title: A higher-level classification of the Pannonian and western Pontic steppe grasslands (Central and Eastern Europe).
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  What are the main floristic patterns in the Pannonian and western Pontic steppe grasslands? What are the diagnostic species of the major subdivisions of the classFestuco-Brometea(temperate Euro-Siberian dry and semi-dry grasslands)?
  
  
  METHODS
  Carpathian Basin (E Austria, SE Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, N Croatia and N Serbia), Ukraine, S Poland and the Bryansk region of W Russia.
  
  
  METHODS
  We applied a geographically stratified resampling to a large set of relevés containing at least one indicator species of steppe grasslands. The resulting data set of 17 993 relevés was classified using the TWINSPAN algorithm. We identified groups of clusters that corresponded to the classFestuco-Brometea. After excluding relevés not belonging to our target class, we applied a consensus of three fidelity measures, also taking into account external knowledge, to establish the diagnostic species of the orders of the class. The original TWINSPAN divisions were revised on the basis of these diagnostic species.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The TWINSPAN classification revealed soil moisture as the most important environmental factor. Eight out of 16 TWINSPAN groups corresponded toFestuco-Brometea. A total of 80, 32 and 58 species were accepted as diagnostic for the ordersBrometalia erecti,Festucetalia valesiacaeandStipo-Festucetalia pallentis, respectively. In the further subdivision of the orders, soil conditions, geographic distribution and altitude could be identified as factors driving the major floristic patterns.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We propose the following classification of theFestuco-Brometeain our study area: (1)Brometalia erecti(semi-dry grasslands) withScabioso ochroleucae-Poion angustifoliae(steppe meadows of the forest zone of E Europe) andCirsio-Brachypodion pinnati(meadow steppes on deep soils in the forest-steppe zone of E Central and E Europe); (2)Festucetalia valesiacae(grass steppes) withFestucion valesiacae(grass steppes on less developed soils in the forest-steppe zone of E Central and E Europe) andStipion lessingianae(grass steppes in the steppe zone); (3)Stipo-Festucetalia pallentis(rocky steppes) withAsplenio septentrionalis-Festucion pallentis(rocky steppes on siliceous and intermediate soils),Bromo-Festucion pallentis(thermophilous rocky steppes on calcareous soils),Diantho-Seslerion(dealpineSesleria caeruleagrasslands of the Western Carpathians) andSeslerion rigidae(dealpineSesleria rigidagrasslands of the Romanian Carpathians).
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany and Biodiversity ResearchUniversity of ViennaRennweg 141030WienAustria; Vienna Institute for Nature Conservation and AnalysesGießergasse 6/71090WienAustria.
authors.forename: Wolfgang
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Willner
authors.affiliation: National Dendrological Park "Sofiyvka" of NAS of Ukraine Kyivska 12a 20300 Uman' Ukraine.
authors.forename: Anna
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kuzemko
authors.affiliation: Plant EcologyBayreuth Center for Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER)University of BayreuthUniversitätsstr. 3095447BayreuthGermany; Synthesis Centre (sDiv)German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-LeipzigDeutscher Platz 5e04103LeipzigGermany.
authors.forename: Jürgen
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-3221-660X
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Dengler
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany and Zoology Masaryk University Kotlářská 2 61137 Brno Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Milan
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Chytrý
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany Hungarian Natural History Museum Baross útca 13 1088 Budapest Hungary.
authors.forename: Norbert
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Bauer
authors.affiliation: Department of Regional and Environmental Sciences/Geobotany University of Trier Behringstr. 21 54296 Trier Germany.
authors.forename: Thomas
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authors.lastname: Becker
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biology Romanian Academy Splaiul Independentei 296, s.6 060031 Bucharest Romania.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Biţă-Nicolae
authors.affiliation: MTA Centre for Ecological Research Alkotmány ú. 2-4 2163 Vácrátót Hungary.
authors.forename: Zoltán
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Botta-Dukát
authors.affiliation: Institute of Biology Scientific Research Center of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts Novi trg 2 1001 Ljubljana Slovenia.
authors.forename: Andraž
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Čarni
authors.affiliation: Department of Ecology University of Pécs Ifjúság útja 6 7624 Pécs Hungary.
authors.forename: János
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Csiky
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and Ecology University of Novi Sad Trg Dositeja Obradovića 2 21000 Novi Sad Serbia.
authors.forename: Ruzica
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Igić
authors.affiliation: Department of Vegetation Ecology University of Wroclaw Kanonia 6/8 50-328 Wroclaw Poland.
authors.forename: Zygmunt
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Kącki
authors.affiliation: M.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany NAS of Ukraine Tereshchenkivska 2 01601 Kyiv Ukraine.
authors.forename: Iryna
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Korotchenko
authors.affiliation: Institute for Integrative Nature Conservation Research University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Gregor Mendel-Str. 33 1180 Wien Austria.
authors.forename: Matthias
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kropf
authors.affiliation: Department of Biology and Ecology University of Novi Sad Trg Dositeja Obradovića 2 21000 Novi Sad Serbia.
authors.forename: Mirjana
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Krstivojević-Ćuk
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Forestry University of Zagreb Svetošimunska 25 10000 Zagreb Croatia.
authors.forename: Daniel
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Krstonošić
authors.affiliation: MTA Centre for Ecological Research Alkotmány ú. 2-4 2163 Vácrátót Hungary.
authors.forename: Tamás
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Rédei
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Biology and Geology Babeş-Bolyai University Republicii 42 400015 Cluj-Napoca Romania.
authors.forename: Eszter
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Ruprecht
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany and Biodiversity Research University of Vienna Rennweg 14 1030 Wien Austria.
authors.forename: Luise
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Schratt-Ehrendorfer
authors.affiliation: Department of Botany Bryansk State University Bezhitskaya 14 241036 Bryansk Russia.
authors.forename: Yuri
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Semenishchenkov
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Geotechnical Engineering University of Zagreb Hallerova aleja 7 42000 Varaždin Croatia.
authors.forename: Zvjezdana
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Stančić
authors.affiliation: State Inspection of Environmental Protection I. Franka 2/2 29010 Khmelnytsky Ukraine.
authors.forename: Yulia
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Vashenyak
authors.affiliation: M.G. Kholodny Institute of Botany NAS of Ukraine Tereshchenkivska 2 01601 Kyiv Ukraine.
authors.forename: Denys
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Vynokurov
authors.affiliation: Institute of Botany Slovak Academy of Sciences Ďumbierska 1 97411 Banská Bystrica Slovakia.
authors.forename: Monika
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authors.lastname: Janišová
keywords: Brometalia erecti; Diagnostic species; Dry grassland; Festucetalia valesiacae; Festuco‐Brometea; Galietalia veri; Phytosociology; Stipo‐Festucetalia pallentis; Syntaxonomy; TWINSPAN; Vegetation‐plot database