Phytosociology, also known as phytocoenology or simply plant sociology, is the study of groups of species of plant that are usually found together. Phytosociology aims to
empirically
In philosophy, empiricism is an epistemological theory that holds that knowledge or justification comes only or primarily from sensory experience. It is one of several views within epistemology, along with rationalism and skepticism. Empiri ...
describe the vegetative environment of a given territory. A specific community of plants is considered a social unit, the product of definite conditions, present and past, and can exist only when such conditions are met. In phyto-sociology, such a unit is known as a phytocoenosis (or phytocoenose). A phytocoenosis is more commonly known as a plant community, and consists of the sum of all plants in a given area. It is a subset of a
biocoenosis
A biocenosis (UK English, ''biocoenosis'', also biocenose, biocoenose, biotic community, biological community, ecological community, life assemblage), coined by Karl Möbius in 1877, describes the interacting organisms living together in a hab ...
, which consists of all organisms in a given area. More strictly speaking, a phytocoenosis is a set of plants in area that are interacting with each other through competition or other ecological processes. Coenoses are not equivalent to
ecosystem
An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...
s, which consist of organisms and the physical environment that they interact with. A phytocoensis has a
distribution Distribution may refer to:
Mathematics
*Distribution (mathematics), generalized functions used to formulate solutions of partial differential equations
* Probability distribution, the probability of a particular value or value range of a vari ...
which can be mapped. Phytosociology has a system for describing and classifying these phytocoenoses in a hierarchy, known as syntaxonomy, and this system has a nomenclature. The science is most advanced in Europe, Africa and Asia.
In the United States this concept was largely rejected in favour of studying environments in more individualistic terms regarding species, where specific associations of plants occur randomly because of individual preferences and responses to gradients, and there are no sharp boundaries between phytocoenoses. The terminology '
plant community
A plant community is a collection or association of plant species within a designated geographical unit, which forms a relatively uniform patch, distinguishable from neighboring patches of different vegetation types. The components of each plant co ...
' is usually used in the US for a habitat consisting of a number of specific plant species.
It has been a successful approach in the scope of contemporary vegetation science because of its highly descriptive and predictive powers, and its usefulness in nature management issues.
History
The term 'phytosociology' was coined in 1896 by
Józef Paczoski
Józef Konrad Paczoski (1864-1942) was an eminent Polish Botany, botanist, who coined the term "Phytosociology"Rabotnov TA. 1970-1979Phytocoenology. In: The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd ed./ref> and was one of the founders of this branch of bot ...
.
[Rabotnov TA. 1970-1979]
Phytocoenology.
In: The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd ed. The term 'phytocoenology' was coined by
Helmut Gams Helmut Gams (1893–1976) was a central European botanist. Born in Brno, he moved to Zürich as a child. He studied at the University of Zurich, being awarded a PhD in 1918. During his career, he worked at the University of Munich and the University ...
in 1918.
While the terminology phytocoenosis grew to be most popular in France, Switzerland, Germany and the Soviet Union, the terminology phytosociology remained in use in some European countries.[
Phytosociology is a further refinement of the ]phytogeography
Phytogeography (from Greek φυτόν, ''phytón'' = "plant" and γεωγραφία, ''geographía'' = "geography" meaning also distribution) or botanical geography is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution o ...
introduced by Alexander von Humboldt
Friedrich Wilhelm Heinrich Alexander von Humboldt (14 September 17696 May 1859) was a German polymath, geographer, naturalist, explorer, and proponent of Romantic philosophy and science. He was the younger brother of the Prussian minister, p ...
at the very beginning of the 19th century.[Decocq, G. (2016). Moving from Patterns to Processes: A Challenge for the Phytosociology of the Twenty-First Century? In: Box, E. O. (Ed.)]
Structure and Function at Multiple Spatial, Temporal and Conceptual Scales''
Springer. pp. 407-424
Phytocoenology was initially considered to be a subdiscipline of 'geobotany'.[
In ]Scandinavia
Scandinavia; Sámi languages: /. ( ) is a subregion#Europe, subregion in Northern Europe, with strong historical, cultural, and linguistic ties between its constituent peoples. In English usage, ''Scandinavia'' most commonly refers to Denmark, ...
the concept of plant associations was popular at an early date. Hampus von Post
Hampus is a Swedish masculine given name which is the diminutive form of Hans. People with the name include:
Given name
* Hampus Wilhelm Arnell (1848–1932), Swedish bryologist
* Hampus Bergdahl (born 1995), Swedish footballer
* Hampus Eriksso ...
(1842, 1862), Ragnar Hult
Ragnar Hult (4 March 1857 – 25 September 1899) was a Finnish botanist and plant geographer. He was a forerunner in developing a methodology for vegetation survey. He emphasized the physiognomy of vegetation and paid less attention to its ecology. ...
(1881, 1898), Thore Christian Elias Fries Thore Christian Elias Fries (3 November 1886 – 31 December 1930 son of Theodor Magnus Fries and brother of Robert Elias Fries) was Professor of Systematic Botany at Lund University. He specialized in lichenology and plant geography. This botan ...
(1913), Gustaf Einar Du Rietz
Gustaf Einar Du Rietz (1895–1967) was a Swedish lichenologist and ecologist. He was part of a Swedish Australasian Botanical Expedition to New Zealand in 1926 to study lichens in New Zealand along with his wife Greta Sernander-Du Rietz, who was ...
(1921). Missing Danish guy.
* Rübel (1922, 1930), Pavillard (1927),
* Schröter & Kirchner (1886–1902), Flahault & Carl Joseph Schröter
Carl Joseph Schröter (19 December 1855 – 7 February 1939) was a Swiss botanist born in Esslingen am Neckar, Germany.
From 1874 he studied natural sciences at ''Eidgenössische Polytechnische Schule'' (ETH Zurich), where one of his early influen ...
(1910),
In the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...
an important botanist to apply and popularise the science was Vladimir Sukachev
Vladimir Nikolayevich Sukachev (also spelled Vladimir Nikolajevich Sukaczev) (russian: Влади́мир Никола́евич Сукачёв; born 7 June 1880 in Aleksandrovka, Russian Empire – died 9 February 1967 in Moscow) was a Russian ...
.
The science of phytosociology has hardly penetrated into the Anglo-Saxon world, where the continuum concept of community prevailed, opposed to the concept of a 'society' of plants.[ Nonetheless it had some early adherents in the United States, notably ]Frederic Clements
Frederic Edward Clements (September 16, 1874 – July 26, 1945) was an American plant ecologist and pioneer in the study of plant ecology and vegetation succession.
Biography
Born in Lincoln, Nebraska, he studied botany at the University of Nebra ...
in particular, who used the concept to characterise the vegetation of California. Largely following European ideas, he devised his own system to classify habitat types using vegetation. Clements most important contribution was his study of succession. His work has seen much local usage.[ In Britain ]Arthur Tansley
Sir Arthur George Tansley FLS, FRS (15 August 1871 – 25 November 1955) was an English botanist and a pioneer in the science of ecology.
Educated at Highgate School, University College London and Trinity College, Cambridge, Tansley taught a ...
was the first to apply phytosociological concepts to the vegetation of the kingdom in 1911 after learning of its application elsewhere in Europe. Tansley eventually broadened the concept and thus came up with the idea of an ecosystem
An ecosystem (or ecological system) consists of all the organisms and the physical environment with which they interact. These biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and energy flows. Energy enters the syste ...
, combining all biotic and abiotic ecological aspects of an environment. The work of Tansley and Clements was quite divergent from the rest.
Usage today
Modern phytosociology for largely follows the work of Józef Paczoski
Józef Konrad Paczoski (1864-1942) was an eminent Polish Botany, botanist, who coined the term "Phytosociology"Rabotnov TA. 1970-1979Phytocoenology. In: The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd ed./ref> and was one of the founders of this branch of bot ...
in Poland, Josias Braun-Blanquet
Josias Braun-Blanquet (3 August 1884 – 20 September 1980) was an influential phytosociologist and botanist. Braun-Blanquet was born in Chur, Switzerland and died in Montpellier, France. Biography
Work
In Josias Braun-Blanquet's dissertation, s ...
in France and Gustaf Einar Du Rietz
Gustaf Einar Du Rietz (1895–1967) was a Swedish lichenologist and ecologist. He was part of a Swedish Australasian Botanical Expedition to New Zealand in 1926 to study lichens in New Zealand along with his wife Greta Sernander-Du Rietz, who was ...
in Sweden.[
In Europe a complete classification system has been developed to describe the vegetation types found across the continent. These are used as habitat-type classifications in the ]NATURA 2000
Natura 2000 is a network of nature protection areas in the territory of the European Union. It is made up of Special Areas of Conservation and Special Protection Areas designated under the Habitats Directive and the Birds Directive, respectively ...
network and in Habitats Directive
The Habitats Directive (more formally known as Council Directive 92/43/EEC on the Conservation of natural habitats and of wild fauna and flora) is a directive adopted by the European Community in 1992 as a response to the Berne Convention. The E ...
legislation. Each phytocoenose has been given a number, and protected areas can thus be classified according to the habitats they contain. In Europe this information is generally mapped per 2 km² blocks for conservation
Conservation is the preservation or efficient use of resources, or the conservation of various quantities under physical laws.
Conservation may also refer to:
Environment and natural resources
* Nature conservation, the protection and managem ...
purposes, such as monitoring particularly endangered habitat types, predicting success of reintroduction
Species reintroduction is the deliberate release of a species into the wild, from captivity or other areas where the organism is capable of survival. The goal of species reintroduction is to establish a healthy, genetically diverse, self-sustainin ...
s, or estimating more specific carrying capacities
The carrying capacity of an environment is the maximum population size of a biological species that can be sustained by that specific environment, given the food, habitat, water, and other resources available. The carrying capacity is defined as t ...
. Because certain habitats are deemed more imperilled (i.e. having a higher conservation value) than others, a numerical conservation value of a specific site can be approximated.
Overview
The aim of phytosociology is to achieve a sufficient empirical model of vegetation using combinations of plant species (or subspecies, i.e. taxa
In biology, a taxon (back-formation from ''taxonomy''; plural taxa) is a group of one or more populations of an organism or organisms seen by taxonomists to form a unit. Although neither is required, a taxon is usually known by a particular nam ...
) that characterize discrete vegetation units. Vegetation units as understood by phytosociologists may express largely abstract vegetation concepts (e.g. the set of all hard-leaved evergreen forest
An evergreen forest is a forest made up of evergreen trees. They occur across a wide range of climatic zones, and include trees such as conifers and holly in cold climates, eucalyptus, Live oak, acacias, magnolia, and banksia in more temperate zone ...
s of western Mediterranean
The Mediterranean Sea is a sea connected to the Atlantic Ocean, surrounded by the Mediterranean Basin and almost completely enclosed by land: on the north by Western and Southern Europe and Anatolia, on the south by North Africa, and on the e ...
area) or actual readily recognizable vegetation types (e.g. cork-oak oceanic forests on Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological Epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was fina ...
dunes with dense canopy in Iberian Peninsula
The Iberian Peninsula (),
**
* Aragonese and Occitan: ''Peninsula Iberica''
**
**
* french: Péninsule Ibérique
* mwl, Península Eibérica
* eu, Iberiar penintsula also known as Iberia, is a peninsula in southwestern Europe, defi ...
). Such conceptual units are called syntaxa (singular "syntaxon") and can be set in a hierarchy system called "synsystem" or syntaxonomic system. Creating new syntaxa or adjusting the synsystem is called syntaxonomy. Before the rules were agreed upon, a number of slightly different systems of classification existed. These were known as "schools" or "traditions", and there were two main systems: the older Scandinavian school and the Zürich-Montpellier school, also sometimes called the Braun-Blanquet approach.
Relevé
The first step in phytosociology is gathering data. This is done with what is known as a relevé, a plot in which all the species are identified, and their abundance both vertically and in area are calculated. Other data is also recorded in a relevé: the geographic location, environmental factors and vegetation structure. Boolean operators and (formerly) tables are used to sort the data. As the calculations needed are difficult and tedious to do manually, modern ecologists feed the relevé data into software programs that use algorithms to crunch the numbers.[
]
Association model
The basic unit of syntaxonomy, the organisation and nomenclature of phytosociological relationships, is the "association
Association may refer to:
*Club (organization), an association of two or more people united by a common interest or goal
*Trade association, an organization founded and funded by businesses that operate in a specific industry
*Voluntary associatio ...
", defined by its characteristic combination of plant taxa. Sometimes other habitat features such as the management by humans (mowing regime, for example), physiognomy
Physiognomy (from the Greek , , meaning "nature", and , meaning "judge" or "interpreter") is the practice of assessing a person's character or personality from their outer appearance—especially the face. The term can also refer to the general ...
and/or the stage in ecological succession
Ecological succession is the process of change in the species structure of an ecological community over time. The time scale can be decades (for example, after a wildfire) or more or less.
Bacteria allows for the cycling of nutrients such as ca ...
may also be considered. Such an association is usually viewed as a discrete phytocoenose. Similar and neighbouring associations can be grouped in larger ecological conceptual units, with a group of plant associations called an "alliance". Similar alliances may be grouped in "orders" and orders in vegetation "classes". The setting of syntaxa in such a hierarchy makes up the syntaxonomical system.
The most important workers to define the modern system were initially Charles Flahault
Charles Henri Marie Flahault (3 October 1852 – 3 February 1935) was a French botanist, among the early pioneers of phytogeography, phytosociology, and forest ecology. The word '' relevé'' for a plant community sample is his invention.
Early li ...
, with the work of his student Josias Braun-Blanquet
Josias Braun-Blanquet (3 August 1884 – 20 September 1980) was an influential phytosociologist and botanist. Braun-Blanquet was born in Chur, Switzerland and died in Montpellier, France. Biography
Work
In Josias Braun-Blanquet's dissertation, s ...
being the what is generally considered the final version of syntaxonomical nomenclature. Braun-Blanquet further refined and standardised the work of Flahault and many others when he worked on the phytocoenosis of the southern Cévennes
, etymology=
, photo=Point Sublime-Gorges du Tarn-Frankreich.jpg
, photo_caption=The Gorges du Tarn
, country= France
, subdivision2=
, subdivision2_type=Départements
, parent= Massif Central
, area_km2=
, length_km=
, length_orient ...
. He established the modern system of classifying vegetation. Braun-Blanquet's method uses the scientific name
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
of its most characteristic species as namesake, changing the ending of the generic epithet
Genus ( plural genera ) is a taxonomic rank used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In the hierarchy of biological classification, genus comes above species and below family. In binomial nomenclat ...
to "-''etum''" and treating the specific epithet
In taxonomy, binomial nomenclature ("two-term naming system"), also called nomenclature ("two-name naming system") or binary nomenclature, is a formal system of naming species of living things by giving each a name composed of two parts, bot ...
as an adjective
In linguistics, an adjective (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that generally grammatical modifier, modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun.
Tra ...
. Thus, a particular type of mesotrophic grassland widespread in western Europe and dominated only by the grass ''Arrhenatherum elatius
''Arrhenatherum elatius'', with the common names bulbous oat grass, false oat-grass, tall oat-grass, tall meadow oat, onion couch and tuber oat-grass, is a species of perennial grass, native to Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa.
This bun ...
'' becomes "''Arrhenatheretum elatioris
__NOTOC__
British NVC community MG1, ''Arrhenatherum elatius'' grassland, is one of the Mesotrophic grasslands in the British National Vegetation Classification system, mesotrophic grassland Terminology used in connection with the British National ...
'' Br.-Bl.". To distinguish between similar plant communities dominated by the same species, other important species are included in the name, but the name is otherwise is formed according to the same rules. Another type of mesotrophic pasture
Pasture (from the Latin ''pastus'', past participle of ''pascere'', "to feed") is land used for grazing. Pasture lands in the narrow sense are enclosed tracts of farmland, grazed by domesticated livestock, such as horses, cattle, sheep, or swine ...
dominated by black knapweed ('' Centaurea nigra'') and the grass ''Cynosurus cristatus
''Cynosurus cristatus'', the crested dog's-tail, is a short-lived perennial grass in the family Poaceae, characterised by a seed head that is flat on one side. It typically grows in species rich grassland. It thrives in a variety of soil types ...
'', which is also widespread in western Europe, is consequently named '' Centaureo-Cynosuretum cristati'' Br.-Bl. & Tx.. If the second species is characteristic but notably less dominant than the first one, its genus name may be used as the adjective, for example in '' Pterocarpetum rhizophorosus'', a type of tropical
The tropics are the regions of Earth surrounding the Equator. They are defined in latitude by the Tropic of Cancer in the Northern Hemisphere at N and the Tropic of Capricorn in
the Southern Hemisphere at S. The tropics are also referred to ...
scrubland
Shrubland, scrubland, scrub, brush, or bush is a plant community characterized by vegetation dominance (ecology), dominated by shrubs, often also including grasses, Herbaceous plant, herbs, and geophytes. Shrubland may either occur naturally or ...
near water which has abundant '' Pterocarpus officinalis'' and significant (though not overwhelmingly prominent) red mangrove (''Rhizophora mangle
''Rhizophora mangle'', the red mangrove, is distributed in Estuary, estuarine ecosystems throughout the tropics. Its Vivipary, viviparous "seeds", in actuality called propagules, become fully mature plants before dropping off the parent tree. Th ...
'').
Today an ''International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature'' exists, in which the rules for naming syntaxa are given. Its use has increased among botanists.
In Anglo-American ecology, the association concept is mostly linked to the work of the mid-twentieth century botanist Henry Gleason
Henry Allan Gleason (1882–1975) was an American ecologist, botanist, and taxonomist. He was known for his endorsement of the individualistic or open community concept of ecological succession, and his opposition to Frederic Clements's concept ...
, who set it up as an alternative to Frederic Clement's views on the superorganismic framework. The philosophical parameters of the association concept have also come under study by environmental philosophers as to how it values and defends the natural environment.
Vegetation complexes
Modern phytosociologists try to include higher levels of complexity in the perception of vegetation, namely by describing whole successional units (vegetation series) or, in general, vegetation complexes. Other developments include the use of multivariate statistics
Multivariate statistics is a subdivision of statistics encompassing the simultaneous observation and analysis of more than one outcome variable.
Multivariate statistics concerns understanding the different aims and background of each of the dif ...
for the definition of syntaxa and their interpretation.
Data collections
Phytosociological data contain information collected in relevés (or plots) listing each species cover-abundance values and the measured environmental variables. This data is conveniently databanked in a program like TURBOVEG allowing for editing, storage and export to other applications.
Data is usually classified and sorted using TWINSPAN in host programs like JUICE
Juice is a drink made from the extraction or Cold-pressed juice, pressing of the natural liquid contained in fruit and vegetables. It can also refer to liquids that are flavored with concentrate or other biological food sources, such as meat ...
to create realistic species-relevé associations. Further patterns are investigated using clustering and resemblance methods, and ordination techniques available in software packages like CANOCO or the R-package vegan.[ PDF]
See also
*Josias Braun-Blanquet
Josias Braun-Blanquet (3 August 1884 – 20 September 1980) was an influential phytosociologist and botanist. Braun-Blanquet was born in Chur, Switzerland and died in Montpellier, France. Biography
Work
In Josias Braun-Blanquet's dissertation, s ...
*Józef Paczoski
Józef Konrad Paczoski (1864-1942) was an eminent Polish Botany, botanist, who coined the term "Phytosociology"Rabotnov TA. 1970-1979Phytocoenology. In: The Great Soviet Encyclopedia, 3rd ed./ref> and was one of the founders of this branch of bot ...
*António Rodrigo Pinto da Silva
António Rodrigo Pinto da Silva (Porto, 13 March 1912 – Lisbon, 28 September 1992), often referred to as A.R. Pinto da Silva or P. Silva, was a Portuguese botanist who distinguished himself as a taxonomist and Phytosociology, phytosociologist whe ...
*Victor Westhoff
Victor Westhoff (12 November 1916 in Situbondo, Dutch East Indies – 12 March 2001 in Zeist) was a botanist at the Radboud University Nijmegen.
Westhoff published 700 scientific papers on phytosociology and Conservation (ethic), conservation ...
*Biogeography
Biogeography is the study of the distribution of species and ecosystems in geographic space and through geological time. Organisms and biological communities often vary in a regular fashion along geographic gradients of latitude, elevation, ...
* JUICE - program for phytosociologists
*Plant community
A plant community is a collection or association of plant species within a designated geographical unit, which forms a relatively uniform patch, distinguishable from neighboring patches of different vegetation types. The components of each plant co ...
*Phytogeography
Phytogeography (from Greek φυτόν, ''phytón'' = "plant" and γεωγραφία, ''geographía'' = "geography" meaning also distribution) or botanical geography is the branch of biogeography that is concerned with the geographic distribution o ...
References
External links
International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature
3rd edition
Methods of Ecosystem Analysis, yale.edu
Technical University of Braunschweig, Working Group for Vegetation Ecology and Experimental Plant Sociology, accessed 20 April 2010
{{Authority control
Branches of botany
Biogeography
Habitats
Habitat management equipment and methods
Nomenclature codes
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