Classification of vegetation: past, present and future

This paper is a report on the past, status-quo and perspectives of vegetation classification, still a major occupa- tion of many vegetation scientists. The history of vegetation classification is discussed against a background of several controversial issues such as the problem of continuum vs. discontinuum, naturalness vs. arbitrariness of the nature of plant communities, universality vs. ad hoc character of syn- taxonomic schemes, as well as classical versus numerical approaches to data analysis for classification purposes. The development of the methodology of vegetation sci- ence and the present image of vegetation classification is documented by a bibliometric analysis of the publication record of four major journals: Journal of Vegetation Science, Vegetatio, Phytocoenologia and Tuexenia. This analysis revealed a per- sisting controversy between traditional and numerical ap- proaches to vegetation classification. A series of important changes in vegetation science (foundation of new journals, change of editorial policy by the established, important meet- ings) punctuate a period called the 'Innovation period'. Several trends in the development of methods of vegeta- tion systematics are summarized under the headings formal- ism, pluralism, functionalism, pragmatism and indetermin- ism. Some new features, such as the development and im- provement of numerical tools, use of large data banks and attempts to summarize the theory of vegetation classification are discussed. The new growth-form system of Barkman initiated a revival of physiognomy-based vegetation classifi- cation. Within this framework the use of the character-type concept and the development of new numerical methods for studying the hierarchical structure of character-set types seems to be a promising approach. The achievements of population biology and ecophysiology have affected vegetation science by emphasizing the functionality of species within plant communi- ties. The use of guilds and other functional groups has experi- enced an increasing interest from vegetation scientists. Applied in vegetation science, fuzzy-set theory has bridged the tech- niques of classification and ordination of plant communities.

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