This first issue of 2018 is an exciting one, being dedicated, as previously announced, to a focus on extant and fossil Charophytes.
We are also very pleased to announce our 2018 Jussieu prize recipient. The selection Committee, composed of members of the Société botanique de France board and of a selection of Botany Letters editors, has selected João Rocha and Antonio Crespi for their article, entitled, “Morpho-environmental characterization of the genus Dianthus L. in the Iberian Peninsula: environmental trends for D. pungens group under climate change scenarios” published in Botany Letters, 164(3). João Rocha and Antonio Crespi are researchers attached to the Centre for Research and Technology Agro-environmental and Biological Sciences at the University of Trás-os-montes e alto Duro in Portugal. The article explores the resilience capacity within the genetic pool of Dianthus pungens group through past, present and future potential habitat characterizations combined with morphological characterizations. They were able to show that the elevation range associated with each of the taxa of the group is a determinant of the higher resilience (defined as the diversity of responses to climate changes) of the group. They proposed that the Dianthus pungens group should be considered as a species, all taxa within this group being therefore subspecies. The different subspecies displayed various morpho-environmental responses, some of them playing a major role in maintaining effective gene flow among geographically restricted populations. The €5000 prize awarded by the Société botanique de France will contribute to fund the authors and their team’s future research.
The beginning of a new year is also the time to gratefully thank all the experts who contributed to the 2017 issues of Botany Letters. The full list of experts is included in the current issue. Without their commitment, time and competences, our journal would not have been able to communicate sound scientific research to the botanical community. Each expert can claim a certificate from Taylor & Francis if he/she needs it for his/her curriculum vitae. As a new scheme in 2017, the experts are also entitled, if they wish, to a 30-day free access to Taylor & Francis journal content.
Finally, this issue is organized in headings that have been decided by the editorial committee as reflecting the main research field areas in our scope, e.g. systematics and taxonomy, molecular genetics, domestication and agriculture, evolution, ecology, biogeography, biodiversity and conservation biology, physiology, anatomy and morphology ethnobotany and pharmacology, paleobotany, history. The number and nature of headings will depend on the issue, but we figured that organizing the articles in this way would improve the readers’ access to their fields of interest.
Editor-in-Chief
University of Bretagne Sud, Lorient, France
[email protected]
Sophie Nadot
Editor-in-Chief
University Paris-Sud, Orsay, France