Research Vegetation Ecology Research Group

Research foci

Evidence-based nature conservation

Measures against the dramatic loss of biodiversity often are less efficient than they could be, also because scientific findings are insufficiently taken into account or are lacking. The research group therefore develops nature conservation measures at the level of individual species, plant communities and habitat types and establishes monitoring schemes. Examples of projects are the ecological upgrading of forest edges, the control of invasive plants and the conservation biology of the flora of erratic boulders.

Plant diversity and its change

The understanding of species-rich and species-poor habitats is crucial for biodiversity conservation. The research group addresses this topic with field observations, experiments and the use of existing databases. In addition, the influence of global change (climate change, land use change, eutrophication, etc.) and the driving factors for change are of interest. One possibility is the resurvey of localizable historical vegetation plots.

Ecoinformatics and vegetation databases

Large vegetation databases such as the European Vegetation Archive (EVA) offer significant opportunities for research in ecology and nature conservation. In this way, new classifications of vegetation types can be created or the conditions under which species become invasive can be explored. One of the aims of the research group is to establish a Swiss national vegetation database as an EVA partner and at the same time to develop a Europe-wide, optimised system of ecological indicator values.

Publications

Sabatini, Francesco Maria; Lenoir, Jonathan; Hattab, Tarek; Arnst, Elise Aimee; Chytrý, Milan; Dengler, Jürgen; De Ruffray, Patrice; Hennekens, Stephan M.; Jandt, Ute; Jansen, Florian; Jiménez‐Alfaro, Borja; Kattge, Jens; Levesley, Aurora; Pillar, Valério D.; Purschke, Oliver; Sandel, Brody; Sultana, Fahmida; Aavik, Tsipe; Aćić, Svetlana; Acosta, Alicia T. R.; Agrillo, Emiliano; Alvarez, Miguel; Apostolova, Iva; Arfin Khan, Mohammed A. S.; Arroyo, Luzmila; Attorre, Fabio; Aubin, Isabelle; Banerjee, Arindam; Bauters, Marijn; Bergeron, Yves; Bergmeier, Erwin; Biurrun, Idoia; Bjorkman, Anne D.; Bonari, Gianmaria; Bondareva, Viktoria; Brunet, Jörg; Čarni, Andraž; Casella, Laura; Cayuela, Luis; Černý, Tomáš; Chepinoga, Victor; Csiky, János; Ćušterevska, Renata; De Bie, Els; Gasper, André Luis; De Sanctis, Michele; Dimopoulos, Panayotis; Dolezal, Jiri; Dziuba, Tetiana; El‐Sheikh, Mohamed Abd El‐Rouf Mousa; Enquist, Brian; Ewald, Jörg; Fazayeli, Farideh; Field, Richard; Finckh, Manfred; Gachet, Sophie; Galán‐de‐Mera, Antonio; Garbolino, Emmanuel; Gholizadeh, Hamid; Giorgis, Melisa; Golub, Valentin; Alsos, Inger Greve; Grytnes, John‐Arvid; Guerin, Gregory Richard; Gutiérrez, Alvaro G.; Haider, Sylvia; Hatim, Mohamed Z.; Hérault, Bruno; Hinojos Mendoza, Guillermo; Hölzel, Norbert; Homeier, Jürgen; Hubau, Wannes; Indreica, Adrian; Janssen, John A. M.; Jedrzejek, Birgit; Jentsch, Anke; Jürgens, Norbert; Kącki, Zygmunt; Kapfer, Jutta; Karger, Dirk Nikolaus; Kavgacı, Ali; Kearsley, Elizabeth; Kessler, Michael; Khanina, Larisa; Killeen, Timothy; Korolyuk, Andrey; Kreft, Holger; Kühl, Hjalmar S.; Kuzemko, Anna; Landucci, Flavia; Lengyel, Attila; Lens, Frederic; Lingner, Débora Vanessa; Liu, Hongyan; Lysenko, Tatiana; Mahecha, Miguel D.; Marcenò, Corrado; Martynenko, Vasiliy; Moeslund, Jesper Erenskjold; Monteagudo Mendoza, Abel; Mucina, Ladislav; Müller, Jonas V.; Munzinger, Jérôme; Naqinezhad, Alireza; Noroozi, Jalil; Nowak, Arkadiusz; Onyshchenko, Viktor; Overbeck, Gerhard E.; Pärtel, Meelis; Pauchard, Aníbal; Peet, Robert K.; Peñuelas, Josep; Pérez‐Haase, Aaron; Peterka, Tomáš; Petřík, Petr; Peyre, Gwendolyn; Phillips, Oliver L.; Prokhorov, Vadim; Rašomavičius, Valerijus; Revermann, Rasmus; Rivas‐Torres, Gonzalo; Rodwell, John S.; Ruprecht, Eszter; Rūsiņa, Solvita; Samimi, Cyrus; Schmidt, Marco; Schrodt, Franziska; Shan, Hanhuai; Shirokikh, Pavel; Šibík, Jozef; Šilc, Urban; Sklenář, Petr; Škvorc, Željko; Sparrow, Ben; Sperandii, Marta Gaia; Stančić, Zvjezdana; Svenning, Jens‐Christian; Tang, Zhiyao; Tang, Cindy Q.; Tsiripidis, Ioannis; Vanselow, Kim André; Vásquez Martínez, Rodolfo; Vassilev, Kiril; Vélez‐Martin, Eduardo; Venanzoni, Roberto; Vibrans, Alexander Christian; Violle, Cyrille; Virtanen, Risto; Wehrden, Henrik; Wagner, Viktoria; Walker, Donald A.; Waller, Donald M.; Wang, Hua‐Feng; Wesche, Karsten; Whitfeld, Timothy J. S.; Willner, Wolfgang; Wiser, Susan K.; Wohlgemuth, Thomas; Yamalov, Sergey; Zobel, Martin; Bruelheide, Helge,

2021.

sPlotOpen : an environmentally balanced, open‐access, global dataset of vegetation plots.

Global Ecology and Biogeography.

30(9), pp. 1740-1764.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-23071
Bruelheide, Helge; Jansen, Florian; Jandt, Ute; Bernhardt‐Römermann, Markus; Bonn, Aletta; Bowler, Diana; Dengler, Jürgen; Eichenberg, David; Grescho, Volker; Kellner, Simon; Klenke, Reinhard A.; Lütt, Silke; Lüttgert, Lina; Sabatini, Francesco Maria; Wesche, Karsten,

2021.

A checklist for using Beals’ index with incomplete floristic monitoring data : reply to Christensen et al. (2021): Problems in using Beals’ index to detect species trends in incomplete floristic monitoring data.

Diversity and Distributions.

27(7), pp. 1328-1333.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-22832
Wang, Zheng; Zhang, Jing Hui; Li, Zhiyong; Liu, Huamin; Wang, Lixin; Wang, Wen; Wang, Yang; Liang, Cunzhu,

2021.

Single grazing is more detrimental to grasslands than mixed grazing : evidence from the response of functional traits of dominant plants to grazing systems.

Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution.

9(682289).

Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-22804
Laughlin, Daniel C.; Mommer, Liesje; Sabatini, Francesco Maria; Bruelheide, Helge; Kuyper, Thom W.; McCormack, M. Luke; Bergmann, Joana; Freschet, Grégoire T.; Guerrero-Ramírez, Nathaly R.; Iversen, Colleen M.; Kattge, Jens; Meier, Ina C.; Poorter, Hendrik; Roumet, Catherine; Semchenko, Marina; Sweeney, Christopher J.; Valverde-Barrantes, Oscar J.; van der Plas, Fons; van Ruijven, Jasper; York, Larry M.; Aubin, Isabelle; Burge, Olivia R.; Byun, Chaeho; Ćušterevska, Renata; Dengler, Jürgen; Forey, Estelle; Guerin, Greg R.; Hérault, Bruno; Jackson, Robert B.; Karger, Dirk Nikolaus; Lenoir, Jonathan; Lysenko, Tatiana; Meir, Patrick; Niinemets, Ülo; Ozinga, Wim A.; Peñuelas, Josep; Reich, Peter B.; Schmidt, Marco; Schrodt, Franziska; Velázquez, Eduardo; Weigelt, Alexandra,

2021.

Root traits explain plant species distributions along climatic gradients yet challenge the nature of ecological trade-offs.

Nature Ecology & Evolution.

5(8), pp. 1123-1134.
Fristoe, Trevor S.; Chytrý, Milan; Dawson, Wayne; Essl, Franz; Heleno, Ruben; Kreft, Holger; Maurel, Noëlie; Pergl, Jan; Pyšek, Petr; Seebens, Hanno; Weigelt, Patrick; Vargas, Pablo; Yang, Qiang; Attorre, Fabio; Bergmeier, Erwin; Bernhardt-Römermann, Markus; Biurrun, Idoia; Boch, Steffen; Bonari, Gianmaria; Botta-Dukát, Zoltán; Bruun, Hans Henrik; Byun, Chaeho; Čarni, Andraž; Carranza, Maria Laura; Catford, Jane A.; Cerabolini, Bruno E. L.; Chacón-Madrigal, Eduardo; Ciccarelli, Daniela; Ćušterevska, Renata; de Ronde, Iris; Dengler, Jürgen; Golub, Valentin; Haveman, Rense; Hough-Snee, Nate; Jandt, Ute; Jansen, Florian; Kuzemko, Anna; Küzmič, Filip; Lenoir, Jonathan; Macanović, Armin; Marcenò, Corrado; Martin, Adam R.; Michaletz, Sean T.; Mori, Akira S.; Niinemets, Ülo; Peterka, Tomáš; Pielech, Remigiusz; Rašomavičius, Valerijus; Rūsiņa, Solvita; Dias, Arildo S.; Šibíková, Mária; Šilc, Urban; Stanisci, Angela; Jansen, Steven; Svenning, Jens-Christian; Swacha, Grzegorz; van der Plas, Fons; Vassilev, Kiril; van Kleunen, Mark,

2021.

Dimensions of invasiveness : links between local abundance, geographic range size, and habitat breadth in Europe’s alien and native floras.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America.

118(22).
Dembicz, Iwona; Dengler, Jürgen; Steinbauer, Manuel J.; Matthews, Thomas J.; Bartha, Sándor; Burrascano, Sabina; Chiarucci, Alessandro; Filibeck, Goffredo; Gillet, François; Janišová, Monika; Palpurina, Salza; Storch, David; Ulrich, Werner; Aćić, Svetlana; Boch, Steffen; Campos, Juan Antonio; Cancellieri, Laura; Carboni, Marta; Ciaschetti, Giampiero; Conradi, Timo; De Frenne, Pieter; Dolezal, Jiri; Dolnik, Christian; Essl, Franz; Fantinato, Edy; García‐Mijangos, Itziar; Giusso del Galdo, Gian Pietro; Grytnes, John‐Arvid; Guarino, Riccardo; Güler, Behlül; Kapfer, Jutta; Klichowska, Ewelina; Kozub, Łukasz; Kuzemko, Anna; Löbel, Swantje; Manthey, Michael; Marcenò, Corrado; Mimet, Anne; Naqinezhad, Alireza; Noroozi, Jalil; Nowak, Arkadiusz; Pauli, Harald; Peet, Robert K.; Pellissier, Vincent; Pielech, Remigiusz; Terzi, Massimo; Uğurlu, Emin; Valkó, Orsolya; Vasheniak, Iuliia; Vassilev, Kiril; Vynokurov, Denys; White, Hannah J.; Willner, Wolfgang; Winkler, Manuela; Wolfrum, Sebastian; Zhang, Jing Hui; Biurrun, Idoia,

2021.

Fine‐grain beta diversity of Palaearctic grassland vegetation.

Journal of Vegetation Science.

32(3), pp. e13045.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-22735
Večeřa, Martin; Axmanová, Irena; Padullés Cubino, Josep; Lososová, Zdeňka; Divíšek, Jan; Knollová, Ilona; Aćić, Svetlana; Biurrun, Idoia; Boch, Steffen; Bonari, Gianmaria; Campos, Juan Antonio; Čarni, Andraž; Carranza, Maria Laura; Casella, Laura; Chiarucci, Alessandro; Ćušterevska, Renata; Delbosc, Pauline; Dengler, Jürgen; Fernández‐González, Federico; Gégout, Jean‐Claude; Jandt, Ute; Jansen, Florian; Jašková, Anni; Jiménez‐Alfaro, Borja; Kuzemko, Anna; Lebedeva, Maria; Lenoir, Jonathan; Lysenko, Tatiana; Moeslund, Jesper Erenskjold; Pielech, Remigiusz; Ruprecht, Eszter; Šibík, Jozef; Šilc, Urban; Škvorc, Željko; Swacha, Grzegorz; Tatarenko, Irina; Vassilev, Kiril; Wohlgemuth, Thomas; Yamalov, Sergey; Chytrý, Milan,

2021.

Mapping species richness of plant families in European vegetation.

Journal of Vegetation Science.

32(3), pp. e13035.
Boonman, Coline C.F.; Santini, Luca; Robroek, Bjorn J.M.; Hoeks, Selwyn; Kelderman, Steven; Dengler, Jürgen; Bergamini, Ariel; Biurrun, Idoia; Carranza, Maria Laura; Cerabolini, Bruno E.L.; Chytrý, Milan; Jandt, Ute; Lysenko, Tatiana; Stanisci, Angela; Tatarenko, Irina; Rūsiņa, Solvita; Huijbregts, Mark A.J.,

2021.

Plant functional and taxonomic diversity in European grasslands along climatic gradients.

Journal of Vegetation Science.

32(3), pp. e13027.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-22449
Dengler, Jürgen; Biurrun, Idoia; Dembicz, Iwona,

2021.

Standardised EDGG methodology for sampling grassland diversity : second amendment.

Palaearctic Grasslands.

(49), pp. 22-26.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-22637
Sporbert, Maria; Welk, Erik; Seidler, Gunnar; Jandt, Ute; Aćić, Svetlana; Biurrun, Idoia; Campos, Juan Antonio; Čarni, Andraž; Cerabolini, Bruno E. L.; Chytrý, Milan; Ćušterevska, Renata; Dengler, Jürgen; De Sanctis, Michele; Dziuba, Tetiana; Fagúndez, Jaime; Field, Richard; Golub, Valentin; He, Tianhua; Jansen, Florian; Lenoir, Jonathan; Marcenò, Corrado; Martín‐Forés, Irene; Moeslund, Jesper Erenskjold; Moretti, Marco; Niinemets, Ülo; Penuelas, Josep; Pérez‐Haase, Aaron; Vandvik, Vigdis; Vassilev, Kiril; Vynokurov, Denys; Bruelheide, Helge,

2021.

Different sets of traits explain abundance and distribution patterns of European plants at different spatial scales.

Journal of Vegetation Science.

32(2), pp. e13016.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-22401
Büchler, Marc-Olivier; Dengler, Jürgen,

2021.

Optimale Standortbedingungen für Trockenrasen : Bachelorarbeit in Zusammenarbeit mit dem Kanton Zürich.

IUNR Magazin.

2021(1), pp. 12.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-22289
Dengler, Jürgen; Babbi, Manuel; Widmer, Stefan,

2021.

Square Foot Project gestartet : Wandel der Grünlanddiversität in der Schweiz über ein Jahrhundert.

IUNR Magazin.

2021(1), pp. 13.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-22288
Axmanová, Irena; Kalusová, Veronika; Danihelka, Jiří; Dengler, Jürgen; Pergl, Jan; Pyšek, Petr; Večeřa, Martin; Attorre, Fabio; Biurrun, Idoia; Boch, Steffen; Conradi, Timo; Gavilán, Rosario G.; Jiménez‐Alfaro, Borja; Knollová, Ilona; Kuzemko, Anna; Lenoir, Jonathan; Leostrin, Artem; Medvecká, Jana; Moeslund, Jesper Erenskjold; Obratov‐Petkovic, Dragica; Svenning, Jens‐Christian; Tsiripidis, Ioannis; Vassilev, Kiril; Chytrý, Milan,

2021.

Neophyte invasions in European grasslands.

Journal of Vegetation Science.

32(2), pp. e12994.
Scherrer, Daniel; Hiltebrand, Fabien; Dengler, Jürgen; Wohlgemuth, Thomas,

2021.

Mind the gaps : comparison of representative vs opportunistic assessment of tree regeneration in Central European beech forests.

Forest Ecology and Management.

491(119179).

Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-22241
Cai, Qiong; Welk, Erik; Ji, Chengjun; Fang, Wenjing; Sabatini, Francesco M.; Zhu, Jianxiao; Zhu, Jiangling; Tang, Zhiyao; Attorre, Fabio; Campos, Juan A.; Čarni, Andraž; Chytrý, Milan; Çoban, Süleyman; Dengler, Jürgen; Dolezal, Jiri; Field, Richard; Frink, József P.; Gholizadeh, Hamid; Indreica, Adrian; Jandt, Ute; Karger, Dirk N.; Lenoir, Jonathan; Peet, Robert K.; Pielech, Remigiusz; De Sanctis, Michele; Schrodt, Franziska; Svenning, Jens‐Christian; Tang, Cindy Q.; Tsiripidis, Ioannis; Willner, Wolfgang; Yasuhiro, Kubota; Fang, Jingyun; Bruelheide, Helge,

2021.

The relationship between niche breadth and range size of beech (Fagus) species worldwide.

Journal of Biogeography.

48(5), pp. 1240-1253.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-22380
Talebi, Amir; Attar, Farideh; Naqinezhad, Alireza; Dembicz, Iwona; Dengler, Jürgen,

2021.

Scale‐dependent patterns and drivers of plant diversity in steppe grasslands of the Central Alborz Mts., Iran.

Journal of Vegetation Science.

32(2), pp. e13005.
Dengler, Jürgen,

2021.

Book review : Illustrated flora of Tajikistan and adjacent areas

.

Palaearctic Grasslands.

(48), pp. 33.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-21912
Dengler, Jürgen; Aleksanyan, Alla; Ambarli, Didem; Biurrun, Idoia; Dembicz, Iwona; Kuzemko, Anna; Török, Péter; Venn, Stephen,

2021.

The Eurasian Dry Grassland Group (EDGG) in 2019–2020.

Hacquetia.

20(1), pp. 171-176.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-21914
Dengler, Jürgen; Gehler, Jamyra, eds.,

2021.

Report from the Master summer school “Biodiversity Monitoring”, Preda, Parc Ela, Switzerland, 10–20 August 2020.

Wädenswil:

ZHAW Zürcher Hochschule für Angewandte Wissenschaften.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-21917
Willner, Wolfgang; Biurrun, Idoia; Dengler, Jürgen; Jansen, Florian,

2021.

Vegetation Classification and Survey : the first year.

Vegetation Classification and Survey.

2, pp. 1-4.

Available from: https://doi.org/10.21256/zhaw-21913