A short history of vegetation classification and its relevance today

Background/Question/Methods

Vegetation classification is critical to basic scientific research as a tool for organizing and interpreting information. To conduct or publish ecological research without reference to the type of community the work was conducted in is very much like depositing a specimen in a museum without providing a label. However, vegetation classifications systems vary from local to global and from fine- to coarse-scale. Early vegetation classification efforts were driven largely by a desire to understand the natural diversity of vegetation and the factors that create and sustain it. In 1807, Alexander von Humboldt urged that the investigation of plants be stratified by their natural zones and fully described distinctive biotic zones along elevation gradients. Humboltian ecology gave rise to various schools or traditions of phytosociology (formalized by Polish botanist Jozef Paczoski in 1896) based in physiognomy, floristics, and/or environmental relationships. However, local and idiosyncratic classifications do not allow observations to be readily placed in a larger context, yet there is a growing need for vegetation classification research to place new results in context to answer conservation and research questions (e.g., biodiversity, climate change). Here, we summarize the historical background of classification and the current efforts for a US National Vegetation Classification.

Results/Conclusions

Vegetation classification in the United States has matured considerably over the past two decades in response to three initiatives: 1) the Nature Conservancy’s development of a National Vegetation Classification for conservation purposes (borne from a state-by-state system), 2) the establishment of the US Federal Geographic Data Committee (USFGDC), including a subcommittee for standardizing vegetation classification across government agencies, and 3) the establishment of the ESA Panel on Vegetation Classification in 1994. These three initiatives were in response to both need for a unified classification and to the emergence of new questions regarding, for example, biodiversity hot spots, species range shifts, and matters that crossed political boundaries. Since 1994, the Panel has collaborated with NatureServe and the USFGDC Vegetation Subcommittee to develop standards for the hierarchical structure of the USNVC, standards for data collection and analysis, and descriptions of the USNVC hierarchical levels. The USNVC provides a peer-reviewed framework that builds on the hundred or more years of vegetation classification and description, including all known possible community concepts which can be altered as needed. The USNVC is now working with international colleagues to identify similarities with their efforts with the goal of developing an international crosswalk of classification schemes.