Eppelsheim, 1878 (Coleoptera: Staphylinidae) nachgewiesen werden. Diese Entdeckung bestätigt die herausragende biogeographische Rolle Kaltluft erzeugender Basaltblockhalden im außeralpinen Mitteleuropa.

Measurements of the microclimate on slopes with extensive basaltic blocks reveal cold airstreams coming out of the ground. These airstreams caused by perennial underground ice influence the herbaceous, bryophytic and lichenophytic vegetation by locally inverting the temperature of the air close to the ground surface. In accordance to these ecological characteristics the Betulo-carpaticae-Sorbetum aucupariae appears and the woodless parts of the slope are characterized by not competitive lichens and bryophytes.

In East Africa demographic growth, inter-generational inheritance of land, increasing land scarcity in the highlands areas, degradation of upland soils and inter-annual variability of rains is increasing cropping pressure on seasonal and nearly permanent wetlands. This study was carried out between 2008 and 2016 in order to find the changes of plant communities in Malinda wetland due to intensity of land use which results into changes of soil properties which impacts the functions of wetland ecosystems and on potential productivity of the soils. A first survey and plant communities characteristics in the area was firstly done in 2008 and a rapid appraisal with key informants was carried out to determine the characteristic land uses and to collect information on land use history of the area. Four land use types were determine which include unused part with domination of wetland vegetation, fairly used area with minimal grazing during dry period of the year, high intensity used area dominated by horticulture and fallow land which has been left after use or is used for yearly grazing. According to preferential sampling, 40 plots of size 10 m2 representing the main types of land uses were selected. In those plots all species and their estimated abundance as percentage cover were recorded. In each plot soil samples of the layer 0–15 cm were taken for soil chemical analysis. The same sampling techniques and procedure were repeated in the year 2016. The vegetation was classified by using hierarchical clustering technique and the relationships between species composition (land uses and plant communities) and soil properties of the wetland. The canonical correspondence analysis (CCA) was applied and the vegetation was classified into ten plant communities (clusters), five of them were weed communities of croplands while the remaining plant communities were from fallow, grazing land and unused part of wetland. There was no great difference in vegetation composition and plant communities obtained between the period of eight years. Both showed almost the same species composition and the plant communities were determined by soil exchangeable K, electric conductivity and pH according to ordination analysis.