Journal of Vegetation & Applied Vegetation Science

🔥 How resilient are cool rainforest remnants to fire?

Bale highlights that severe fire damaged Nothofagus moorei forests in New South Wales. Canopy loss and low genetic diversity may limit long-term recovery.

Different Measurement Protocols Impact Specific Leaf Area (SLA) Estimation in Simple Versus Compound Leaves Specific leaf area (SLA) measurement protocols strongly shape trait estimates, especially for compound leaves. A whole-leaf approach including lamina and petiole offers a cost-effective, practical…

🍃 How we measure leaf traits matters.
Blázquez et al. report that protocols strongly affect estimates, especially for compound leaves. Including petiolar tissues improves comparability across studies.

Prescribed Burns Homogenize Traits but Not Species Across Suburban Forest Understories Over 30 Years Prescribed burns can help restore ecosystems but also change the plant traits that are most common. Over a 30-year study of forest understories, burns filtered plant traits but not species…

🔥🌿 Johnson et al. found that over 30 years in DuPage County, Illinois, burns homogenized plant traits, favoring herbaceous species and long-distance dispersal, but did not homogenize species composition.

🌴🔍 Observer error matters.
Klein et al. report that misidentifications weaken species–environment models, while using genus/family levels or excluding rare species can inflate results. Fine taxonomic resolution is recommended.

📊🌿 How has Applied Vegetation Science evolved over 27 years?
A data-driven review highlights restoration & reclamation, grassland management, and vegetation change as the journal’s leading themes.

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How do alpine plants cope with multiday heat? Hanley et al. report that photosystem heat tolerance acclimated during field warming, but recovery was slow and strongly species-specific. These differences may shape future alpine community responses to heatwaves.

🌿🚧 How does road proximity affect vegetation?
A global meta-analysis shows roadside plots host 46% more non-native species, reduced structure, and compositional shifts toward ruderal plants.

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🔥Ghermandi et al. report that seasonal climate and disturbances like drought, wildfire, and volcanic ash strongly influence cover, richness, and recovery in semiarid grasslands in Patagonia, with faster rebound after fire than after drought or ash deposition.

Hydrochorous Dispersal of Diaspores in a Reconnected Floodplain: Distribution Patterns and Potential for the Development of Floodplain Habitats Dike relocation reconnected a section of the Elbe River to its floodplain, thereby restoring a more natural flooding regime, and hydrochorous dispersal of diaspores. Low areas received the most…

🌊🌱 Floodplain reconnection enhances hydrochorous dispersal.
Schäfer et al. find increased deposition of pioneer and shoreline species, but floodplain forest development may be constrained by limited seed sources.

🐑🌱 What drives functional change in grazed grasslands?
Eshelman et al. report that increased grazing favours avoidance, resistance, and tolerance traits, with most trait shifts arising from intraspecific variation rather than species turnover.

🌿 Erkelenz et al. report that functional diversity declines along south-facing slopes, and that canopy structure mediates elevational and aspect effects in mountain forests.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
@joshua-erkelenz.bsky.social

🌿🌳 How does woody encroachment affect savanna ground layers?
Dalbeto et al. report rapid losses of small, sun-loving savanna plants, while shade-tolerant trees and climbers increase, signalling a shift toward forest conditions in the Cerrado.

Neighbourhood Effects on Tree Seedlings Differ by Mycorrhizal Symbiont Type in a Mixed Dipterocarp Forest Performance of tropical tree seedlings in a mixed mycorrhizal forest varied by mycorrhizal symbiont type in the field but not necessarily in the shade house. Seedlings associated with arbuscular…

🌳🌱 Neighbourhood effects in tropical forests depend on mycorrhizae.
Surendra et al. report that AM seedlings perform worse near conspecifics, while EcM dipterocarps tolerate them, helping explain their dominance.

Does fencing out livestock guarantee forest recovery? 🌳 In the Dry Chaco, Trigo et al. show that 9 years of exclusion led to contrasting, species-specific regeneration responses and no overall gains in sapling diversity.

🌱 Karban & Munson examine how photovoltaic panels alter microclimates in the Mojave Desert, influencing annual plant diversity in soil- and vegetation-specific ways. ☀️🌵

🌿 McQuillan et al. explore how satellite-derived phenology captures differences between native, restored, and non-native temperate grasslands. Peak-season metrics closely align restored sites with remnant grasslands. 📡

🌿 von Lampe et al. examine decades of change in standing waters and demonstrate that macrophyte richness and functional diversity have declined despite protection, driven by ongoing eutrophication. 🌊

🌿 Pollo et al. examine two decades of change in Western Alpine mires and demonstrate that warming and drying are reshaping plant communities, leading to losses of Sphagnum and other mire specialists. 🟢

🌿 Kuo et al. examine how drought and warming jointly affect alpine plant communities in Taiwan. Their results indicate stronger declines in productivity and diversity under combined stress, with losses of mesic and cold-adapted species. 🏔️

Restoration Method Influences Spatial Patterns of Tree Seedling and Sapling Recruitment in the Second Decade of Tropical Forest Recovery We used data from a full census of nearly two-decade-old tropical forest restoration plots to compare the spatial heterogeneity of tree recruitment in tree plantations, applied nucleation plantings,…

🌳 Schubert et al. examine how restoration approaches influence spatial patterns of tree recruitment after nearly two decades. Their findings indicate that planting facilitates dispersal-limited, large-seeded species. 🌱

🌿 Espinoza et al. demonstrate that habitat fragmentation and edge effects strongly facilitate alien plant invasion in native kānuka shrublands, with smaller fragments and open canopies most vulnerable.🌱

🌲 Fuentes-Lillo et al. reveal that removing invasive Pinus contorta improves microclimate but does not trigger short-term recovery of native plant diversity in Patagonian ecosystems, highlighting strong invasion legacies 🌿

🌡️ Climate warming affects forest layers differently.
Caron et al. compare adults and juveniles across 2,200+ European plots and report faster thermophilisation in juveniles, driven mainly by gains of warm-adapted species.

🌊🌿 What happens to specialist plant species after decades of environmental change?
Rimondini, Lindgren & Cousins report strong declines, local extinctions, and signals of long-standing extinction debt even in some continuously managed meadows.

🐂🌱 How does seasonal grazing affect alpine meadow regeneration?
Wang & Hou report that grazing during seed set disrupts seed rain and soil seed banks, potentially shifting plant reproduction toward vegetative strategies.

Intraspecific Functional Trait Responses to Experimental Warming Vary With Precipitation and Growth Form We assessed the intraspecific functional trait response of 17 alpine plant species to experimental warming across a precipitation gradient. Warming consistently increased plant height. In contrast, t...

How do alpine plants respond to warming?Intraspecific trait shifts depend on precipitation and growth form, with stronger responses in forbs than graminoids.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
@joshua-erkelenz.bsky.social @sonyageange.bsky.social @joe-atkinson.bsky.social @vvandvik.bsky.social

🌿🛰️ Badourdine et al. examine hyperspectral estimates of canopy diversity in a tropical forest. Strong intraspecific spectral variation and uneven species distances reduce the accuracy of taxonomic diversity inferred from spectra.

🌿🔥 Findlay et al. report that long-term frequent fire in Afromontane grasslands does not deplete soil nutrients. Ecosystems remain resilient, with grasses responding more positively to fire than forbs.

🌿🐃 Silveira et al. report that long-term grazing exclusion lowers plant diversity in southern Brazilian grasslands. Continuous and deferred grazing maintain higher diversity, highlighting the role of disturbance in grassland ecosystems.

🌿🌲 Yang et al. examine understory responses in mixed non-native tree stands. Pine–locust mixtures offer limited gains for understory biomass and diversity, yet partially alleviate soil nutrient constraints in pine-dominated plantations.