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Restoration and management of plant communities in Applied Vegetation Science

2022; Wiley; Volume: 25; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/avsc.12632

1654-109X

Jodi N. Price, Meelis Pärtel, Valério D. Pillar, Milan Chytrý,

Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies

In 2021, global environmental challenges were at the forefront of our minds. Having finished the first year of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, we are witnessing the predicted effects of anthropogenic climate change around the world. Applied ecological research is more important than ever to develop appropriate management solutions to the wide range of environmental challenges. In this editorial, we take a look at the key issues and topics of interest in Applied Vegetation Science (AVS) over the last five years. Our brief analysis complements and updates information on the major topics from 1998 to 2016 in an earlier editorial (Chytrý et al., 2017) and is parallel to the analysis published simultanously for the Journal of Vegetation Science (Pillar et al., 2022). We examined the 389 articles published in AVS since 2016 excluding Editorials. We extracted key terms in the titles, abstracts and author addresses. We performed a network analysis using the VOSviewer tool v.1.6.17 (van Eck & Waltman, 2010). The most frequent countries of author affiliation and the network of collaborations based on co-authorship are shown in Figure 1a. The red cluster indicates strong collaboration between Eastern and Central European countries, including also some Northwestern European countries such as the Netherlands. The green cluster includes the collaboration networks from North America, Western and Central Europe. Germany, the largest contributor country to this journal, lies in the middle of these two clusters. These two main clusters show that even in the age of the internet and globalization, the main international collaboration networks are still mainly based on the geographical proximity of countries. However, the yellow cluster includes countries from different continents that share similar types of ecosystems (Australia, Italy and South Africa), suggesting that some collaborations are mainly driven by common research interests rather than by the geographical proximity of countries and institutions. The network analysis of topics (Figure 1b) revealed six main clusters based on the co-occurrence of keywords. They clearly identified the main topics within the journal: restoration ecology (red and yellow clusters), conservation management (green and blue), vegetation change (turquoise) and vegetation classification (purple). These topics were identified in the journal five years ago (Chytrý et al., 2017), and they have increased in importance since then. The red and yellow clusters show that restoration ecology is one of the most important topics in the journal. In the first year of the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration, AVS emphasized the need to restore degraded ecosystems by publishing numerous articles on this topic. For example, removal of invasive plant species had positive outcomes for recovery of biodiversity in the vegetation invaded by both ice plant (Carpobrotus) on a Mediterranean island (Buisson et al., 2021) and buffel grass (Cenchrus ciliaris) in inland Australia (Wright et al., 2021). Recovery to a reference site was slow (Buisson et al., 2021), but native species composition did improve after invader removal. Wright et al. (2021) highlighted that time since invasion is likely to be important as native soil seed banks may be depleted, making plant recovery difficult. Seed banks were recognized as critical for restoration in other contexts (and linked to restoration in the red cluster in Figure 1b). For example, Waryszak et al. (2021) found that more native species established when deep topsoil (including the seed bank) was transferred from a donor site with recently cleared vegetation to the restoration site, highlighting the importance of the soil seed bank in restoration. Prach et al. (2021) compared the effects of sowing seed mixtures with spontaneous succession in grasslands. They found that regional seed mixtures brought species composition closer to the reference site than other restoration methods. Importantly, all these studies found that restoration actions improved native species composition regardless of whether communities recovered to a reference site during the time period studied. Conservation management, such as grassland mowing or grazing aimed at maintaining species-rich vegetation, is another traditional topic in the journal (green cluster). For example, Kuhn et al. (2021) disentangled the effects of different intensities of grazing, mowing and abandonment on species diversity in Transylvanian grasslands. The turquoise cluster is related to monitoring vegetation changes, a theme that was also covered in a Special Feature (Hédl et al., 2017). Some articles published in 2021 focused on traditional species-level analyses of vegetation change (e.g. Baumann et al., 2021), but others also conducted phylogenetic analyses of vegetation change, such as Santo-Silva et al. (2021), who found phylogenetic homogenization of tree assemblages in isolated forest patches in the Amazon. The purple cluster included keywords occurring mainly in articles dealing with vegetation classification. This article type has been published in the Vegetation Survey section of the journal since 2011. Although most of these articles have dealt with different types of European and Mediterranean vegetation (e.g. Bonari et al., 2021), important synthetic studies were also published for other parts of the world in 2021, including the mires of Middle East and Central Asia (Naqinezhad et al., 2021) and Japanese forests (Noriyuki et al., 2021). An important tool for these studies, the 4th edition of the International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature was also published in the last volume of Applied Vegetation Science (Theurillat et al., 2021). We performed analogous network analyses for our sister journal, the Journal of Vegetation Science (JVS; Pillar et al., 2022). JVS shows a similar collaboration network, but articles from outside Europe are more represented there, forming a distinct cluster from North America, Australia and China. The topic network in JVS is also centred around the main themes of species diversity and composition, indicating that both journals specialize in plant community ecology. However, the clusters identified in JVS address general topics in community ecology such as community assembly and structure, functional ecology and vegetation dynamics. These differences between AVS and JVS clearly indicate that AVS focuses on applications while JVS primarily deals with basic research. Each year, the Chief Editors of Applied Vegetation Science give an Editors’ Award to one of the articles published in the previous year. Understanding grassland responses to disturbances such as grazing and alleviated nutrients is an important management issue for grasslands worldwide. This year the AVS Editors’ Award goes to Sofia Campana and Laura Yahdjian for their article “Plant quality and primary productivity modulate plant biomass responses to the joint effects of grazing and fertilization in a mesic grassland.” The article addresses the important global issues of increasing nutrient loads and densities of grazing livestock. These processes — nutrient addition and grazing — can have interactive effects on plant biomass (Campana & Yahdjian, 2021). The authors conducted a factorial experiment with grazing exclusion and fertilization in a mesic grassland over four years. The main result was that grazing significantly (by 52%) reduced above-ground plant biomass, and this reduction was even greater in combination with fertilization (70%). The mechanism was that the addition of nutrients increased both the biomass available for consumption and the leaf nutrient concentration, and these changes intensified grazing pressure and consumption. Thus, cattle were able to consume the additional biomass produced due to fertilization. In making our selection for the Editors’ Award, we considered several other outstanding articles published in 2021, some of which were nominated by the Co-ordinating Editors. Here we mention three runners-up, including Luo et al. (2021), Depauw et al. (2021) and Naqinezhad et al. (2021). Luo et al. (2021) investigated soil seed banks in a desert and their relationships with above-ground vegetation using geostatistical analysis. They focused on a previously understudied topic, namely the spatial pattern of soil seed banks, and found distinct scale-dependent features. Depauw et al. (2021) examined commonly used measures for estimating light availability in structurally complex forests at several sites in Europe and found that structural features of the canopy were poor predictors of the understorey light-demand signature. This is an important methodological message, which requires the attention of forest ecologists. Naqinezhad et al. (2021) developed the first comprehensive syntaxonomic classification for Irano-Turanian mires and springs based on original data obtained in the mountains of Iran, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. This study provides the first comprehensive description of this patchily distributed vegetation type, which contains many endemic species and significantly contributes to the regional biodiversity of arid landscapes in the interior of Asia. The 2021 volume of Applied Vegetation Science was the first to be published electronically, without a parallel printed version. The journal thus follows the general trend in scientific publishing of moving away from printed editions. This change allowed the introduction of continuous publishing, which means that each article is published in its final version immediately after proofing, without an Early View period. We believe that our authors appreciate that the final versions of their articles are now published much faster. In May 2021, Alessandro Chiarucci stepped down as the Chief Editor of the journal after 15 years! We thank Ale for all the hard work he has put into the IAVS journals over the years and wish him the best in his new endeavours. We also thank the authors for submitting articles to AVS, all the editors who managed the editorial process, and the referees (listed in Appendix 1) who helped improve the published articles. We thank the referees who served Applied Vegetation Science from 1 October 2020 to 31 October 2021. Those who reviewed more than two times are indicated by asterisks. Scott Abella Shalom Daniel Addo-Danso Munemitsu Akasaka Harald Albrecht Katharina Albrich Edith Allen Swanni Alvarado José Álvarez-Martínez Fernando Ascensão Thomas Astor Isabelle Aubin Inger Auestad Alistair Auffret Irena Axmanová* Ambroise Baker Markus Bauer Alison Beamish Carl Beierkuhnlein Joseph Bennett Leland Bennion Christian Berg Erwin Bergmeier* Mónica Bertiller Edmilson Bianchini Lisandro Blanco Haben Blondeel Bernd Blossey Gianmaria Bonari* Kauane Bordin Israel Borokini Francesco Boscutti Zoltán Botta-Dukát Andrea Britton Jörg Brunet* Helga Bültmann Olivia Burge Sabina Burrascano Melissa Burt Maria Gabriela Camargo Mariah Campagnoli Marcos Carlucci Cameron Carlyle Valerie Cayssials Bruno Cerabolini Artemi Cerda Paolo Cherubini Kwek Yan Chong Carles Comas Timo Conradi* Irene Cordero Anikó Csecserits Mônica Cupertino-Eisenlohr Juliana Dániel-Ferreira Kirk W. Davies Rafael L. De Assis Miquel De Cáceres Daniela de La Fuente Emiel De Lombaerde Balázs Deák Laura Dee Roger del Moral Jürgen Dengler* Martin Diekmann Panayotis Dimopoulos David Doley Tobias W. Donath Veronika Döpper Martin Dovčiak Stefan Dullinger Giselda Durigan* Thierry Dutoit Adrian G. Dyer James Dyer Andrew Eagar Monika Egerer Carsten Eichberg Jana Eichel Pedro Eisenlohr David Eldridge Tracy Elsey-Quirk László Erdős* Nikolai Ermakov Doug Evans Jörg Ewald Damilola Eyitayo Edy Fantinato Mohammad Farzam Fabian Fassnacht* Jean-Baptiste Féret Eduardo Fernández-Pascual Kathryn Flinn Scott Franklin Lee Frelich David Frey Dan Gafta Nestor Ignacio Gasparri Gabriele Gheza Hamed Gholizadeh Eduardo Giehl Rachel Gioannini Lucas Gorné Juan Gowda Jessica Grenke Riccardo Guarino* Onalenna Gwate Samia Hamati Meghan Hayden Kate He Per-Ola Hedwall Thilo Heinken Andreas Hemp Dan Hending Gustavo Heringer Alison Hester Erika Hiltbrunner Emily Holden Karen Holl Norbert Hölzel Katherine Hovanes Dina in ‘t Zandt Catarina Jakovac Monika Janišová Francesca Jaroszynska Renaud Jaunatre Borja Jiménez-Alfaro Fernando Joner Lize Joubert Teja Kattenborn Dave Kendal Janez Kermavnar Siddhartha Khare Keith Kirby* Kevin Kirkman Réka Kiss Valentin Klaus Till Kleinebecker Johannes Kollmann* Ingolf Kühn Asumo Kuroda Anna Kuzemko Emma Ladouceur Flavia Landucci Daniel Laughin Mike Le Duc Gabrielle Lebbink Hyo Hye Mi Lee Jan Lehmann Attila Lengyel* Benjamin Leutner J. D. Lewis Grisel Longo Daphne López-Marcos Luis López-Mársico Zdeňka Lososová Arantzazu Luzuriaga Miaojun Ma Simona Maccherini Siddarth Machado Anja Magiera* Marco Malavasi* Michael Manthey Corrado Marcenò Rob Marrs Carolina Martínez-Ruiz Ibrahim A. Mashaly Fabio Matos Tetsuya Matsui Jorge Meave Joao Meira-Neto Anna Mežaka Russell Miller Ruth Mitchell Zsolt Molnár Arnaud Monty Alejandra Morán Ordóñez Toni Lyn Morelli John Morgan Ian Moss Ondřej Mudrák* Sandra Müller Seth Munson Admore Mureva Alireza Naqinezhad Christopher Neill Ashish Nerlekar Lena Neuenkamp* Carsten Neumann* Kechang Niu Pavel Novák* Vivi Novianti Péter Ódor* Kinga Öllerer Adeyemi Olusola Anna Orczewska* Rafael Otfinowski Robin Pakeman Salza Palpurina* Gernot Paulus Raffaele Pelorosso Cord Peppler-Lisbach Michael Perring* Oliver Pescott Julien Piqueray Sylvain Plantureux Julien Pottier Karel Prach* Eduardo Prata Timothy Prather* Bernard Prevosto Fernando Pulido Lysandra Pyle Sorenson Quinn Fermin Rada Elias Ramezani Sébastien Rapinel Leonid Rasran Charlotte Reemts Klára Řehounková Victor Resco de Dios Björn Reu Sandra Rojas-Botero Jan Roleček Sergey Rosbakh* Roser Rotchés-Ribalta Marina Roth Eszter Ruprecht Joseph Sagers Andrew Sánchez Meador Victor M. Santana* Jenny Schellenberg Felix Schiefer* Sebastian Schmidtlein Ute Schmiedel Andreas H. Schweiger Michele Scotton Timothy Seipel Philipp Sengl Cinthia Silva Imelda Somodi Judit Sonkoly Diego Sotomayor Karina Speziale Barbara Stammel Johannes Steiger Klaus Steinbauer Christian Storm Christopher Swan Amy Symstad Jiao Tang Massimo Terzi Jean-Paul Theurillat Lubomír Tichý Pedro Tognetti Csaba Tölgyesi Carolina Toranza Péter Török Kaisa Anneli Torppa Michele Torresani* Orsolya Valkó* Hans Van Calster Elisa Van Cleemput Han van Dobben Margot Vanhellemont Morgan Varner Harri Vasander Jos Verhoeven Risto Virtanen Pascal Vittoz Markus Wagner* Viktoria Wagner Christine Wallis Yun Wang T. Weaver Karsten Wesche* Susan Wiser Thomas Wohlgemuth Jianshuang Wu Monika Wulf Severin Yvoz David Zelený Igor Zelnik Jing Hui Zhang Jess Zimmerman Jack Zinnen Chad R. Zirbel