Researchers from Macquarie University and Utrecht University invite vegetation scientists and plant ecologists to participate in joint research about plant diversity and nutrient availability in herbaceous ecosystems worldwide. Their joint work focuses on herbaceous ecosystems (grasslands, fens, marshes, rangelands, etc.) and the relationships between plant diversity and nutrient stoichiometry. They recently collated a dataset of nearly 1000 vegetation plots to investigate the effect of nutrients on threatened plant species in Europe. As a next step they scaled out with the aim to reach global coverage in plot data and successfully extended their dataset to now >2500 plots from nearly 30 countries. They are lacking data from Australia and New Zealand; two countries they consider important to include due to their unique biogeographical history and generally low levels of soil nutrients especially when compared to Europe and northern Asia where most of otheir data comes from.

Their request: The method is very simple. Vegetation scientists making a relevé in herbaceous vegetation are asked to clip living above-ground phanerogam vegetation in a representative square in or next to the relevé. The sample should be taken around the peak of the growing season. Samples are stored in paper bags and air-dried before sending them by surface mail to Martin Wassen. Typically, the size of a relevé should be 4 m² and the plot to be clipped c. 0.09-0.16 m². For methodological reasons, we only collect the living vascular plant biomass in the sample to be clipped (leaves, stems, flowers, seeds, panicles; not sorted).

Their offer: They will oven-dry the samples and determine dry plant mass and C, N, P and K concentrations in the lab at Utrecht University, Netherlands. The results and interpretation of the nutrient status will be given to the participant and they are free to use the data in their own research project. Following this, the data will be added to the existing database. Co-authorship on resulting papers will be offered to all participants who provide a substantial number of plots.

Interested? Send an e-mail to discuss further details on planning, number of plots, type of vegetation, etc.

Martin Wassen, Utrecht, Netherlands – – https://www.uu.nl/staff/MJWassen

Julian Schrader, Macquarie University, Sydney – – https://julianschrader.wordpress.com/