Post date: Aug 29, 2012 8:06:45 AM
A new article by Antonín Kusbach and coauthors, published in Botany, studied the suitability of fidelity and diagnostic species concepts to a North American vegetation classification. They developed a classification of the vegetation of a mountainous area of northern Utah and compared the diagnostic species approach with the habitat type classification sensu Daubenmire, prevailing in the US Interior West. A total of 157 forest and non-forest plots were analyzed. They found that their vegetation units, which were defined using OptimClass, were more strongly associated with the underlying environment than major habitat types sensu Daubenmire. They identified species diagnostic of particular vegetation units that are potentially useful for recognition of these units in the field.