Long-term vegetation studies on active European volcanos – examples from the Azores and other European volcanoes

The abstract presents an overview of different studies done by different authors on several european volcanoes (Etna, Stromboli, Santorin, and the Azores etc.) including own long term vegetation studies on the Capelinhos volcano (Faial/Azores) which have begun in 1999 - and are still one going. The author tries to compare the result of his own work on the Azores with the studies from the other European volcanoes and provides a first descriptive categorization of vegetation dynamics on these volcanoes.