Impressions from the 4 th EDGG Research Expedition to Sicily: community composition and diversity of Mediterranean grasslands

We report on the 4th EDGG Research Expedition, conducted on the Italian island of Sicily in spring 2012. A group of 14 scientists from five countries studied the variety of the dry grassland vegetation using standardised sampling procedures (nested-plot series and phytosociological releves of 10-m# plots). All terricolous plants superficially present in the plots were sampled, including perennial and annual vascular plants, bryophytes, and lichens. The data will be used for analyses of scale-dependent diversity patterns and species-area relationships, as well as for studying vegetation-environment relationships and performing phytosociological classification. Later, the data will be entered in public vegetation-plot databases. The fact that scientists from different phytosociological schools participated in the expedition, gave rise to important methodological discussions, which we briefly highlight in this report.