Kherson State University

The 62^nd Annual Symposium of the IAVS will be held July 14-19, 2019 (including pre- and post-conference excursions from July 10-25, 2019), in Bremen, Northwest Germany. In total, 330 scientists from 63 countries came to the conference.

Professor Ivan Moysiyenko presented at the symposium 2 poster presentations:

• Comparative analyses of the flora, vegetation and soil of fallows of different age in the Askania-Nova Biosphere Reserve (Southern Ukraine), authors Ivan Moysiyenko, Viktor Shapoval, Iwona Dembicz, Bożena Smreczak, Natalia Zagorodniuk, Maria Zachwatowicz, Barbara Sudnik-Wójcikowska);

• Steppe islands: where island biogeography meets the reality of a severely fragmented habitat, authors Iwona Dembicz, Ivan Moysiyenko, Lukasz Kozub, Jürgen Dengler, Maryna Zakharova, Maryna Zakharova -Wójcikowska).

He took part in conferens excursion to Wadden Sea island of Spiekeroog.

Spiekeroog is a typical North Sea barrier island, separating the open North Sea from the tidal Wadden Sea basin. According to many accounts, it is also very beautiful, compared to other East Frisian islands. The ferry will take us to the small harbour from where we will walk to the natural salt marsh. On the intertidal mudflats, the University of Oldenburg has established a large-scale fragmentation experiment with 12 experimental islands. Due to high tide, it is unlikely that we will be able to visit these islands but the experiment can still be explained vis-à-vis of the islands. We continue our walk following a cross-section from the saltmarsh to brown dunes, grey dunes and white dunes and finally the beach. From there, we will walk back to the village to reach the afternoon ferry.

It was extremely gratifying to realize that the creator of phytosociology - the science of vegetation is a scientist who spent the best years of his life in Kherson and even taught at KSU (1919-1921) - Joseph Paczoski.