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The Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG) in 2016–2017

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The Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG) in 2016–2017 17/1 • 2018, 17–23 DOI: 10.1515/hacq-2017-0019 The Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG) in 2016–2017 Stephen Venn1,2,*, Didem Ambarlı3, Idoia Biurrun4, Jürgen Dengler5,6,7, Anna Kuzemko8, Péter Török9 & Michael Vrahnakis10 Keywords: conservation, Eurasian Abstract Dry Grassland Group (EDGG), This report summarizes the activities and achievements of the Eurasian Dry fauna, grassland, GrassPlot, Grassland Group (EDGG) from mid-2016 through to the end of 2017. During Palaearctic, vegetation, vegetation- this period, the 13th Eurasian Grassland Conference took place in Sighişoara, plot database. Romania, and the 14th conference was held in Riga, Latvia. The 10th EDGG Field Workshop on Biodiversity patterns across a precipitation gradient in the Ključne besede: ohranjanje, Central Apennine mountains was conducted in the Central Apennines, Italy, Evrazijska skupina za suha travišča this time in addition to multi-scale sampling of vascular plants, bryophytes and (EDGG), favna, travišče, GrassPlot, lichens, also including one animal group (leaf hoppers). Apart from the quarterly Palearktik, vegetacija, vegetacijska issues of its own electronic journal (Bulletin of the Eurasian Dry Grassland podatkovna baza. Group), EDGG also finalised five grassland-related Special Features/Issues during the past 1.5 years in the following international journals: Applied Vegetation Science, Biodiversity and Conservation, Phytocoenologia, Tuexenia and Hacquetia. Beyond that, EDGG facilitated various national and supra-national vegetation- plot databases of grasslands and established its own specialised database for standardised multi-scale plot data of Palaearctic grasslands (GrassPlot). Izvleček V poročilu predstavljamo aktivnosti in dosežke Evrazijske skupine za suha travišča (EDGG) od sredine leta 2016 do konca leta 2017. V tem obdobju sta potekali 13. evrazijska konferenca o traviščih v mestu Sighişoara v Romuniji in 14. konferenca v Rigi v Latviji. Deseta EDGG terenska delavnica o Vzorcih biodiverzitete vzdolž pa- davinskega gradienta v Centralnih Apeninih v Italiji je potekala skupaj z vzorčenjem cevnic, mahov, lišajev in škržatov na različno velikih ploskvah. Poleg rednih lastnih četrtletnih elektronskih izdaj (Bulletin of the Eurasian Dry Grassland Group) je skupina v preteklem letu in pol izdala tudi pet posebnih številk oziroma tematskih Received: 7. 2. 2018 delov v mednarodnih revijah, posvečenih traviščem: Applied Vegetation Science, Bio- Accepted: 7. 2. 2018 diversity and Conservation, Phytocoenologia, Tuexenia in Hacquetia. Skupina EDGG je vzpodbudila tudi nastanek različnih nacionalnih in mednarodnih vegetacijskih Co-ordinating Editor: podatkovnih zbirk in vzpostavila lastno specializirano podatkovno zbirko za standi- Orsolya Valkó zirane večrazsežnostne vegetacijske ploskve palearktičnih travišč (GrassPlot). 1 Ecosystems and Environment Research Programme, Faculty of Biological and Environmental Sciences, University of Helsinki, P.O. Box 65 (Viikinkaari 2a), 00014, Finland. E-mail: [email protected] 2 Department of Architecture, Aalto University, P.O. Box 16500 (Miestentie 3), 00076 Aalto, Finland. E-mail: [email protected] 3 Faculty of Agriculture and Natural Sciences, Düzce University, Konuralp Campus, 81620 Düzce, Turkey. E-mail: [email protected] 4 Department of Plant Biology and Ecology, University of the Basque Country UPV/EHU, P.O.Box 644, 48080 Bilbao, Spain. E-mail: [email protected] 5 Vegetation Ecology Group, Institute of Natural Resource Sciences (IUNR), Zurich University of Applied Sciences (ZHAW), Grüentalstr. 14, 8820 Grüental, Switzerland 6 Plant Ecology, Bayreuth Center for Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstr. 30, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany. E-mail: [email protected] 7 German Centre for Integrated Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, DeutscherPlatz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany 8 Geobotany and Ecology Department, M.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, 2, Tereshchenkivska str. Kyiv, 01601, Ukraine. E-mail: [email protected] 9 MTA-DE Lendület Functional and Restoration Ecology Research Group, Egyetem sqr. 1, 4032, Debrecen, Hungary. E-mail: [email protected] 10 Department of Forestry and Management of Natural Environment, Technological University of Thessaly, 43100, Karditsa, Greece.E-mail: [email protected] 17 S. Venn, D. Ambarlı, I. Biurrun, J. Dengler, A. Kuzemko, P. Török & 17/1 • 2018, 17–23 M. Vrahnakis The Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG) in 2016–2017 This report provides an overview of the activities and Table 1: The members of the Executive Committee (EC) achievements of the Eurasian Dry Grassland Group of the EDGG subsequent to the election in 2017 and their (EDGG; http://www.edgg.org) since the last such report responsibilities. (Venn et al. 2016), that is, from mid-2016 to the end of Tabela 1: Člani izvršnega odbora (IO) EDGG po volitvah leta 2017 in njihove zadolžitve. 2017. The EDGG is a network of researchers and conser- vation practitioners interested in any type of natural and EC Member Role semi-natural grasslands of the Palaearctic biogeographic Didem Ambarlı Editor-in-Chief of the Website; Deputy realm. It was founded in 2008 and currently has 1265 IAVS Representative and Treasurer; members from 67 countries (January 2018) (also see Deputy Conference Coordinator Vrahnakis et al. 2013). Whilst the EDGG has the sta- Idoia Biurrun Membership Administrator; Deputy tus of a working group of the International Association of Editor-in-Chief of EDGG Bulletin; Vegetation Science (IAVS; http://www.iavs.org), it is not Deputy Field Workshop Coordinator; restricted to vegetation, but equally deals with flora, fauna, Deputy Officer of the Website soils, ecosystem services etc. of grasslands. The main activ- Jürgen Dengler Coordinator for Special Features; Field ities of the EDGG are (i) the facilitation of international Workshop Coordinator communication between researchers, conservationists, Anna Kuzemko Editor-in-Chief of EDGG Bulletin; site managers, policy and decision-makers; (ii) coordina- Facebook Group Administrator tion of scientific and policy-related actions in grassland Péter Török IAVS Representative and Treasurer; research, conservation and restoration in the whole Pal- Deputy Coordinator for Special Features aearctic; (iii) promotion of the development of databases Stephen Venn Secretary-General; Deputy Facebook for grassland classification, best-practices in conservation Group Administrator and restoration; (iv) organisation of annual events, such Michael Vrahnakis Conference Coordinator as the Eurasian Grassland Conferences (EGCs) and Field Workshops; and (v) the dissemination of research results, logy and Geology and our hosts were Nat Page, Liliana news and information in the EDGG Bulletin, as well as Gherghiceanu, Cristi Gherghiceanu, Laura Sutcliffe and research papers in Special Features of scientific journals, Razvan Popa. Participants joined four oral presentation such as Hacquetia, Phytocoenologia, Tuexenia, Biodiversity sessions, a poster session, three workshops on scientific and Conservation and Applied Vegetation Science. writing, National Grassland Databases and the science- Further information about the EDGG can be found -policy interface, keynote talks by Joern Fischer, Cristina from our website http://www.edgg.org/ and from our Craioveanu and László Rákosy, as well as mid and post- Facebook group https://www.facebook.com/groups/ -conference excursions to diverse semi-natural grasslands. 938367279561202/. Membership of the EDGG is free The conference provided an opportunity to see the best of charge and open to anyone who is interested in Palae- examples of sustainable land management in Romania arctic grasslands. If you would like to become a member, for biodiversity, livelihood and culture. The subsequent then simply send an e-mail to our Membership Admin- 14th EGC was jointly organized in Latvia and Lithuania istrator, Idoia Biurrun ([email protected]). in July 2017, on the topic of Semi-natural grasslands across The biennial election of our governing body, the Execu- borders (Rūsiņa et al. 2017; Figure 1). It provided an op- tive Committee (EC), in spring 2017 saw the departure portunity to attend a workshop for beginners on using of founder member Monika Janišová, who decided not the R programme, hear about comprehensive studies of to stand for re-election. Eight candidates stood in the EC semi-natural grasslands in the Baltics and two keynote elections, of which seven were duly elected for the term talks, by Irina Herzon and Aveliina Helm, as well as three 2017–2019 (Table 1). excursions to a range of relevant habitats. The event was hosted by the University of Latvia, the Latvian Botani- cal Society and the Nature Research Centre in Lithu- Events of the EDGG in ania and our hosts were Solvita Rūsiņa, Lauma Gustiņa, 2016–2017 Rūta Sniedze-Kretalova, Valerijus Rašomavičius, Domas Uogintas and Inese Silamiķele. The 15th Eurasian Grass- The 13th EGC took place in Sighişoara, Romania, in land Conference, on the topic of Cooperating for grassland September 2016 with the theme of Management and con- conservation, will be held on 4th–8th June 2018, in Sul- servation of semi-natural grasslands: from theory to practice mona, Central Italy, organized by Sabina Burrascano, Gi- (Sutcliffe et al. 2016). It was organized jointly by Funda- ampiero Ciaschetti, Eleonora Giarrizzo, Emanuela Carli, ția ADEPT and Babeș-Bolyai University, Faculty of
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