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Applied Vegetation Science : Editorial 2021

2020; Wiley; Volume: 24; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/avsc.12540

1654-109X

Milan Chytrý, Alessandro Chiarucci, Meelis Pärtel, Valério D. Pillar,

Aeolian processes and effects

Looking at this first article of Volume 24 of Applied Vegetation Science, you may have noticed that page numbers have been replaced by a unique article code, so-called e-Locator. This small change indicates a major shift of the journal to online-only, continuous publishing. Nowadays, most readers of scientific articles access them online, while the use of hardcopy journals has been steadily declining over recent years. Indeed, the number of hardcopy subscriptions of Applied Vegetation Science was also declining, and in 2020 we produced only a few dozen hardcopies. Consequently, we decided to follow many other journals and shifted to online-only publishing. Doing so, we contribute to reducing the environmental impact caused by the production and distribution of printed journal copies. Moreover, the authors will appreciate that all colour images will now be published free of charge, with no need to pay fees for colour print. The shift to online-only publishing made it possible to adopt the continuous publishing model. When there were printed issues, all the accepted articles had to wait for their assignment to an issue. The queuing articles were available to the readers before their inclusion to an issue in the Early View section of the journal website. However, the Early View articles did not have the volume and page numbers and the final publication date. Being not the final publications, they were not accepted as valid project deliverables by some funding agencies or disregarded in the publication assessment during some promotion or tenure decisions. Now, we have no printed issues, so each accepted, typeset and proof-read article is published directly as the final version. This change is dramatically shortening the time from article acceptance to its final publication. Still, we will continue publishing Special Features: they will consist of articles with different publication dates presented jointly in a special section of the journal website. We have also introduced Spotlights: virtual online collections of articles of the same type or focused on similar topics. It has become a tradition in Applied Vegetation Science and Journal of Vegetation Science to give Editors’ Awards to one of the articles published in the past year. It is never an easy task to select such an article because there are too many exciting articles published in the journals. Fortunately, the Chief Editors, who make the final decision, are assisted by the Associate Editors who provide recommendations of articles that deserve special attention. The AVS Editors’ Award for 2020 goes to Lise Maciejewski for the methodological article “Vegetation unit assignments: phytosociology experts and classification programmes show similar performance but low convergence” (Maciejewski et al., 2020). Maciejewski and co-authors deal with an important issue of applied vegetation science — automatic assignment of vegetation plot records to an existing vegetation or habitat classification. There are several methods of such assignment, and the senior author of the awarded article, Jean-Claude Gégout, significantly contributed to their development in his past work (Gégout & Coudun, 2012). However, a critical caveat is that the performance of the automatic methods needs to be evaluated by comparing their assignments with standard (“correct”) assignments, but such standard assignments (“true classification”) do not exist. Previous studies compared the automatic assignments with assignments by an expert, considering the expert assignments as the “truth,” in spite of the fact that experts often differ in their assignments. Maciejewski et al. proposed a novel approach. They used experts from different professional organizations and assessed the agreement among assignments by several experts and several methods of automatic assignment simultaneously. They found that although the assignments by individual experts and individual automatic methods differed in many cases, the overall degree of agreement was similar across all the experts and automatic methods. Their results demonstrate that the use of automatic methods is advantageous because they perform similarly to the experts, but provide assignments for hundreds or thousands of plots within a few seconds or minutes, unlike experts who need many hours or days to do the same job. The Award-winning article (Maciejewski et al., 2020) is also an example of the new article type “Methods in Vegetation Science,” which we recently introduced in both Applied Vegetation Science and Journal of Vegetation Science. Both journals have always published articles dealing with methods of vegetation sampling or data analysis. From 2020, these articles are recognized and labelled as a specific article type. All of them are also published together within one of the Spotlights — online collections of articles sharing the same broad topic, in this case, the methodology of vegetation science. Some other articles were nominated as candidates for the Editors’ Award. Here, we mention just two. Těšitel et al. (2020), in a Forum article, discussed the role of native parasitic plants, especially root hemiparasites, mistletoes and parasitic vines, in suppressing native and alien invaders. They provide examples from different continents how these species can reduce the spread of invaders, and call for more widespread use of native parasitic plants as biological control agents. Their arguments and proposals deserve attention from managers of biological invasions. The second article we want to mention (Titěra et al., 2020) focused on one of the oldest continuously running ecological experiments on the European mainland: the Rengen Grassland Experiment in western Germany, established in 1941 (Hejcman et al., 2007). For 10 years (2005–2014), the authors recorded plant species composition and covers of individual species in permanent plots with different fertilizer application treatments. Despite some year-to-year fluctuations, the plant communities in individual plots remained relatively stable, indicating that after six decades of consistent fertilizer application, the grasslands subjected to each specific treatment reached an equilibrium. The grasslands with phosphorus application were species-poor, while the treatments with lime or nitrogen but no phosphorus remained species-rich. Interestingly, the directional trend of community change was observed mainly in the unfertilized control plot as a response to nutrient impoverishment. Apart from these studies, the fourth edition of the International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature (Theurillat et al., 2021) was published on Early View in Applied Vegetation Science in December 2020. This essential technical handbook for syntaxonomy was prepared by the Steering Committee of the IAVS Working Group for Phytosociological Nomenclature (GPN). It replaces the previous edition of the Code published twenty years ago (Weber et al., 2000). Among many changes, the new version of the Code reflects the recent developments in scientific publishing by recognizing publications of syntaxon names in electronic documents with DOI as effective publications. This change is consistent with the shift of Applied Vegetation Science to online-only publishing. Any new syntaxon name published in the online-only version of Applied Vegetation Science will be published effectively. Various activities in the year 2020 were adversely affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and vegetation science was no exception. The annual symposium of the International Association for Vegetation Science, planned for July 2020 in Vladivostok, Russia, had to be cancelled. So were the conferences of the IAVS working groups, and travel restrictions complicated fieldwork. Nevertheless, the functioning of Applied Vegetation Science and its sister Journal of Vegetation Science were not affected. After the period of spring lockdowns, we experienced a considerably larger number of new submissions to Applied Vegetation Science than in the same months of the previous years. Obviously, many vegetation scientists were able to use the lockdown period for finishing their pending articles. All of these new articles were standardly processed thanks to the efforts of our international team of 42 Associate Editors and Editorial Board Members, and more than 300 voluntary reviewers who are listed in the Appendix. The journals and their editors are here to serve the global community of vegetation scientist both in good times and worse times. We hope the worse times will be over soon and we will meet at the IAVS Symposium in Madrid in June 2021. [Correction added on 19 January 2021 after first publication: the last paragraph of section 2 has been removed because it referred to an article not published in the 2020 volume] [Correction added on 22 February 2021 after first publication: discussion of the International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature has been added to the end of section 2 and the reference added to the reference list] We thank the referees who served Applied Vegetation Science from 1 October 2019 to 30 September 2020. *Those who reviewed more than two times are indicated by asterisks. Scott Abella Gabriela Adamescu Alison Agneray Mitchell Aide Janne Alahuhta Juha Alatalo Katharina Albrich Hamada Elsayed Ali Edith Allen Enrique Andivia* Bianca Andrade Gabriel Arellano Paul Ashton Thomas Astor Inger Auestad Gunnar Austrheim Irena Axmanová Giovanni Bacaro Manuele Bazzichetto Alison Beamish Andrew Bennett Joseph Bennett Monica Bibiana Berdugo Moreno Laurent Bergès Ariel Bergamini Erwin Bergmeier* Idoia Biurrun Steffen Boch Gianmaria Bonari Zoltán Botta-Dukát Elizabeth Boughton Alejandro Brazeiro Carolina Bremm Steve Brewer Jörg Brunet Anna Bucharová Peter Buckley Jana Bürger Marcelo Cabido Leonor Calvo Bruna Campos Jorge Capelo Samantha Capon Marcos Carlucci Mário Cava Artemi Cerda Tobias Ceulemans Lindsay Chiquoine Chun-Huo Chiu Kwek Yan Chong Peter Clark Corli Coetsee Timo Conradi Luisa Conti Miranda Curzon Flávia Maria da Silva Carmo Andrea Dalmolin Andrea Davalos Miquel De Cáceres Enrique de la Riva David Deane Michele Dechoum Jürgen Dengler* Leen Depauw Francesca Di Pietro Martin Diekmann Kingsley Dixon Jiří Doležal Tobias W Donath Martin Dovciak Giselda Durigan* Thierry Dutoit Monika Egerer Carsten Eichberg Jana Eichel David Eldridge Lucas Enrico Ellen Esch René Eschen Amy Eycott Don Faber-Langendoen Giuliano Fanelli Edy Fantinato* Mohammad Farzam Jianmeng Feng Felícia M. Fischer Robert Francis Talitha Francisco Martin Freitag David Frey Guillermo Funes Dan Gafta Hamid Gholizadeh Melisa Giorgis Pablo Gonzalez-Moreno Lucas Gorné Lars Götzenberger Joe Greet Jessica Grenke Sabine Greulich Maarten de Groot Andre Grosse-Stoltenberg Friederike Grüninger John-Arvid Grytnes Anaclara Guido Reginald Guuroh Natalia Harguindeguy Kristian Hassel John D. Hay Gregory Henry Tomáš Herben Patrick Hesp Alison Hester Eduardo Hettwer Giehl Samuel Hoffmann Karen Holl Norbert Hölzel Jürgen Homeier Maike Isermann Hiroaki Ishii Catarina Jakovac Monika Janišová Florian Jansen João Jarenkow Anna Jarocińska Francesca Jaroszynska Pedro Jaureguiberry Borja Jiménez-Alfaro Heather Joesting Carlos Joly Lize Joubert Alistair Jump Jutta Kapfer András Kelemen Janez Kermavnar Miklós Kertész Zaal Kikvidze Keith Kirby Réka Kiss Valentin Klaus Till Kleinebecker Martina Köhler Tom Kolb Johannes Kollmann Anna Kuzemko Emma Ladouceur Flavia Landucci* Julie Larson Daniel Laughin Michael Le Duc* Soizig Le Stradic Jan Lehmann Jonas Lembrechts Attila Lengyel* Jonathan Lenoir Jan Lepš* Wolfgang Lewandrowski Jaan Liira Henrik Lindberg Marcus Lindner María Lipoma Javier Loidi Priscilla Loiola Javier Lopatin Gabriela Lopez-Gonzalez Zdeňka Lososová Simona Maccherini Marco Malavasi František Máliš Rob Marrs Maria Luisa Martínez Vazques Ricardo Martinez-Garcia Jana Martínková Tetsuya Matsui Brian Mealor Jorge Meave Pierre Meerts Klaus Mehltreter Helen Metcalfe Anna Mežaka Ruth Mitchell Jonathan Mitchley Andreas Moelder Jose Antonio Molina Jonas Morales-Linares Alejandra Morán Ordóñez Bruno Moreira Cristian Anibal Moreno García John Morgan Ondřej Mudrák Sandra Müller Admore Mureva Raytha Murillo Tobias Naaf Katsuhiro Nakao Lena Neuenkamp Carsten Neumann Corentin Nicod Pavel Novák Jari Oksanen Adeyemi Olusola Yagil Osem Rafael Otfinowski Jacqueline P. Ott Gerhard Overbeck Maciej Pach Robin Pakeman Seyran Palabaş Uzun Ana Palma Salza Palpurina Ricarda Pätsch Begoña Peco Robert Peet Cord Peppler-Lisbach Oscar Perez-Garcia Michael Perring Rémi Perronne Oliver Pescott Mária Petrášová-Šibíková Victoria Piazza Tiffany Pillay Laura Ploughe Jan Plue Luciana Podgaiski Monique Poulin Karel Prach Elisabeth Prangel Bernard Prevosto James Pryke Francisco Pugnaire Leonid Rasran Zak Ratajczak Klára Řehounková Eva Remke Björn Reu Lisa Rew Christian Rixen Dave Roberts George Robinson Maria Pilar Rodríguez-Rojo Víctor Rolo* Ruben Roos Line Rosef Milena Fermina Rosenfield Arne Saatkamp Hugo Saiz Victor M. Santana Jean-Pierre Saucier Stephanie Schelfhout Ute Schmiedel Rheinhardt Scholtz Nick Schultz Michele Scotton Tim Seipel Timothy Shearman Robyn Simcock Holly Sitters Judit Sonkoly Sara Souther Marta Gaia Sperandii* Manuel Steinbauer Christian Storm Rafael Sühs Zhongyu Sun Malin Talle Massimo Terzi Jakub Těšitel Leonardo Texeira Jean-Paul Theurillat Malinda Thilakarathna Joachim Toepper Csaba Tölgyesi Péter Török* Michele Torresani Béla Tóthmérész Sakari Tuominen Pavel Dan Turtureanu Xavier Úbeda Milan Valachovič Orsolya Valkó* Elisa Van Cleemput Koenraad Van Meerbeek Kari Veblen Kris Verheyen Toon Verwaest Tatiane Vieira Risto Virtanen Goddert von Oheimb Markus Wagner Viktoria Wagner* Steve Waldren Ran Wang David Ward Karsten Wesche Hasintha Wijesekara Nicholas Williams Susan Wiser Jianshuang Wu Monika Wulf Feihai Yu Rakan Zahawi Zoey Zapisocki David Zelený João Paulo Zorzanelli