European knowledge of plant communities is globally by far the most accurate thanks to the long vegetation survey tradition. This expertise translated into European policies and entailed a number of applied conservation measures. The analysis of the variability of vegetation across ecological gradients may significantly improve our understanding of vegetation dynamics, thus ameliorating the accuracy to predict the fate of ecosystems under future environmental scenarios. This Topical Collection comprises contributions dealing with vegetation types and their species composition in the Anthropocene, and studies aiming to disentangle the role of variability at different biological organization levels, from species to communities, in explaining ecological processes. Furthermore, contributions analyzing threats for the conservation of vegetation types, and of their effects, are welcome as they may contribute to make a step forward in the protection of our natural, near-natural, and cultural ecosystems that are rapidly changing.

This Topical Collection is a continuation of the one launched under the previous journal title, Plant Sociology, and the earlier publications are available here.