PHYSIS

1. PHYSIS A world catalogue and classification of habitat types

2. OBJECTIVE introduce diagnosable communities,in parallel with species, into conservation applications

3. Introducing habitats in conservation applications allows: • Explicit consideration of species assemblage level processes and interactions not necessarily covered by individual species conservation • Use of habitat types as surrogate indicator for the “silent” biodiversity which cannot be taken into account through species-oriented legislations and programmes.

4. Surrogate indicator Integrator properties of communities: the South American continent can be adequately covered by a total of about 10 000 habitat type units, a much lower number than that of species Congruence: there is a better correlation between the local distribution of habitat types and that of species groups than between the respective distribution patterns of various species groups.

5. APPLICATIONS Description of protected areas Definition of conservation policies Selection and evaluation of protected areas Management guidelines

6. Description of protected areas Lists of habitat types present, like species lists, help characterising conservation areas

7. Definition of conservation policies Lists of priority habitat types can be incorporated in conservation legislation, in particular in appendices or resolutions parallel to those that cover species. Designation of protected areas included in legally-based networks and conservation or management rules can be related to those lists.

8. Selection and evaluation of protected areas Protected area networks can be designed to insure complete coverage of habitat types identified in a geographical space, in parallel with that of target species.

9. Management guidelines With habitat types, as well as species, part of the motivation for designation of protected areas, management guidelines can be established to meet the requirements of ecological processes and of the “silent” biodiversity in addition to those of target, key and umbrella species.

10. METHODOLOGY Definition of habitat Definition of elementary units Hierarchy World integrating system Biotic realms Upper levels of classification

11. Definition of habitat In common usage, a habitat is "the natural home of an animal or plant" (Collins). Integrating these definitions over all species, for each of which the habitat is the sum of the abiotic environment and of all other species present, a habitat can be defined as "a topographical expanse homogeneous in its physical and biotic components at the scale of the phenomenon studied" (Blondel, 1979, 1995). Thus, a habitat is a three-dimensional spatial entity that comprises at least one interface between air, water and ground spaces, it includes both the physical environment and the communities of plants and animals that occupy it.

12. Definition of habitat: scale The definition of habitats depends on the scale at which it is considered. The level of resolution that has been used in the PHYSIS typology is that of the ecological requirements of small vertebrates, large invertebrates and vascular plants. A few units, clearly labelled, have been introduced to permit rendition by the use of single codes or combined codes of the ecological requirements of larger organisms or of the most mobile ones among the smaller ones.

13. Definition of elementary units A unit in the PHYSIS typology is a habitat type, thus a characterisation of a collection of spatial entities equivalent as habitats, sufficiently alike in abiotic conditions, physiognomy, composition of plant and animal communities, to play similar roles in nature conservation. Two habitat types are distinguished if the communities they support are sufficiently distinct to confer to them a different significance in the preservation of sensitive species. For plant communities, phytosociological criteria are often available to assess degree of divergence and its relevance to sensitive species. For animal communities, data are often lacking for the groups most in need of habitat conservation rather than species-specific programmes. Physiognomy, plant dominance, ecological conditions and biogeographical parameters, including geographical separation, are used to assess distinctness.

14. In practice, within the PHYSIS system, elementary units are chosen so as to correspond to clearly recognisable entities. Their definition insures compatibility with local habitat or vegetation schemes while their hierarchical positioning preserves a potential for cross-boundary and intercontinental comparisons.

15. Hierarchy All habitat classifications use similarities in physiognomy, abiotic conditions, plant community composition, plant dominance, plant community succession and, sometimes, animal community composition to combine elementary units into collective entities of successively higher rank. Contrary to classical species taxonomy, habitat classification cannot claim to include a "natural" system of ordering based on the best available perception of phylogenesis. Thus, the priority given to the various criteria and the ensuing classifications are necessarily a matter of choice. The PHYSIS habitat classification uses1. large-feature physiognomy2. plant-community composition3. factors underpinning animal-community composition..

16. World integrating system The integrating system rests on the matrix-use of two existing sets of upper category describers, the biotic realms of the IUCN bio-genetic reserve system, and a list of upper units of habitats of global application. Upper units of habitat within any realm are then designated by combination of a realm digit in the third rank to the left of the decimal point with a biotope class number of two digits in the second and first ranks. Lower divisions, characterised by digits to the right of the decimal point, are specific to each realm and not necessarily homologous between realms. There is, however, no reason not to preserve the lower unit hierarchy as far down as possible for types of habitat with more evident cosmopolitan homologies, such as marine habitats.

17. Biotic realms 0 Palaearctic 1 Nearctic 2 Afrotropical 3 Indomalayan 4 Oceanian 5 Australian 6 Antarctic 7 Neotropical

18. Indo-Malayan realm The southeastern Asian continent south of the northern borders of Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bhutan, Sikkhim, Burma, Thailand, Laos and Vietnam. The southeastern Asian archipelagoes and seas, southeast to New Guinea, the Bismarck archipelago and Bougainville. The Laccadives, the Maldives and Chagos, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands.

19. For practical reasons, the limits of realms are chosen so as to avoid placing political entities in two realms. In particular, the southeastern limits respect the political borders of Papua New Guinea. They are more usually placed along Wallace's Line, at the southeastern edge of the Asian continental plate, or, sometimes, as by Udvardy, along the northeastern edge of the Australian continental plate. Neither arrangement is entirely satisfactory. In addition, New Guinea, placed in an Oceanian Realm by Udvardy, is climatically, ecologically and, in part, at least, floristically more closely related to southeast Asia, faunistically, to Australia.

20. Upper levels of classification 1 Coastal and halophytic communities 11 Ocean and seas, marine communities 12 Sea inlets and coastal features 13 Estuaries and tidal rivers 14 Mud flats and sand flats 15 Salt marshes, salt steppes, salt scrubs 16 Coastal sand dunes and sand beaches 17 Shingle beaches 18 Sea-cliffs and rocky shores 19 Islets, rock stacks, reefs, banks, shoals 1A Coastal agrosystems

21. 2 Non-marine waters 21 Coastal lagoons 22 Standing fresh water 23 Standing brackish and salt water 24 Running water

22. 3 Scrub and grassland 31 Temperate heath and scrub 32 Sclerophyllous scrub 33 Phrygana 34 Steppes and dry calcareous grasslands 35 Dry siliceous grasslands 36 Alpine and subalpine grasslands 37 Humid grasslands and tall herb communities 38 Mesophile grasslands 39 Tundra 3A Tropical grasslands 3B Tropical shrublands 3C Tropical alpine communities

23. 4 Forests 41 Temperate broad-leaved deciduous forests 42 Temperate coniferous forests 43 Temperate mixed forests 44 Temperate riverine and swamp forests 45 Temperate broad-leaved evergreen forests 46 Evergreen rain forests 47 Semi-evergreen rain forests 48 Monsoon forests 49 Tropical montane forests 4A Tropical swamp forests 4B Dry tropical woodland 4C Mangrove forests

24. 5 Bogs and marshes 51 Raised bogs 52 Blanket bogs 53 Water-fringe vegetation 54 Fens, transition mires and springs

25. 6 Inland rocks, screes and sands 61 Screes 62 Inland cliffs and exposed rocks 63 Eternal snow and ice 64 Inland sand-dunes 65 Caves 66 Volcanic features 7 Deserts 71 Polar deserts 72 Continental deserts and semi-deserts 73 Subtropical deserts and semi-deserts 74 Cool coastal deserts

26. 8 Agricultural land and artificial landscapes 81 Improved grasslands 82 Crops 83 Orchards, groves and tree plantations 84 Tree lines, hedges, rural mosaics 85 Urban parks and large gardens 86 Towns, villages, industrial sites 87 Fallow land, waste places 88 Mines and underground passages 89 Industrial lagoons and reservoirs, canals

27. 9 Wooded grasslands and scrubs 91 Parklands 92 Bocages 93 Wooded steppe 94 Wooded tundra 95 Treeline ecotones 96 Savannas 97 Wooded deserts and semi-deserts

28. 45. Temperate broad-leaved evergreen forests Temperate forests dominated by broad-leaved sclerophyllous or lauriphyllous evergreen trees, or by palms. They are characteristic of the mediterranean and warm-temperate humid zones, with a few representatives in transition areas to tropical forest and subtropical desert zones. In the Indo-Malayan realm, they are limited to Himalayan evergreen oak forests and to lauriphyllous warm temperate forests of Sino-Japanese affinities distributed from northern Myanmar to northern Vietnam.

29. EXISTING SCHEMES