Aims: Vegetation classification consistent with the
Braun-Blanquet approach is widely used in Europe for applied
vegetation science, conservation planning and land management.
During the long history of syntaxonomy, many concepts and names
of vegetation units have been proposed, but there has been no
single classification system integrating these units. Here we
(1) present a comprehensive, hierarchical, syntaxonomic system
of alliances, orders and classes of Braun-Blanquet syntaxonomy
for vascular plant, bryophyte and lichen, and algal communities
of Europe; (2) briefly characterize in ecological and
geographic terms accepted syntaxonomic concepts; (3) link
available synonyms to these accepted concepts; and (4) provide
a list of diagnostic species for all classes. LocationEuropean
mainland, Greenland, Arctic archipelagos (including Iceland,
Svalbard, Novaya Zemlya), Canary Islands, Madeira, Azores,
Caucasus, Cyprus. Methods: We evaluated approximately 10000
bibliographic sources to create a comprehensive list of
previously proposed syntaxonomic units. These units were
evaluated by experts for their floristic and ecological
distinctness, clarity of geographic distribution and compliance
with the nomenclature code. Accepted units were compiled into
three systems of classes, orders and alliances
(EuroVegChecklist, EVC) for communities dominated by vascular
plants (EVC1), bryophytes and lichens (EVC2) and algae (EVC3).
Results: EVC1 includes 109 classes, 300 orders and 1108
alliances; EVC2 includes 27 classes, 53 orders and 137
alliances, and EVC3 includes 13 classes, 24 orders and 53
alliances. In total 13448 taxa were assigned as indicator
species to classes of EVC1, 2087 to classes of EVC2 and 368 to
classes of EVC3. Accepted syntaxonomic concepts are summarized
in a series of appendices, and detailed information on each is
accessible through the software tool EuroVegBrowser.
Conclusions: This paper features the first comprehensive and
critical account of European syntaxa and synthesizes more than
100 yr of classification effort by European phytosociologists.
It aims to document and stabilize the concepts and nomenclature
of syntaxa for practical uses, such as calibration of habitat
classification used by the European Union, standardization of
terminology for environmental assessment, management and
conservation of nature areas, landscape planning and education.
The presented classification systems provide a baseline for
future development and revision of European syntaxonomy.

https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1111/avsc.12257

Vegetation of Europe: hierarchical floristic classification system of vascular plant, bryophyte, lichen, and algal communities

Summary 1. In many European agricultural landscapes, species richness is declining considerably. Studies performed at a very large spatial scale are helpful in understanding the reasons for this decline and as a basis for guiding policy. In a unique, large-scale study of 25 agricultural landscapes in seven European countries, we investigated relationships between species richness in several taxa, and the links between biodiversity and landscape structure and management. 2. We estimated the total species richness of vascular plants, birds and five arthropod groups in each 16-km 2 landscape, and recorded various measures of both landscape structure and intensity of agricultural land use. We studied correlations between taxonomic groups and the effects of landscape and land-use parameters on the number of species in different taxonomic groups. Our statistical approach also accounted for regional variation in species richness unrelated to landscape or land-use factors. 3. The results reveal strong geographical trends in species richness in all taxonomic groups. No single species group emerged as a good predictor of all other species groups. Species richness of all groups increased with the area of semi-natural habitats in the landscape. Species richness of birds and vascular plants was negatively associated with fertilizer use. 4. Synthesis and applications. We conclude that indicator taxa are unlikely to provide an effective means of predicting biodiversity at a large spatial scale, especially where there is large biogeographical variation in species richness. However, a small list of landscape and land-use parameters can be used in agricultural landscapes to infer large-scale patterns of species richness. Our results suggest that to halt the loss of biodiversity in these landscapes, it is important to preserve and, if possible, increase the area of semi-natural habitat.

/pdf/indicators-for-biodiversity-in-agricultural-landscapes-a-pan-2bfyyop4vo.pdf

Indicators for biodiversity in agricultural landscapes: a pan‐European study

EUNIS Habitat Classification is a standard classification of European habitats. We developed the classification expert system EUNIS‐ESy, which assigns vegetation plots to EUNIS habitats based on their species composition and geographic location. We classified 1,261,373 vegetation plots from the European Vegetation Archive and determined characteristic species combinations and prepared distribution maps for 199 habitats at Level 3 of EUNIS hierarchy.

/pdf/eunis-habitat-classification-expert-system-characteristic-50ijwuo5kt.pdf

EUNIS Habitat Classification: expert system, characteristic species combinations and distribution maps of European habitats

In terms of invasion biology, vascular plants are the most intensively researched taxonomic group; at least 395 plant invaders have been addressed in detailed case studies globally, accounting for 44% of all invasive taxa studied; after North America, Europe is the continent enjoying the most intensive study with at least 80 invasive plant species having been addressed (Pysek et al. 2008). However, although there is a considerable body of information on major plant invaders in Europe (see also Weber 2003), the situation is much less satisfactory as far as complete national inventories of alien plants are concerned. Prior to the DAISIE project (www.europe-aliens.org), only few countries had a sound information on the composition of their alien floras, available in specialised checklists, notably Austria (Essl and Rabitsch 2002), the Czech Republic (Pysek et al. 2002), Germany (Klotz et al. 2002; Kuhn and Klotz 2003), Ireland (Reynolds 2002) and the UK (Clement and Foster 1994; Preston et al. 2002, 2004). This situation directly translated into poor knowledge across the European continent. The only available continental analysis of plant invasion patterns in Europe (Weber 1997) was based on data from Flora Europaea (Tutin et al. 1964–1980), the only syn-thetic source of information on floras of particular countries, including alien spe-cies. This source is, however, nowadays outdated and contains numerous inaccuracies in data for individual countries (Pysek 2003). In general, information on the presence and distribution of alien plant species for most European countries was scattered in a variety of published and unpublished accounts and databases; this is the case in other continents too (Meyerson and Mooney 2007). On the plant side, DAISIE was thus a major challenge of collating and assessing existing data on the most numerous group of European aliens and concentrating this informa-tion in an authoritative continental inventory.The European area covered (Fig. 4.1) by the plant team of DAISIE was partly determined by the geographical coverage of source floras, but it was broadly attempted to use the limits set by Flora Europaea (Tutin et al. 1964–1980) for the north and central continental boundaries (i.e., as far east as the Urals, to the bor-der of the Black Sea but excluding the Caucasus). In the south-east, Cyprus was

/pdf/alien-vascular-plants-of-europe-2yuw7mqub5.pdf

Alien Vascular Plants of Europe

The objective of this paper is to investigate the relationship between landscape pattern metrics and agricultural biodiversity at the Temperate European scale, exploring the role of thematic resolution and a suite of biological and functional groups. Factor analyses to select landscape-level metrics were undertaken on 25 landscapes classified at four levels of thematic resolution. The landscapes were located within seven countries. The different resolutions were considered appropriate to taxonomic and functional group diversity. As class-level metrics are often better correlated to ecological response, the landscape-level metric subsets gained through exploratory analysis were additionally used to guide the selection of class-level metric subsets. Linear mixed models were then used to detect correlations between landscape- and class-level metrics and species richness values. Taxonomic groups with differing requirements (plants, birds, different arthropod groups) and also functional arthropod groups were examined. At the coarse scale of thematic resolution grain metrics (patch density, largest patch index) emerged as rough indicators for the different biological groups whilst at the fine scale a diversity metric (e.g. Simpson’s diversity index) was appropriate. The intermediate thematic resolution offered most promise for biodiversity monitoring. Metrics included largest patch index, edge density, nearest neighbour, the proximity index, circle and Simpson’s diversity index. We suggest two possible applications of these metrics in the context of biodiversity monitoring and the identification of biodiversity hot spots in European agricultural landscapes.

The influence of thematic resolution on metric selection for biodiversity monitoring in agricultural landscapes

The EUNIS habitat classification

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The EUNIS habitat classification