Armidale, Australia; 3Forest Sciences Center of Catalonia (CEMFOR-CTFC), Ctra. Sant Llorenç de Morunys km2, Solsona 25280, Spain; 4Centre for Ecological ...
The IAVS Vegetation Classification Working Group (VCWG) 1, John T. Hunter2, Miquel De Cáceres3,4, Jürgen Dengler5,6, Flavia Landucci7 & Pavel Krestov8 Scott B. Franklin 1 2
School of Biological Sciences, University of Northern Colorado, Greeley, CO United States; School of Environmental and Rural Sciences, University of New England, Armidale, Australia; 3Forest Sciences Center of Catalonia (CEMFOR-CTFC), Ctra. Sant Llorenç de Morunys km2, Solsona 25280, Spain; 4Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF), Autonomous University of Barcelona, Bellaterra 08193, Spain; 5Plant Ecology, Bayreuth Center for Ecology and Environmental Research (BayCEER), University of Bayreuth, Universitätsstr. 30, 95447 Bayreuth, Germany; 6German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Deutscher Platz 5e, 04103 Leipzig, Germany; 7Department of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37 Brno, Czech Republic; 8Botanical Garden-Institute of the Far Eastern Branch of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Makovskii Str. 142, Vladivostok, 690024, Russia
Why international collaboration on vegetation classification is necessary The long history of vegetation classification has resulted in an extensive and overwhelming literature, with different approaches emphasizing different vegetation characteristics and often adopting different classification procedures. Classification systems, although often following similar principles, have usually evolved quite idiosyncratically and without reporting clear formal procedures regarding how to extend or modify them. The realization of the limitations of this legacy led recently to a growing interest in harmonizing approaches worldwide and standardizing the information content of classification systems serving similar purposes. This interest is motivated by the need both to increase the usefulness of vegetation typologies and to enhance the acceptance of their scientific underpinnings by policy makers. This effort is actually lagging behind global projects ranging from IUCN Red Lists of species and communities to predicting climate change.
Origin of the IAVS Working Group Within the activities of the International Association for Vegetation Science (IAVS), there was for some years a Special Committee devoted to vegetation classification. This committee organized a small discussion session, held in April 2013 during the European Vegetation Survey Workshop in Rome, around plot-based vegetation classification methods. Coordinated discussions among 32 experts from IAVS finally led to the agreement on and publication of a set of concepts and terminology to describe and compare the structure of plot-based vegetation classifications (De Cáceres et al. 2015). Then in June 2015 during the IAVS Symposium in Brno (Fig. 1), around 60 IAVS members decided to put such methodological discussions on a regular basis by founding an IAVS Working Group. Approved in January 2016, the Vegetation Classification Fig. 1. Meeting of vegetation classification specialists Working Group (VCWG) has during IAVS Symposium in Brno 2015; the foundation of the Vegetation Classification Working Group was grown to 174 members from initiated (Photo: J. Dengler). 41 countries and six continents (Fig. 2).
Aims of the VCWG The general scope of the VCWG includes vegetation classification at any spatial or organizational scale, particularly the underlying methodologies and standards, ultimately allowing greater understanding and crosswalks among national classification systems. The specific objectives of the VCWG include: a) facilitating communication among plant community ecologists who develop and apply vegetation typologies for any organizational level (e.g. synusiae, communities, community complexes, formations, biomes, ...) at any level of typological resolution and for any spatial, temporal and ecological extent; b) comparing and finding commonalities between approaches to vegetation classification; c) discussing concepts and practices of classification approaches that summarize vegetation globally, at coarse typological resolution (e.g. formations, biomes); d) discussing concepts and practices of classification approaches that summarize vegetation patterns at fine typological resolution (e.g. associations) with the aim of developing consensus standards; e) discussing plot-based analytical procedures for the definition of vegetation types; f) supporting national/regional vegetation classification projects, with the aims (1) to develop tools for sound scientifically efficient nature conservation and land stewardship and (2) to deepen our knowledge of vegetation and its role within ecosystems; and g) supporting vegetation classification projects aiming at (1) the integration of classification systems already existing in different countries/regions and/or (2) the development of new classification systems with a spatial extent encompassing multiple countries or continents.
Web page The VCWG maintains a website (https://sites.google.com/ site/vegclassmethods/home) as the official outlet of VCWG activities, including a discussion forum for members and the dissemination of agreed standards. In addition, the website aims to facilitate access to bibliographic and technical resources for vegetation classification (data, programs, tutorials, etc.).
Recent and future activities
Fig. 2. Map of the current distribution of the members of the Vegetation Classification Working Group (as of January 2016). Grey scale indicates standardized membership (members 10-6 km-2) for each country. References De Cáceres, M., et al. 2015. A comparative framework for broad-scale plot-based vegetation classification. Applied Vegetation Science 18: 543–560. Franklin, S.B., Hunter, J.T., De Cáceres, M., Dengler, J., Landucci, F. & Krestov, P. 2016. Introducing the IAVS Vegetation Classification Working Group. Phytocoenologia 46. DOI: 10.1127/phyto/2016/0116. Whittaker, R.H. (ed.) 1973. Ordination and classification of communities. Junk, The Hague, NL.
• Currently, the VCWG Steering Committee is coordinating the edition of a Special Issue of Phytocoenologia, aiming at providing a global overview of contemporary plot-based vegetation approaches (quasi an update of Whittaker 1973) and making them comparable via using a common terminology (De Cáceres et al. 2015). The Special Issue to be published in 2017 will contain a series of papers sharing a common structure. • Another new activity for the next years could be the development of a consistent, data-driven global biome classification.
Interested in joining the VCWG or contributing to its activities? ► Contact Pavel Krestov or Jürgen Dengler in Pirenópolis ► Attend the VCWG Business Meeting on Thursday, 17:30
