FOREWORD TO THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONFERENCE 'EUROPEAN VEGETATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY'

Abstract

FOREWORD TO THE PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONFERENCE 'EUROPEAN VEGETATION IN THE 21ST CENTURY' The conference 'European vegetation in the 21st century' was held in theNational University of Ireland, Galway, in June 2005 and was succeeded by a week-long excursion to some of themost important sites for Irishvegetation. The three-day conference was attended by over 130 delegates from 21 countries from as far afield asRussia and Georgia in the east, Sweden in the north,Malta in the south and Ireland in thewest. Itwas the fourthmajor meeting of European vegetation scientists in Irelandwithin the last 100 years. The firstof these, the International Phyto geographical Excursion, was held in 1911 and was organised by the illustrious Irish botanist Robert Lloyd Praeger. Among the participants was the eminent British botanist Arthur Tansley, who subsequently described aspects of Irish vegetation in his seminal book The British Islands and their vegetation(Tansley 1939). The second International Phytogeographical Excursion, held in 1949, was organised by the late Professor David Webb. The star attractions on that occasion were none other thanBraun-Blanquet and T?xen themselves,who compiled thefirstaccounts of Irishvegetation using the continental phytosociological methodology. Their account, published in Irische Pflanze ngesellschaften(Braun-Blanquet and T?xen 1952) has since become a standard reference for all aspiring Irish vegetation scientists. The third meeting, held by the International Society for Vegetation Science, took place in 1980 and was organised byDr Austin O'Sullivan, Dr Jim White and the late Professor Webb. The Galway conference provided an oppor tunity to take stock of developments in Irish vegetation studies over the last 25 years. In addition, with our closer integration into the European Community and its recent expansion eastward, itwas also an opportunity to take a broader look at developments invegetation science. It also coincided with the centenary of the publication of the firstdetailed vegetation map of Irishvegetation, thatof the 'districtlying south of Dublin' by Pethybridge and Praeger (1905). In contrast to other countries, studies of Irish vegetation have, until relativelyrecently,been fitful. After the map produced by Pethybridge and Praeger in 1905 little furtherwas done by Irish scientists until the 1960s and 1970s, when Professor J.J. Moore and Dr Austin O'Sullivan enthusiastically embraced the continental approach to phyto sociology. Detailed studies of grasslands and peatlands were undertaken and preliminarymaps were produced (seeWhite 1982). Initial studies of Irish woodlands were begun (e.g. Kelly 1975). Following the enactment of the 1976Wildlife Act the pace of surveying and classifying vegetation intensifiedwith systematic coverage of numerous habitat types, such as raised bogs (e.g.Douglas and Grogan 1985; Cross 1990),machair (Crawford etal. 1996), saltmarshes (Curtis and Sheehy Skeffington 1998). The informationgathered fromthese surveys provided a basis for the first steps towards the conservation of Irish flora and habitats under the Wildlife Act. Much of this information was also incorporated into the recently published Map of the Natural Vegetation of Europe (Bohn et al. 2003; 2004), one of the principal stimuli for the conference. This map is the result ofmore than 25 years of international cooperation between vegetation scientists from nearly all countries of Europe, and it is the firstof itskind for an entire continent. The map alone, with nearly 700 units, is a work of art, and while some botanists have reservations regarding the concept of potential natural vegetation, it has already been widely accepted as a useful tool in termsof planning and management. The second stimulus for the conference, the EU Habitats Directive, has become the principal tool for nature conservation, not only within Ireland but also throughout theEU and applicant states.All 25 member statesare obliged to identify, protect, monitor and manage a network of areas or Sites of Community Importance (SCIs), known as Natura 2000 sites, and vegetation scientists have played an important role in defining and implementing this directive. Europe has a long history of landuse andmanagement, with the result that very little undisturbed natural vegetation remains. There are, however, extensive areas of managed natural and semi-natural vegetation and 'cultural landscapes' of high conservation value. In recent decades increased urbanisation and the intensificationof agriculture and forestryhave led Biology and Environment: Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. 106B, No. 3, 163-165...