Young Scientist Poster Award

Each year IAVS recognizes the young scientist - a student, or holder of an advanced degree (undergrad/Bachelor’s, Master’s or PhD) within three years of completion of his/her degree -  who has presented the most outstanding poster at the annual meeting of the Association. The winner is awarded 1000€ to be used to attend one of the subsequent two annual meetings of the Association.

2019
First prize (tie, in alphabetical order):
Nina Fahs (Germany):  Ecological and agricultural evaluation of different grassland management strategies (Co-author: Petr Blazek)
Gabriel Walther (Germany):  Patterns of functional rarity of mesophilic grassland species (Co-authors: Ute Jandt, Christine Römermann)

Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order, not by score):      
Po-Yu Lin (Taiwan): Diversity pattern of woody species along elevation in Taiwan: does the sample standardisation matter? (Co-authors: David Zelený, Ching-Feng Li)
Carolin Plos (Germany): Relationships between flowering phenology and flower traits in herbaceous species (Co-authors: Isabell Hensen, Christine Römermann)

2018
First prize: Martin Macek (Czech Republic): Can ecological rules survive in Himalaya? (Co-authors: Martin Kopecký, Miroslav Dvorský, Jan Wild, Jiří Doležal)
 
Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order, not by score):             
Pavel Danek (Czech Republic): Four decades of beech-spruce interactions in a Central European old-growth mountain forest. Who succeeds on which soils and how? (Co-authors: Pavel Šamonil,  Dušan Adam, Ivana Vašíčková)
Alice Stears (USA): Leaf osmotic potential affects survival probability in response to inter-annual climatic variation in a semi-arid short-grass steppe in northern Colorado (Co-authors: Dana Blumenthal, Kevin Wilcox, Julie Kray, Troy Ocheltree, Peter Adler, Daniel Laughlin)

2017
First prize: Malgorzata Radula (Poland): Topographic wetness index predicts soil moisture better than bioindication with Ellenberg’s indicator values (Co-authors: Tomasz Szymura, Magdalena Szymura)
 
Honorable Mentions (in alphabetical order, not by score):             
Liis Kasari (Estonia): Good dispersers disappear from European calcareous grasslands following the payment of extinction debt (Co-author: Aveliina Helm)
Francesca Jaroszynska (Norway): Shifts in biotic interactions with climate change in semi-natural grasslands in Western Norway (Co-authors: Vigdis Vandvik, Siri Lie Olsen, Kari Klanderud)


2016
First Prize: Nathalia Bonani (Brazil). How is fire affecting the germination of legume species? The study of Cerrado and forest species. (Co-authors: L.Felipe Daibes & Alessandra Fidelis)
Honorable Mention: Anaclara Guido (Brazil). Invasive species removal: assessing community impact and recovery from invasion (Co-author: Valério D. Pillar)
Honorable Mention: Joosep Sarapuu (Estonia). Cut evolution in cut forests? Changes in phylogenetic structure of tropical rainforests due to ecological release of leaf-cutting ants (Co-authors: Elâine Ribeiro, Bráulio A. Santos, Marcelo Tabarelli, Rainer Wirth, Inara R. Leal & Pille Gerhold)

2015
First Prize: Sonya Geange (Australia). Plasticity in water use traits in Australian alpine plants (Co-authors: Veronica Briceno Rodriguez, Nicola Aitken, Jose Alberto Ramirez-Valiente & Adrienne Nicotra)
Honorable mention: Gianmaria Bonari (Italy). Management effect on diversity of plants and insects in semi-natural grasslands: conflicts or reconciliation? (Co-authors: Karel Fajmon, David Zelený, Igor Malenovský, Jaroslav Holuša, Ivana Jongepierová, Petr Kočárek, Ondřej Konvička, Jan Uřičář & Milan Chytrý)
Honorable mention: Barbora Lepková (Czech Republic). Seed dispersal by free-ranging herbivores and its impact on vegetation (Co-authors: Eva Horčičková, Jaroslav Vojta & Tomáš Herben)
Honorable mention: Emma Shidola (Namibia). Assessment of vegetation diversity, structure, cover and the influence of fire in Alex Muranda research centre and Mutompo, Namibia using long-term data

2014
First prize: Guochen Kenny Png. Do N-fixing plants show higher root phosphatase activity on P-poor soils? (Co-authors: Etienne Laliberté, Patrick E. Hayes, Benjamin L. Turner and Hans Lambers)
Honorable Mention: Talita Zupo. Do different disturbance types affect resprouting patterns of shrub species in cerrado? (Co-authors:  Elizabeth Gorgone-Barbosa, Mariana N. Rissi and Alessandra Fidelis)
Honorable Mention: Ilka Strubelt. Changes in species composition and richness in an alluvial hardwood forest over 52 years (Co-authors: Martin R. Diekmann and Dietmar Zacharias)

2013
First prize: Daniel Bernardo Montesinos. The mountain vegetation of the South Andes of Peru: Syntaxonomy, ecology, phytogeography and conservation (Co-authors: Antoine M. Cleef, Karlè V. Sýkora)
Honorable Mention: Stefanie Raabe. Effect of different cutting regimes on species diversity of rewetted fens (Co-authors: Florian Sievers, Michael Manthey)
Honorable Mention: Anaclara Guido. Shrub effects on grassland vegetation in Brazilian altitude grasslands (Co-authors: Elisa Salengue, André Dresseno)

2012
First prize: Rob Lewis. Identifying the multi-scale spatial relationship of plant community determinants on a national scale (Co-authors: R.J. Pakeman & R.H. Marrs)
Honorable Mention: Renaud Jaunatre. New synthetic indicators to assess community resilience and restoration success (Co-authors: E. Buisson & T. Dutoit)
Honorable Mention: Jeong Soo Park. Analysis of environmental factors that affect the distribution ofDeschampsia antarctica on King George island, Maritime Antarctica (Co-author: Eun Ju Lee)

2011
First prize: Hannes Feilhauer (Bonn, Germany). Combining ordination and remote sensing techniques to map ecotones in a heterogeneous landscape. (Co-authors: U. Faude, S. Schmidtlein)
Honorable mention: Marcos Carlucci (Porto Alegre, Brazil). Information from tree sapling individuals reveals trait convergence and trait divergence are related to gradients in forest patches. (Co-authors: H. Streit, L. Duarte, V. Pillar)
Honorable mention: Liisa Mannvilja (Helsinki, Finland). Restoration of diversity in boreal spruce swamp forests. (Co-authors: K. Aapala, T. Haapalehto, J. Kotiaho, E. Tuittila)

2010
First prize: Megan R. Wong (Victoria, Australia). Vegetation and soil food web responses to resource availability in a perennial tussock grassland, south-eastern Australia. (Co-authors: J.W. Morgan, T.R. Cavagnaro)
Honorable mention: A. Fidelis (São Paulo, Brazil.) Floristic similarities of wet-grasslands in the Brazilian cerrado biome. (Co-author: V. Pivello)

2009
First Prize: Jan Plue (Belgium). How to sample a forest soil seed bank? (Co-authors: G. Goyens, M. van Meirvenne, K. Verheyen, M. Hermy).
Honorable mention: Krista Takkis (Estonia). Contrasting responses of two grassland species to habitat fragmentation. (Co-authors: L. Saar, A. Helm, M. Partel)
Honorable mention: Takuya Furukawa (Japan). Abrupt vegetation change along human disturbance gradient in an urban tropical dry forest, Nairobi, Kenya. (Co-authors: K. Fujiwara, S. Kiboi, S.G. Mathenge, P.B.C. Mutiso)

2008
First Prize: Jeff Ott (North Carolina, USA). Sharpening the focus of community patterns by adjusting phylogenetic scale.
Honorable mention: Forbes Boyle (North Carolina, USA). Using high-quality vegetation plot datasets to restore ecosystems: an example from the Coastal Plain of the Southeastern US. (Co-authors: R.K. Peet, T.R. Wentworth)
Honorable mention: Desale Okubamichael (South Africa). Host specificity and bird dispersal in the parasitic mistletoe Tapinanthus natalitius (Loranthaceae). (Co-authors: D. Ward, M. Griffiths-Ward, M.Z. Rasheed)
South African Development Community Prize: Justine Nyaga (South Africa). Impacts of fog and dew on soil moisture, respiration and nutrient cycling. (Co-authors: C.F. Musil, L. Raitt)

2007
First Prize: Flore Viard-Cretat (France). Does mowing increase allelopathic effects of dominants on recruitment in subalpine grasslands? (Co-authors: Christiane Gallet, Sandra Lavorel)
Second Prize: Gert Rosenthal (Germany). Restoration of wet meadow communities after sustained abandonment
Third Prize: Kai Rünk (Estonia). What are the key factors for three congeneric (Dryopteris) forest ferns with contrasting regional abundance: soil, illumination or something else? (Co-authors: Martin Zobel, Kristjan Zobel)
Honorable mention: Loek Kuiters (Netherlands). Endozoochorous seed dispersal by sheep in limestone grasslands in South Limburg, the Netherlands. (Co-authors: H.P.J. Huiskes, W.A. Ozinga, & J.H.J. Schaminée)

2006
First Prize: Chie Itow (Japan). A study of comparison of ecological and habitat differences between alien Ligustrum lucidum Ait. and native Ligustrum japonicum Thunb. in Japan. (Co-author: K. Fujiwara)
Second Prize: Haruka Ohashi (Japan). Impact of the native Sika deer (Cervus nippon) on the forest floor vegetation: the natural experiment. (Co-authors: Y. Hoshino, K. Oono)

2005
First prize: Ana Luisa Diogo (Lisbon, Portugal).
Second prize: Alessandra Fidelis (Freising, Germany).
Third prize: Ligia Carvalho (Funchal, Portugal).

2004
First Prize: Hiroko Kurokawa (Japan). Factors explaining plant defensive investments in tropical rainforests in Borneo. (Co-authors: H. Nagamasu, T. Nakashizuka)
Second Prize: Teresa Hollingsworth. (Alaska, USA).  Environmental controls on floristic variability in Black spruce communities of interior Alaska. (Co-authors: M.D. Walker, A. Parsons)
Third Prize: Haruka Ohashi. (Tokyo, Japan). Effect of Shika deer (Cervus nippon) on species composition and plant species diversity of forest vegetation. (Co-author: Y. Hoshino)

2003
First prize: M. Ghobadnejhad (Teheran, Iran).
Second prize: Imelda Somodi (Budapest, Hungary).
Third prize: Roberto Costi (Italy).

2002
First prize: Diego Gurvich.
Second price: Gervasio Pineiro.
Third price: Fabina Pezzani.

2001
First prize: Silke Werth (Germany). Are epiphytic macrolichens faithful indicators of hemeroby in deciduous forests?
Second prize: Stephanie Clauss (Germany). Assessment of vegetation cover as a tool for environmental planning of Utila Island, Honduras. (Co-author: C. Wild)
Second prize: Astrid Søe (Germany). The effect of forest structure on soil respiration in beech forests under different management regimes