Welcome

Dear Colleagues,
Thank you for your interest in the 44^th IAVS Symposium in Freising-Weihenstephan. We would like to invite you to confirm your participation and book your accommodation. You will also find information about excursions, fees and the scientific program in this Circular (and as pdf-File: 3rdCircular.pdf ). You are welcome to submit an abstract, if you wish to present your scientific contribution in one of the Symposium sessions on vegetation and ecosystem functions. Up to now we have already received more than 450 registrations from about 50 different countries. We are looking forward to meeting you in 2001 in Weihenstephan!

Symposium Venue

Since the 8^th century, Weihenstephan has been an important site for Bavarian history. On the base of the first chapel, the Irish monk Corbinian promoted the foundation of a diocese which extended from the Danube river to the Italian Alps. The chapel was altered into the Weihenstephan Benedictine abbey which was secularized in 1803, and changed into an education and research institution for agriculture. In 1929, it was incorporated into the Technische Universität München.
Today, the Chair of Vegetation Ecology, formerly belonging to the Faculty for Agriculture and Horticulture, and the Unit of Geobotany from the former Faculty of Forest Science are integral parts of the new Department of Ecology within the Centre of Life Sciences Weihenstephan.

Location and Venue

The Symposium will take place in Weihenstephan at the campus of the Technische Universität München (Munich University of Technology). Plenary and parallel sessions as well as poster sessions will be held in the main lecture building of the university. The registration desk will be in the entrance hall of this building. Registration will be possible on Sunday 29 July 2001 and during Symposium hours. We will send you more detailed information on the location in the third circular about six weeks prior to the Symposium. Weihenstephan belongs to the city of Freising which is located 35 km north of the city of Munich. There is a frequent bus connection between Freising station and Munich International Airport (15 km). Freising can easily be reached by train via Munich or Regensburg. Local trains are going frequently from and to Munich.

Scientific Program

The 44^th IAVS Symposium will focus on the relation between vegetation and ecosystem functions.
Generally, ecosystem functions can be divided into internal functions (properties and processes) and external functions (services and loads). These functions comprise e.g. habitat functions at the scale of species and populations as well as regulation functions at a landscape scale. The production functions include plant-plant-interactions and the relationships between vegetation and other trophic levels e.g. plant-animal interactions or interactions between plants and microorganisms. Information and carrier functions particularly address the services ecosystems provide for human welfare (e.g. historic information, bioindication, recreation, etc.).

We intend the Symposium as a forum to discuss different approaches in vegetation science and to clarify the concept of ecosystem functions with special emphasis on the role of plants and plant communities. We invite you to contribute to the discussion with a lecture or poster presentation.

Session Themes

Keynote Speakers

Organizing Committee