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Concept
Ecological classification
Summary
Ecological classification or ecological typology is the classification of land or water into geographical units that represent variation in one or more ecological features. Traditional approaches focus on geology, topography, biogeography, soils, vegetation, climate conditions, living species, habitats, water resources, and sometimes also anthropic factors. Most approaches pursue the cartographical delineation or regionalisation of distinct areas for mapping and planning.
Different approaches to ecological classifications have been developed in terrestrial, freshwater and marine disciplines. Traditionally these approaches have focused on biotic components (vegetation classification), abiotic components (environmental approaches) or implied ecological and evolutionary processes (biogeographical approaches). Ecosystem classifications are specific kinds of ecological classifications that consider all four elements of the definition of ecosystems: a biotic component, an abiotic complex, the interactions between and within them, and the physical space they occupy (ecotope).
Vegetation is often used to classify terrestrial ecological units. Vegetation classification can be based on vegetation structure and floristic composition. Classifications based entirely on vegetation structure overlap with land cover mapping categories.
Many schemes of vegetation classification are in use by the land, resource and environmental management agencies of different national and state jurisdictions. The International Vegetation Classification (IVC or EcoVeg) has been recently proposed but has not been yet widely adopted.
Vegetation classifications have limited use in aquatic systems, since only a handful of freshwater or marine habitats are dominated by plants (e.g. kelp forests or seagrass meadows). Also, some extreme terrestrial environments, like subterranean or cryogenic ecosystems, are not properly described in vegetation classifications.
The disciplines of phytogeography and biogeography study the geographic distribution of plant communities and faunal communities.
Official source
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