IAVS Bulletin 2013 2

1 IAVS Bulletin 2013 / 2 Annual IAVS Symposium 2013 in Tartu, Estonia Date of Publication: November 2013 International Association for Vegetation Science 2 Contents Invitation to the IAVS meeting 2014 Perth, 4 Featured laboratories of IAVS members: The Landscape Ecology Group at Stockholm 5 Minutes of the Annual IAVS Council Meeting in Tartu, Estonia, 8 Minutes of the Annual IAVS General Assembly in Tartu, Estonia, 16 Amendment of Article 5 of the Bylaws of the European Vegetation 20 Financial 21 IAVS Code of professional 23 IAVS Honorary Membership 2012 to J. Bastow 26 Alexander von Humboldt Medal 2013 to David Tilman .. 28 Report of the IAVS Publications Officer: 2012.

2 32 Annual report of the European Dry grassland Group .. 34 Annual report of the European Vegetation .. 37 Bylaws of the Ecoinformatics Working 39 Bylaws of the Working Group for Phytosociological 40 Forthcoming 44 Bog in the Endla Nature Reserve, Estonia (photograph by Angela Pannek) 3 Preface The IAVS Symposium in Tartu was one of the largest (if not THE largest) annual meetings in the history of IAVS: 447 Participants from more than 40 countries presented 183 talks and 191 posters. The meeting was of a high scientific caliber, reflected in the excellent keynote talks and the stimulating honorary lectures of David Tilman, recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Medal 2013 , and Bastow Wilson, the latest Honorary member of the IAVS.

3 The mid symposium excursions and also the pre and post symposium excursions were very well organized and gave a good impression of the Estonian landscape with its Boreo nemoral vegetation. We thank the symposium organizers Martin Zobel and his colleagues and students for their excellent work and for having the opportunity to visit their beautiful country. Now we are looking forward to the forthcoming symposia in 2014 in Perth, Australia (see invitation in this Bulletin on page 4), and in 2015 in Brno, Czech Republic. Looking further to the future, the IAVS Council at its annual meeting in Tartu decided to accept the invitation from our colleagues in Brazil to host the 2016 meeting in the cerrado region of the country, most likely in the city of Piren polis close to Brasilia.

4 Other important IAVS news about which more detailed information can be found in this Bulletin include: The Council approved a new IAVS Code of Ethics that provides guiding principles of conduct for all members of the association in their scientific activities, and that gives standards to be followed in submission of manuscripts to the journals of the association (page 23). The Council adopted new bylaws of the two Working Groups for Ecoinformatics (page 39) and Phytosociological Nomenclature (page 40), and also approved a proposal for an amendment of the bylaws of the European Vegetation Survey (page 20). Through the work of the Global Sponsor ship Committee, the IAVS increased its support to student members enabling them to participate in the annual IAVS symposia (page 10).

5 For the 2013 meeting in Tartu we supported 25 students from 17 countries to cover accommodation, symposium fees and travel (in part). The Council expressed the need to establish a long term strategy to help guide the IAVS in how to spend the assets of the association that have accumulated over the past years. The Governing Board will assign a Special Committee to develop a financial vision for the future. After many years of service as Chair of the Editors of the IAVS journals, Bastow Wilson retired from his position, and the Council approved the appointment of Val rio Pillar for the vacant position. We thank Bastow for his outstanding work for the association! We also wish to warmly thank Nina Smits who has served the IAVS as administrator for 12 years and who steps back from this position after the Tartu meeting.

6 With deep regrets we have received the message about the death of Prof. Wladislaw Matuszkiewicz, one of the honorary members of our society. We will honor and remember his life and work in an obituary in the first 2014 issue of the IAVS Bulletin . Martin Diekmann President 4 In 1990 IAVS came for the first time to Australia. The legendary Dr. John S. Beard AO organised an IAVS Field Excursion to his adopted homeland of Western Australia. There are many of us (though, unfortunately, not myself as I was just pushing my life reset button in the free West after having escaped communistic Czechoslovakia) who still recall this wonderful trip featuring weird flowers, strange vegetation types, and mesmerising dry landscapes full of eucalypts.

7 In 2014, IAVS is coming to Australia again this time to hold its yearly symposium in Perth. For a couple of weeks in August and September Australia will become the focus of vegetation scientific interest as the University Club of The University of Western Australia will host the 57th Annual Symposium of IAVS. Australia is far from almost everywhere, and the tyranny of distance drives our lives more than national politics. Despite the distance, we expect to attract many colleagues from over seas. We are also committed to make the long trip worth taking for many young people. We want to be it a young symposium: dominated by young people with fresh ideas and, therefore, most of the invited key note lectures will be given by young up coming scientists.

8 The Local Organising Committee is looking forward to seeing you in Australia and proudly showing you around our country. Four excursions flanking the symposium (two in Western Australia, and two on the East Coast featuring New South Wales and tropical northern Queensland) will offer ample opportunity to marvel at the beauty of our plants and vegetation. Come and join us to push the envelopes of scientific theory, to boost the image of our scientia amabilis, to make new friends and perhaps find a new job or research partner, and at the same time, just to have a hell of a good time. Vegetation scientists like to meet, value a good drink and something (and lot of it!) nice to eat, and talk shop the whole day long.

9 All that, and more, is guaranteed! Welcome to Australia, welcome to Western Australia the home of black swan and the home of vegetation science for 2014. Laco Mucina, for the LOC Watch the for the launch of the official website of the 2014 IAVS Symposium or contact if you cannot wait longer. Invitation to the IAVS meeting 2014 Perth, Australia 5 The Landscape Ecology Group at Stockholm University Head of the research unit is Sara Cousins, member of the Advisory Council of IAVS and Associate Editor of the Journal of Vegetation Science. Written by Alistair Auffret When I started work on my in March 2008, Sara and I were the only members of our so called Landscape Ecology Group.

10 Now, five years later, I have just defended my thesis and we are currently a healthy ten. Our work broadly focuses on the effects of agricultural land use change on ecological communities, particularly in semi natural grasslands. Most of us in the group work with plants, but we also look at insects, birds .. and elephants. The region around Stockholm and the south of Sweden has a long history of human influence. For hundreds of years, low intensity arable and pasture systems existed across the region. During the summer, livestock would roam huge common outlands, before grazing fields and meadows post harvest. During these times, semi natural grassland in the form of wooded and open pastures and meadows made up more than half of the landscape around villages.