From sustag@tinet.ie Sat Aug 7 12:09:34 1999 Date: Sat, 07 Aug 1999 10:15:01 +0100 From: Ute Bohnsack Reply-To: permaculture To: permaculture Subject: Re: Alliances and guilds (was: Semiological Issues of Permaculture) Dear all, Botanists and ecologists in Central Europe and in many other countries would be familiar with phytosociology which defines plant assemblages on the basis of their floristic composition (plant communities). Phytosociological methodology was pioneered by J. Braun-Blanquet in the middle of this century. The fundamental abstract unit in the hierarchical classification used in this approach is the statistically defined *association*. Associations are grouped together successively into alliances, orders and classes. Sometimes formations are used as the highest syntaxonomic level. The taxa (units) are named in Latin ending on ~etea (class), ~etalia (order), ~ion (alliance) and (with few exceptions) ~etum (association). An example for such a hierarchie: Formation: Vegetation composed chiefly of shrubs and bushes Class: Thornbush class (Rhamno-Prunetea) Order: Prunetalia spinosae (Character species include i.a. Prunus spinosa, Crateagus monogyna, Rhamnus catharticus, Euonymus europeaus, Cornus sanguinea.......) Alliance: Rubion subatlanticum (Diagnostic species: Rubus spp., Sedum telephium) Association: Primulo-Crataegum (Diagnostic species group: Crataegus monogyna, C. laevigata, Rubus spp., Prunus spinosa, Rosa canina, Rhamnus cathartica, Ligustrum vulgare) Obviously there are other classes, orders, alliances and associations within this formation and there are many more formations. The details as to how these taxa and their suites of character species, differential species and diagnostic species are arrived at would fill a book, but maybe this explains why there are so many terms floating around. Also, while this approach is widely used, it is not universal. Great Britain, for example, has its own system and in the US maybe other appoaches are used again. Applied phytosociology is an excellent tool for the field ecologist and has many uses in conservation management. Since it does not only deal with natural vegetation but also with e.g. forest or agro-ecosystems the understanding of which species are likely to occur together under given circumstances combined with a knowledge of successional development of vegetation can be a useful tool for designing plant communities in PC systems much as in the way described by Toby. My 2 cents worth. Ute -- Dipl.-Ing. TU Landschafts- und Freiraumplanung Ute Bohnsack Sailchearnach Clogher Kilfenora Co. Clare Ireland mailto:sustag@tinet.ie EN-DE-EN Naturschutz, Landschaftsplanung, Landwirtschaft http://www.atril.com/bin/directory.dll/1546 --- You are currently subscribed to permaculture as: london@metalab.unc.edu To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-permaculture-75156P@franklin.oit.unc.edu