Vegetation

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
For the medical term, see Vegetation (pathology).
These maps show a scale, or index of greenness, based on several factors: the number and type of plants, leafiness, and plant health. Where foliage is dense and plants are growing quickly, the index is high, represented in dark green. Regions with sparse vegetation and a low vegetation index are shown in tan. Based on measurements from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA's Terra satellite. Areas where there is no data are gray.[1]

Vegetation is an assemblage of

sphagnum bogs, desert soil crusts, roadside weed patches, wheat fields, cultivated gardens
and lawns; all are encompassed by the term vegetation.

The

vegetation type is defined by characteristic dominant species, or a common aspect of the assemblage, such as an elevation range or environmental commonality.[3] The contemporary use of vegetation approximates that of ecologist Frederic Clements' term earth cover, an expression still used by the Bureau of Land Management
.

History of definition

The distinction between vegetation (the general appearance of a community) and

Augustin de Candolle (1820) also made a similar distinction but he used the terms "station" (habitat type) and "habitation" (botanical region).[6][7] Later, the concept of vegetation would influence the usage of the term biome with the inclusion of the animal element.[8]

Other concepts similar to vegetation are "

Humboldt, 1805, 1807) and "formation" (Grisebach, 1838, derived from "Vegetationsform", Martius, 1824).[5][9][10][11][12]

Departing from

plant geography between taxonomists who studied plants as taxa and geographers who studied plants as vegetation.[13] The physiognomic approach in the study of vegetation is common among biogeographers working on vegetation on a world scale, or when there is a lack of taxonomic knowledge of someplace (e.g., in the tropics, where biodiversity is commonly high).[14]

The concept of "

plant association, which is defined upon flora.[17]

An influential, clear and simple classification scheme for types of vegetation was produced by

Burtt Davy (1938), Beard (1944, 1955), André Aubréville (1956, 1957), Trochain (1955, 1957), Küchler (1967), Ellenberg and Mueller-Dombois (1967) (see vegetation classification
).

Classifications

Montane forest
Main article: Vegetation classification

There are many approaches for the classification of vegetation (physiognomy, flora, ecology, etc.).

plant habit, phenology and/or growth form, and dominant species. In the current US standard (adopted by the Federal Geographic Data Committee (FGDC), and originally developed by UNESCO and The Nature Conservancy), the classification is hierarchical and incorporates the non-floristic criteria into the upper (most general) five levels and limited floristic criteria only into the lower (most specific) two levels. In Europe, classification often relies much more heavily, sometimes entirely, on floristic (species) composition alone, without explicit reference to climate, phenology or growth forms. It often emphasizes indicator or diagnostic species
which may distinguish one classification from another.

In the FGDC standard, the hierarchy levels, from most general to most specific, are: system, class, subclass, group, formation, alliance, and association. The lowest level, or association, is thus the most precisely defined, and incorporates the names of the dominant one to three (usually two) species of a type. An example of a vegetation type defined at the level of class might be "Forest, canopy cover > 60%"; at the level of a formation as "Winter-rain, broad-leaved, evergreen, sclerophyllous, closed-canopy forest"; at the level of alliance as "Arbutus menziesii forest"; and at the level of association as "Arbutus menziesii-Lithocarpus dense flora forest", referring to Pacific madrone-tanoak forests which occur in California and Oregon, US. In practice, the levels of the alliance and/or an association are the most often used, particularly in vegetation mapping, just as the Latin binomial is most often used in discussing particular species in taxonomy and in general communication.

Dynamics

Like all the biological systems, plant communities are temporally and spatially dynamic; they change at all possible scales. Dynamism in vegetation is defined primarily as changes in species composition and/or vegetation structure.

Temporal dynamics

Vegetation types at the time of Last Glacial Maximum

Temporally, a large number of processes or events can cause change, but for sake of simplicity, they can be categorized roughly as either abrupt or gradual. Abrupt changes are generally referred to as

exogenous) to the community—they are natural processes occurring (mostly) independently of the natural processes of the community (such as germination, growth, death, etc.). Such events can change vegetation structure and composition very quickly and for long time periods, and they can do so over large areas. Very few ecosystems are without some type of disturbance as a regular and recurring part of the long term system dynamic. Fire and wind disturbances are particularly common throughout many vegetation types worldwide. Fire is particularly potent because of its ability to destroy not only living plants, but also the seeds, spores, and living meristems representing the potential next generation, and because of fire's impact on fauna populations, soil characteristics and other ecosystem elements and processes (for further discussion of this topic see fire ecology
).

Temporal change at a slower pace is ubiquitous; it comprises the field of ecological succession. Succession is the relatively gradual change in structure and taxonomic composition that arises as the vegetation itself modifies various environmental variables over time, including light, water and nutrient levels. These modifications change the suite of species most adapted to grow, survive and reproduce in an area, causing floristic changes. These floristic changes contribute to structural changes that are inherent in plant growth even in the absence of species changes (especially where plants have a large maximum size, i.e. trees), causing slow and broadly predictable changes in the vegetation. Succession can be interrupted at any time by disturbance, setting the system either back to a previous state, or off on another trajectory altogether. Because of this, successional processes may or may not lead to some static, final state. Moreover, accurately predicting the characteristics of such a state, even if it does arise, is not always possible. In short, vegetative communities are subject to many variables that together set limits on the predictability of future conditions.

Spatial dynamics

As a general rule, the larger an area under consideration, the more likely the vegetation will be heterogeneous across it. Two main factors are at work. First, the temporal dynamics of disturbance and succession are increasingly unlikely to be in synchrony across any area as the size of that area increases. That is, different areas will be at different developmental stages due to different local histories, particularly their times since last major disturbance. This fact interacts with inherent environmental variability (e.g. in soils, climate, topography, etc.), which is also a function of area. Environmental variability constrains the suite of species that can occupy a given area, and the two factors together interact to create a mosaic of vegetation conditions across the landscape. Only in

horticultural
systems does vegetation ever approach perfect uniformity. In natural systems, there is always heterogeneity, although its scale and intensity will vary widely..

See also

References

  1. ^ "Global Maps". earthobservatory.nasa.gov. 8 May 2018. Archived from the original on 11 July 2017. Retrieved 8 May 2018.
  2. ISBN 978-0045800131
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  3. ^ Introduction to California Plant Life; Robert Ornduff, Phyllis M. Faber, Todd Keeler-Wolf; 2003 ed.; p. 112
  4. ^ Thurmann, Jules (1849). Essai de phytostatique appliqué à la chaîne du Jura et aux contrées voisines, ou Étude de la dispersion des plantes vasculaires envisagée principalement quant à l'influence des roches soujacentes. Berne: Jent et Gassmann.
  5. ^ a b Martins, F. R. & Batalha, M. A. (2011). Formas de vida, espectro biológico de Raunkiaer e fisionomia da vegetação. In: Felfili, J. M., Eisenlohr, P. V.; Fiuza de Melo, M. M. R.; Andrade, L. A.; Meira Neto, J. A. A. (Org.). Fitossociologia no Brasil: métodos e estudos de caso. Vol. 1. Viçosa: Editora UFV. p. 44-85. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-09-24. Retrieved 2016-08-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link). Earlier version, 2003, "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-08-27. Retrieved 2016-08-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link).
  6. ^ Candolle, Augustin Pyramus de (1820). "Essai élémentaire de géographie botanique". Dictionnare des Sciences Naturelles (in French). 18. Flevrault, Strasbourg.
  7. ISBN 978-0-226-49236-0
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  8. doi:10.1590/S0102-33062006000100002
    ..
  9. ^ Humboldt, Alexander von; Bonpland, Aimé (1805). Essai sur la géographie des plantes : accompagné d'un tableau physique des régions équinoxiales, fondé sur des mesures exécutées, depuis le dixième degré de latitude boréale jusqu'au dixième degré de latitude australe, pendant les années 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802 et 1803 (in French). Paris: Chez Levrault, Schoell et compagnie, libraires.
  10. ^ Humboldt, Alexander von; Bonpland, Aimé (1807). Ideen zu einer Geographie der Pflanzen : nebst einem Naturgemälde der Tropenländer : auf Beobachtungen und Messungen gegründet, welche vom 10ten Grade nördlicher bis zum 10ten Grade südlicher Breite, in den Jahren 1799, 1800, 1801, 1802 und 1803 angestellt worden sind (in German). Tübingen: Bey F.G. Cotta.
  11. ^ Garcke, Aug.; Schlechtendal, D. F. L. von (1838). Linnaea : Ein Journal für die Botanik in ihrem ganzen Umfange (in German). Vol. 12. Berlin: F. Dümmler.
  12. ^ Martius, C. F. P. von. 1824. Die Physiognomie des Pflanzenreiches in Brasilien. Eine Rede, gelesen in der am 14. Febr. 1824 gehaltnen Sitzung der Königlichen Bayerischen Akademie der Wissenschaften. München, Lindauer, [1] Archived 2016-10-12 at the Wayback Machine.
  13. ^ Ebach, M.C. (2015). Origins of biogeography. The role of biological classification in early plant and animal geography. Dordrecht: Springer, p. 89, [2].
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  16. ^ Walter, B. M. T. (2006). Fitofisionomias do bioma Cerrado: síntese terminológica e relações florísticas. Doctoral dissertation, Universidade de Brasília, p. 10, "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2016-08-26. Retrieved 2016-08-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link).
  17. ^ Rizzini, C.T. 1997. Tratado de fitogeografia do Brasil: aspectos ecológicos, sociológicos e florísticos. 2 ed. Rio de Janeiro: Âmbito Cultural Edições, p. 7-11.
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  19. ^ "Sydow-Wagners Methodischer Schul-Atlas (1888-1944)". www.atlassen.info. Retrieved 2023-02-07.
  20. ^ de Laubenfels, D. J. 1975. Mapping the World's Vegetation: Regionalization of Formation and Flora. Syracuse University Press: Syracuse, NY.
  21. ISBN 978-94-009-3083-4
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  23. ^ Mueller-Dombois, D. (1984). Woodwell, G. M. (ed.). "Classification and Mapping of Plant Communities: a Review with Emphasis on Tropical Vegetation" (PDF). bse.carnegiescience.edu. New York: J Wiley and Sons. pp. 21–88. Archived from the original (PDF) on July 17, 2010. Retrieved 2023-02-07.

Further reading

External links

Classification

Mapping-related

Climate diagrams

Further information:
Climate diagram
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