March 2022
![](https://lotvs.csic.es/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/Logo-512x512-LOTVS.jpg)
Now that the LOTVS collection has been finally presented, we’re already working on LOTVS 2.0. This will mean an update of current datasets, as well as the inclusion of new ones. We already received very interesting data, and look forward to many more! Among the new datasets, some belong to “old” LOTVS contributors, e.g. several successional time-series in old fields, ruderal communities, as well as different types of grasslands and forest understoreys (Contributor: Wolfgang Schmidt). Some others, though, are from new contributors (whom we warmly welcome!): Ana Clara Guido and Valerio Pillar (removal experiment in South Brazilian grasslands); Stefano Chelli and Roberto Canullo (forest understoreys of the Italian Conecofor network); Oscar Godoy and Ignasi Bartomeus (Mediterranean grassland communities in the Doñana National Park). As mentioned in our recent report, LOTVS now consists of 79 datasets, most of them including permanent plots located in European and North American grasslands and shrublands. Although we welcome datasets from any geographical areas and habitats (provided they satisfy a few requirements) we take this chance to recall that we would be especially happy to receive vegetation time-series recorded in Africa, Asia, Australia and South America, and covering currently under-represented habitats such as forest understoreys, tundra and coastal areas. So please spread the word among your fellows and collaborators, and don’t hesitate to drop us a line if you’d like to contribute with data!
February 2022
Interested in a concise, yet effective description of LOTVS? Then you should check out our recent report published in the Journal of Vegetation Science! Besides recalling the importance of permanent plots as a means to address current and future key ecological questions, we officially present the LOng-Term Vegetation Sampling (LOTVS) collection and thoroughly describe its features. We provide a number of insights such as habitats and geographical areas covered, range and temporal resolution of the time-series, but also presence and type of experimental treatments in the data. Moreover, we briefly report on how you can contribute and/or request data, and we list some of our plans for the LOTVS collection in the future. All mixed with nice plots and images!
![](https://www.biorxiv.org/content/biorxiv/early/2021/10/01/2021.09.29.462383/F2.large.jpg)
Image from Sperandii et al. 2022. LOTVS: A global collection of permanent vegetation plots. Doi: 10.1111/jvs.13115. Photographs taken by our Contributors!
September 2021
Curious about the potential effects of functional traits on the temporal stability of ecosystem functions? Then you can’t miss our recent review out on Trends in Ecology and Evolution. We show that the main mechanisms by which biodiversity affects the stability of ecosystem functions (dominant species, compensatory dynamics, and insurance effects) all act through the functional traits of the organisms that form local communities. Although a few seminal works had already had already suggested approaches for using functional traits to assess mechanisms of ecological stability, connecting these scattered puzzle pieces was an essential step for developing comprehensive conceptual and quantitative trait-based frameworks. Our review finally puts together the main pieces of the biodiversity- and trait-stability puzzle and explores connections between these pieces that can generate integrative conceptual and quantitative approaches for future research.
![](https://els-jbs-prod-cdn.jbs.elsevierhealth.com/cms/attachment/bc26ffb2-260c-488c-af5f-4dc537ce2adf/b1_lrg.jpg)
Image from de Bello et al. 2021.
September 2020
![](https://i0.wp.com/vegsciblog.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/JVS-2020-5.jpg?w=667&ssl=1)
A special feature on the importance of permanent plots was published in Journal of Vegetation Science and organized, by a great extent, by the Team of the LOTVS initiative together with a number of its Contributors. A nice collection of 10 studies covering a wide variety of ecosystems and both experimental and observational studies was included in the special feature.
The whole feature is introduced by an Editorial piece stressing the importance and development of different initiatives based on permanent plots, including LOTVS. The special feature also includes a specific data analysis of the LOTVS collection, showing the importance of directional trends in detecting stability mechanisms.
September 2020 (2)
![](https://lotvs.csic.es/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Calderuelo_Begoña-GG.jpg)
The first important data analysis paper from the LOTVS collection is now published in PNAS! The work, led by our brilliant Enrique Valencia and co-authored by the LOTVS team + all contributors, addresses the main drivers of ecological stability in natural and semi-natural communities worldwide. In short, our results show that the greater the temporal stability of an ecological community, the more likely it is to resist change or maintain equilibrium under environmental fluctuations or perturbations resulting from climate-driven events (e.g. drought, grazing). We found that both species richness, i.e. biodiversity, and synchrony (the co-variation in population size among species in the same community) affected such stability. However, the most important effect on stability was due to the lack of perfect temporal synchrony between species, i.e. the more fluctuation of individual populations compensate each other, the more stable the community itself. Higher species richness was associated with increased stability, but to a lesser degree and more important, the positive effect of species richness was not necessarily due to a negative effect on synchrony as expected in some theoretical models.