• DOI:10.1007/978-94-009-9183-5_5
• Corpus ID: 128256267

Synusial Approaches to Classification

@inproceedings{Barkman1978SynusialAT,
  title={Synusial Approaches to Classification},
  author={Jan J. Barkman},
  year={1978}
}

• J. Barkman
• Published 1978
• Environmental Science

Most of the classifications discussed in this volume apply in principle to communities or biocoenoses — i.e. the whole assemblages of organisms that live together in a particular site or biotope. Since the plants make up by far the largest part of the biomass, as well as the essential structure of land communities, it is reasonable to base our classifications upon the plants. Yet the plant community itself is often a complexly organized system, comprising groups of plants on different levels, differently adapted to light and substrate, differing in seasonal timing, and manner of resource use and function. It is a general observation from the study of plant communities that these groups of plants, adapted to different environmental factors within the community, also may differ in their distributions in relation to habitat factors and climatic gradients. These groups of plants show ‘individuality’ in their distribution and response to environment, both within and between communities, that justifies study of their composition, ecology, and dynamics, and may even justify a separate classification.