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Recent analyses of plant traits across large sets of species have revolutionized our understanding of plant functional differentiation. However, understanding of ecological relevance of this differentiation is contingent upon knowledge of environmental preferences of species, namely along gradients of disturbance and productivity for which no quantitative data were available until recently. We examined the relationships of key functional traits (life‐history categories, leaf‐height‐seed (LHS) traits, clonal growth and bud bank traits) in the herb‐dominated flora of Central Europe to species niche positions along the gradients of disturbance frequency, disturbance severity and productivity. Life‐history categories and bud bank size showed the strongest response to disturbance and productivity, whereas relationship of LHS traits was much weaker. A number of traits, including clonal growth form and bud bank size, showed a significantly unimodal response to disturbance frequency. Responses of many traits to disturbance frequency were different from their responses to disturbance severity. Our findings support the notions that disturbance and productivity are key gradients of species functional differentiation and that disturbance severity and frequency select for different trait suites. Furthermore, the data indicate that in a predominantly herbaceous flora, the traits of life span, clonal growth and resprouting show stronger relationship with the environment than the LHS traits, which are more important in floras with high proportions of woody species. Since most previous trait analyses are based on woody‐plant‐dominated floras, patterns revealed in a herb‐dominated flora deepen our understanding of the full range of variation within the plant kingdom. A plain language summary is available for this article. Plain Language Summary

Context Historical land use is thought to have influenced plant community diversity, composition and function through the local persistence of taxa that reflect ecological conditions of the past. Objectives We tested for the effects of historical land use on contemporary plant species richness, composition, and ecological preferences in the grassland vegetation of Central Europe. Methods We analyzed 6975 vegetation plots sampled between 1946 and 2021 in dry, mesic, and wet grasslands in the borderland between Austria, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia. Using 1819–1853 military maps, we assigned each plot to a historical land-use category (arable land, forest, grassland, settlement, permanent crop, and water body). We modeled the response of species richness, composition, and plant ecological preferences to the historical land use including contemporary covariates. Results Nineteenth-century land use explained little overall variation in species richness and composition, whereas more variation was explained by contemporary environmental conditions. However, we found that ecological preferences of some species were associated with specific historical land uses. Specifically, species more frequently occurring in historically forested grasslands showed lower light and disturbance frequency indicator values, while those associated with former settlements displayed higher disturbance severity indicator values. Conclusions We conclude that signatures of specific land-use conversions, including the restoration of grasslands in human-impacted areas, may still be detectable in grasslands even 200 years into the future. However, while local historical land use influences the occurrence of some species based on their ecological preferences, these effects do not significantly influence community species richness and total composition.

Floristic Quality Assessment (FQA) measures have become extraordinarily influential ecological metrics in North America over the past 20 yr. Government agencies, conservation organizations, land managers, and researchers alike utilize this plant‐based measure to evaluate habitat conservation value, ecological integrity, and naturalness. Its relative uniqueness, utility, and ease of use, among vegetation measures, portend the continued popularity of FQA going forward. FQA's use and influence far exceeds its study—where the literature addressing questions and criticisms regarding its methodology and ecological meaning has not kept pace with reliance upon it. Furthermore, the lack of literature review has led to disorder and confusion among its users. This review addresses these issues in three parts. First, it concisely explains the metrics and their methods, and most importantly, it synthesizes the often‐misinterpreted conceptual basis behind FQA. The bulk of the review then tackles common questions from researchers and non‐technical users alike regarding the measures. It does this with two lists. The first list reviews FQA's most common criticisms and summarizes evidence for and against them. The second list confronts the most common mistakes surrounding FQA, regarding both its application and misunderstanding in the literature. In each instance, straightforward guidelines and answers to uncertainties are emphasized.

Land‐use change from solar energy development may affect desert ecosystems and the soils, plants, and animals therein, yet our understanding of these interactions is nascent. With their ubiquity, criticality as ecosystem constituents, and sensitivity to environmental variation, ants may be useful study organisms for elucidating ecological effects of solar energy development in deserts. Our objectives were to disentangle the response of a desert ant community to solar energy development decisions and test the efficacy of ants as bioindicators at a solar power facility (392 MW) in the Mojave Desert, USA. We used pitfall traps to collect ants in treatments representing different solar energy development decisions, including variably intense site preparation practices: blading (i.e., bulldozing) and mowing, and establishment of undeveloped patches in solar fields, replicated across three power blocks comprising the facility and in undeveloped control sites surrounding the facility. We determined that ant abundance, species richness, Shannon Diversity Index, and functional richness were lower in bladed treatments than in all other treatments and controls. For most taxonomic and functional ant responses, we detected no difference between nonbladed treatments and controls; these results suggest that less intensive site preparation and increased spatial heterogeneity (i.e., undeveloped patches in solar fields) can reduce the negative effects of solar energy development on desert ants. However, our results indicate that ants may serve as useful bioindicators of the severity of anthropogenic disturbance from solar energy development in deserts, and indicator analysis signifies that solar energy infrastructure may negatively affect some species with high ecological value (e.g., harvester ants). Negative effects of solar energy development on ants can have significant implications for desert ecosystem function and integrity, but conservation‐minded solar facility design and construction may lead to avoidance of “bottom‐up” ecological ramifications of increased solar production during the renewable energy transition.

The Sentinel-2 NDVI time series information content from 2017 to 2023 at a 10 m spatial resolution was evaluated based on the NDVI temporal dependency in five scenarios in central Spain. First, time series were interpolated and then filtered using the Savitzky–Golay, Fast Fourier Transform, Whittaker, and Maximum Value filters. Temporal dependency was assessed using the Q-Ljung-Box and Fisher’s Kappa tests, and similarity between raw and filtered time series was assessed using Correlation Coefficient and Root Mean Square Error. An Interpolating Efficiency Indicator (IEI) was proposed to summarize the number and temporal distribution of low-quality observations. Type of climate, atmospheric disturbances, land cover dynamics, and management were the main sources of variability in five scenarios: (1) rainfed wheat and barley presented high short-term variability due to clouds (lower IEI in winter and spring) during the growing cycle and high interannual variability due to precipitation; (2) maize showed stable summer cycles (high IEI) and low interannual variability due to irrigation; (3) irrigated alfalfa was cut five to six times during summer, resulting in specific intra-annual variability; (4) beech forest showed a strong and stable summer cycle, despite the short-term variability due to clouds (low IEI); and (5) evergreen pine forest had a highly variable growing cycle due to fast responses to temperature and precipitation through the year and medium IEI values. Interpolation after removing non-valid observations resulted in an increase in temporal dependency (Q-test), particularly a short term in areas with low IEI values. The information improvement made it possible to identify hidden periodicities and trends using the Fisher’s Kappa test. The SG filter showed high similarity values and weak influence on dynamics, while the MVF showed an overestimation of the NDVI values.

According to the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) the development of bioindicators is extremely necessary to achieve the conservation targets by 2010, and insects are considered an effective group for this goal. Drosophilids are regarded as potential indicators, although this idea remains untested. Therefore, we followed up a protocol to test the drosophilid potential indicator for human disturbance in the Brazilian Savanna, one of the richest and most threatened tropical biomes in the world. Sampling was undertaken in one urban environment and two biological reserves, representing four habitat types (undisturbed gallery forest, disturbed gallery forest, undisturbed savanna, and urban environment). We examined differences in the drosophilid assemblages among habitat types and used the Indicator Value (IndVal) method to point out the indicator species. We also tested the two-stage indicator validation, a protocol recently proposed in the literature, to validate the indicator species for undisturbed gallery forest and savannas, in independent samples. The assemblage variables varied mainly in undisturbed gallery forests, and reflected changes from an undisturbed to a disturbed stage. The IndVal associated with the two-stage protocol showed reliable characteristic species, which are very helpful for diagnostic surveys. Likewise, species that can detect changes in the habitats were also found. We found a set of indicators, which together may be very efficient for both assessing and reflecting a variety of conditions, improving the confidence of the bioindication system, expanding the taxonomic options for bioindicators, and therefore, contributing to the conservation of this region. © 2008 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.

Karst springs are considered among the most vulnerable groundwater-dependent ecosystems. Despite their ecological value and importance as strategic water sources, Mediterranean karst springs are still poorly investigated. The aim of this study was to analyse the epilithic diatom assemblages and to test their usefulness as indicators of environmental quality on the Su Gologone spring (central-eastern Sardinia, Italy), a biotope of great natural value and a precious source of drinking water. A total of 89 diatom taxa were found with 25 new records for Sardinian running waters. Species richness, Shannon-Wiener and Pielou indices showed good biotic integrity. The dominant taxa were alkaliphilous, halophobous-oligohalobous exigent, xeno- oligosaprobic and characteristic of oligotrophic waters. The eutrophication/pollution index − diatom based (EPI-D) and the Navicula Nitzschia Surirella indices indicated respectively an excellent/good biological water quality and a low physical disturbance. However, the biological and chemical oxygen demand, and the microbiological variables (E. coli, fecal and total coliforms) revealed an organic contamination of the water, although moderate. The judgment provided by the EPI-D should be verified after updating of the index. In fact, 10 taxa found in this study are not currently considered by the EPI-D method.

Questions: What are the most relevant environmental variables influencing the distribution and the species richness of epiphytic lichens in heterogeneous areas of the Mediterranean region? What is the relative importance of substrate- vs. environmental-related variables? How do climatic and disturbance factors interact? Location: The study was carried out in the Liguria region (northwestern Italy). This is a complex region where steep environmental gradients occur over a few kilometres of longitude and latitude. Methods: Data on lichen species frequencies, collected on the basis of stratified random sampling, were analyzed using non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMS) and DCA. Indicator Value Analysis (IVA) analysis was used to find indicator species for the environmental predictors. Results: In the survey area, epiphytic lichen distribution depends on both substrate- and environment-related factors. Climatic variables (in particular average yearly temperature and rainfall), anthropogenic pressures (particularly harvesting and atmospheric pollution), bark pH and texture were associated with the main axes of variability in the dataset. Mean annual rainfall is the best predictor for epiphytic lichen richness in the survey area. The particular effects of the Mediterranean region (e.g. the influence of forest fires) and of heterogeneous areas (the variability of diversity in relation to habitat) were pointed out. Several indicator species, closely linked to particular ecological conditions, were found for both substrate-and environment-related variables. Conclusions: The main variables involved seemed to be the same reported for other areas, but their relative importance and their spatial scale of action were in some cases different, probably due to the geomorphological and climatic heterogeneity of the survey area. The significant influence of climatic predictors and disturbance factors on epiphytic lichens was confirmed, suggesting that these organisms may be used successfully to describe ecological trends in natural environments, also providing practical information at ecosystem level. Nomenclature: Nimis (2003). Abbreviations: NMS: Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling. IVA = Indicator Value Analysis.

Questions: What are the most relevant environmental variables influencing the distribution and the species richness of epiphytic lichens in heterogeneous areas of the Mediterranean region? What is the relative importance of substrate‐ vs. environmental‐related variables? How do climatic and disturbance factors interact? Location: The study was carried out in the Liguria region (northwestern Italy). This is a complex region where steep environmental gradients occur over a few kilometres of longitude and latitude. Methods: Data on lichen species frequencies, collected on the basis of stratified random sampling, were analyzed using non‐metric multidimensional scaling (NMS) and DCA. Indicator Value Analysis (IVA) analysis was used to find indicator species for the environmental predictors. Results: In the survey area, epiphytic lichen distribution depends on both substrate‐ and environment‐related factors. Climatic variables (in particular average yearly temperature and rainfall), anthropogenic pressures (particularly harvesting and atmospheric pollution), bark pH and texture were associated with the main axes of variability in the dataset. Mean annual rainfall is the best predictor for epiphytic lichen richness in the survey area. The particular effects of the Mediterranean region (e.g. the influence of forest fires) and of heterogeneous areas (the variability of diversity in relation to habitat) were pointed out. Several indicator species, closely linked to particular ecological conditions, were found for both substrate‐and environment‐related variables. Conclusions: The main variables involved seemed to be the same reported for other areas, but their relative importance and their spatial scale of action were in some cases different, probably due to the geomorphological and climatic heterogeneity of the survey area. The significant influence of climatic predictors and disturbance factors on epiphytic lichens was confirmed, suggesting that these organisms may be used successfully to describe ecological trends in natural environments, also providing practical information at ecosystem level.

Question: The eu-atlantic forest herb Ceratocapnos claviculata showed a recent increase in frequency within its native range and an eastward and northward range expansion in Central Europe. To gain deeper understanding of factors affecting the range expansion of the species, we analyzed vegetation relevés at three different scales and asked the following questions: As the species occurs in a wide range of vegetation types, is variation in community composition across the entire range related to climatic environmental zones and tree cover? Are there differences in species composition and habitat characteristics between the native range and the two invaded regions (S Sweden and NE Germany)? Did community composition and habitat characteristics within the native range (The Netherlands) change between `before 1970' and `1990 to 2006'? Location: W, C and N Europe. Methods: We analysed vegetation-plot data with C. claviculata from various databases and own surveys using partial CCA, partial DCA, Indicator Species Analysis, MANCOVA and multiple regression. Results: Using vegetation plots from the entire distribution range, climatic environmental zones explained 68.9% of the total canonical Eigenvalue. Differences in floristic composition and habitat characteristics between the two invaded regions were as large as between native and invaded range sites. However, relevés from the invaded range were generally characterized by anthropogenic disturbance. Accordingly, abundance of C. claviculata was positively linked to silvicultural intensity. New relevés from 1990 to 2006 were characterized by higher Ellenberg nutrient indicator values, lower species diversity, higher proportions of neophytic and hemerobic species and showed a lower cover of the study species than old relevés from before 1970. Conclusions: Across the range of C. claviculata, climatic environmental zones determine vegetation composition. Accordingly, the species is characterized by a broad macroclimatic amplitude. Vegetation composition and structure differ significantly between the two regions of the new range. Thus, the species has successfully established under various biotic and abiotic environmental conditions. Beyond potential positive effects of soil eutrophication and mild winters, anthropogenic impact may directly facilitate seed dispersal and provide sites and resource conditions suitable for germination and establishment of C. claviculata, whereas a decrease of forest management may constrain the species.