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Vegetation classification

Vegetation classification is the process of classifying and mapping the vegetation over an area of the earth's surface. Vegetation classification is often performed by state based agencies as part of land use, resource and environmental management. Many different methods of vegetation classification have been used. In general, there has been a shift from structural classification used by forestry for the mapping of timber resources, to floristic community mapping for biodiversity management. Whereas older forestry-based schemes considered factors such as height, species and density of the woody canopy, floristic community mapping shifts the emphasis onto ecological factors such as climate, soil type and floristic associations. Classification mapping is usually now done using geographic information systems (GIS) software. Following, some important classification schemes. Köppen classification Although this scheme is in fact of a climate classification, it has a deep relationship with vegetation studies: Class A Tropical rainforest (Af) Tropical monsoon (Am) Tropical savanna (Aw, As) Class B Desert (BWh, BWk) Semi-arid (BSh, BSk) Class C Humid subtropical (Cfa, Cwa) Oceanic (Cfb, Cwb, Cfc, Cwc) Mediterranean (Csa, Csb, Csc) Class D Humid continental (Dfa, Dwa, Dfb, Dwb, Dsa, Dsb) Subarctic (Dfc, Dwc, Dfd, Dwd, Dsc, Dsd) Class E Tundra (ET) Ice cap (EF) Alpine (ET, EF) Wagner & von Sydow (1888) scheme: Vegetationsgürtel (vegetation belts): Tundren (tundra) Hochgebirgsflora (mountain flora) Vegetationsarme Gebiete (Wüsten) (vegetation poor areas [deserts]) der gemässigten zone (the temperate zone) Grasland (prairie) Vorherrschend Nadelwald (mainly coniferous forest) Wald (Laub und Nadelwald) und Kulturland (forest [deciduous and coniferous forest] and cultivated land) in tropischen und subtropischen Gebieten (in tropical and subtropical areas) Grasland (prairie) Wald und Kulturland (forest and cultivated land) Urwald (jungle) Warming (1895, 1909) oecological classes: A.

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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 of plant species and their influence on the earth's surface. Phytogeography is concerned with all aspects of plant distribution, from the controls on the distribution of individual species ranges (at both large and small scales, see species distribution) to the factors that govern the composition of entire communities and floras.
Phytochorion
A phytochorion, in phytogeography, is a geographic area with a relatively uniform composition of plant species. Adjacent phytochoria do not usually have a sharp boundary, but rather a soft one, a transitional area in which many species from both regions overlap. The region of overlap is called a vegetation tension zone. In traditional schemes, areas in phytogeography are classified hierarchically, according to the presence of endemic families, genera or species, e.g.
Vegetation
Vegetation is an assemblage of plant species and the ground cover they provide. It is a general term, without specific reference to particular taxa, life forms, structure, spatial extent, or any other specific botanical or geographic characteristics. It is broader than the term flora which refers to species composition. Perhaps the closest synonym is plant community, but vegetation can, and often does, refer to a wider range of spatial scales than that term does, including scales as large as the global.
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