New Classification System for European Vegetation

In the current issue of the journal "Applied Vegetation Science" plant scientists present the first comprehensive and critical account of the hierarchical syntaxonomic system of communities of vascular plants, bryophytes, lichens, and algae in Europe, synthesizing more than 100 years of research in classification of vegetation. The new system is published with open access and aims at documenting standardization of concepts and terminology of syntaxa and informing calibration of habitat classifications for environmental assessment, nature management, conservation, landscape planning, and education. The authors - among them Jürgen Dengler, Plant Ecology Group in Bayreuth - evaluated approximately 10,000 bibliographic sources to revise previously proposed classification units.