Applied Vegetation Science 16 (2013) 1–4 EDITORIAL Organic farming, vegetation restoration and survey Milan Chytry ´ , Alessandro Chiarucci, Meelis Pa ¨ rtel & J. Bastow Wilson Chytry ´ , M. (corresponding author, chytry@sci.muni.cz): Department of Botany and Zoology, Masaryk University, Kotla ´r ˇska ´ 2, CZ-61137, Brno, Czech Republic Chiarucci, A. (chiarucci@unisi.it): BIOCONNET, Biodiversity and Conservation Network, Life Science, University of Siena, I-53100, Siena, Italy Pa ¨ rtel, M. (meelis.partel@ut.ee): Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences, University of Tartu, 40 Lai St., EE-51005, Tartu, Estonia Wilson, J.B. (bastow@bastow.ac.nz): Botany Department, University of Otago, P.O. Box 56, Dunedin, New Zealand Editor’s Award for 2012 It is a tradition in Applied Vegetation Science that, at the beginning of each year, the Chief Editors, partly based on the nominations received from Associate Editors, grant an award to an outstanding paper published in the journal in the previous year. The Editors’ Award for 2012 goes to Laura Armengot for the paper “The b-diversity of arable weed communities on organic and conventional cereal farms in two contrasting regions” (Armengot et al. 2012). The species diversity of weed vegetation on European arable land has declined dramatically over the last few dec- ades. Unlike other vegetation types, weed vegetation can- not be protected in nature reserves, but a reasonable chance for survival of species-rich weed communities and endangered weed species is in organic farms, currently supported by European agri-environmental programmes. Diversity comparisons between organic and conventional farms have traditionally focused on local species richness (alpha-diversity), but the Go ¨ ttingen University’s Agroecol- ogy group, in which Laura Armengot did her study, recently emphasized the importance of beta-diversity in their research on German arable land (Roschewitz et al. 2005; Gabriel et al. 2006). Armengot et al. (2012) extended these studies to the Mediterranean region (Spain) and compared the results with patterns existing in the temperate zone (Germany). Besides consistently higher alpha-diversity on organic farms, they revealed that in both regions beta-diversity (compositional difference between the site and the farm, and between the farm and the region) was also higher in organic farms. As the weed flora of both regions was very different, this result suggests the possible existence of a general pattern across Europe. It is a signal for environmental policy-making that for effec- tive conservation of endangered weeds, the focus on organic farming should be extended from the currently dominating field- or farm-scale to landscape scale. As cour- tesy of our publishers, Laura Armengot receives Wiley- Blackwell books of her choice at the total price of £100 and will be featured on the web sites of the journal and the International Association for Vegetation Science (IAVS). There were other nominations for the Editor’s Award. Velle et al. (2012) studied the regeneration potential of old and young heaths in Norway. Post-fire succession in heathlands is a classical research topic of plant community ecology (Gimingham 1972), but in some cases existing knowledge is still insufficient to make valid recommenda- tions for ecological restoration projects. A general decline of traditional heathland farming has resulted in decreased fire frequencies and it is unknown whether prescribed burning can be used as an effective tool for restoration of old heathlands, especially those at northern latitudes or high altitudes. Velle et al. (2012) demonstrated that not only young, but also long-abandoned heathlands can be successfully restored by burning, which is good news for nature conservation. Hofmeister et al. (2012) asked whether 15 N/ 14 N isotope ratio (d 15 N signature) in oak leaves, used as an indicator of ecosystem nutrient status (Pardo et al. 2002), can explain the differences in plant species richness and composition of an oak-forest herb layer. As could be expected, they found that species diversity in the herb layer was affected by nitrogen availability. However, foliar d 15 N signatures in oak leaves indicated different processes than the more commonly used proxies of nutrient status such as foliar nitrogen concentration. While the foliar nitrogen concen- tration negatively correlated with Shannon diversity index, d 15 N indicated the spread of species with high colo- nization ability such as nutrient-demanding shade-tolerant annuals. Foliar d 15 N signatures may be useful proxies of nitrogen availability in future studies in basic and applied vegetation ecology. The last nominated paper was a methodological study by Peck et al. (2012). The authors used data from very- high-resolution (VHR) proximal remote-sensing imagery of canopies, collected using a remote-control helicopter photographic platform, for identification of species, genera Applied Vegetation Science Doi: 10.1111/avsc.12012 © 2012 International Association for Vegetation Science 1