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Resources and Standards for Community and Plant Classification

Resources and Standards for Community and Plant Classification. Robert K. Peet University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. Resources for plant names. Beware of dangerously obsolete standards A.E. Radford , C.R.Bell . H.Ahles . 1968. Manual of the vascular flora of the Carolinas .

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Resources and Standards for Community and Plant Classification

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  1. Resources and Standards for Community and Plant Classification Robert K. Peet University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

  2. Resources for plant names • Beware of dangerously obsolete standards • A.E. Radford, C.R.Bell. H.Ahles. 1968. Manual of the vascular flora of the Carolinas. • J.K. Small. 1933. Manual of the southeastern flora.

  3. Why we need to use new floras and new resources • New names • New taxon concepts (lumps & splits) • New discoveries • Taxa new to science • New collections & overlooked collections • New data sources (Plots, Heritage lists) • New determinations

  4. Resources for plant names Our preferred standard! Alan S. Weakley. 2006 (or subsequent eds). Flora of the Carolinas, Virginia, Georgia, and surrounding areas. http://www.herbarium.unc.edu/flora.htm Other modern standards: USDA Plants databasehttp://plants.usda.gov/ Flora of North America http://hua.huh.harvard.edu/FNA/

  5. Species concepts & data • Data integration requires unambiguous identification of organisms. • Taxonomic names can be ambiguous. • Taxonomic concepts should be represented by a name and a reference. • Single largest impediment to large-scale synthesis in ecology is the failure to document taxonomic concepts.

  6. Three concepts of subalpine fir Splitting one species into two illustrates the ambiguity often associated with scientific names. Abies bifolia Abies lasiocarpa Abies lasiocarpa sec. Little sec. USDA PLANTS sec. Flora North America

  7. What are the fir trees of the West? USDA Plants & ITIS Abies lasiocarpa var. lasiocarpa var. arizonica

  8. What is Abieslasiocarpa? Flora North America Abies lasiocarpa Abies bifolia

  9. High-elevation fir trees of western North America AZ NM CO WY MT AB eBC wBC WA OR Distribution Abies lasiocarpa var. arizonica Abies lasiocarpa var. lasiocarpa USDA - ITIS Abies lasiocarpa Abies bifolia Flora North America A B C Minimal concepts

  10. Which species occur with Andropogonvirginicus? • Record data • Find data • Merge data

  11. Taxonomic headaches The Andropogon virginicuscomplex in Carolina: 1 - 9 taxa, 17 different concepts, applied by 8 authors using 27 scientific names.

  12. The challenge: • Few large-scale compilations of concepts and their relationships are available. • The good news: • Multiple organizations are developing tools for concept use and integration. • The greatest progress has been made here in the Southeast

  13. Toward a new Atlas http://herbarium.unc.edu/seflora/firstviewer.htm How to integrate new sources of data?? Carya carolinae-septentrionalis, Radford et al. 1968

  14. Add dynamic access to NCU collection NCU RAB Carya carolinae-septentrionalis

  15. Add USDA PLANTS records & CVS vegetation plot data NCU RAB USDA CVS Carya carolinae-septentrionalis

  16. But wait !!There is a concept issue • According to Radford 1968, USDA PLANTS v 4.0, & Weakley 2006 • Carya carolinae-septentrionalis • Carya ovata • According to Stone 1997 in Flora of North America. • Carya ovata var australis • Carya ovata var. ovata

  17. Nominal occurrences might or might not represent the taxon Carya carolinae-septentrionalis

  18. Community types with the concept

  19. Resources for community composition • Carolina Vegetation Survey websitehttp://cvs.bio.unc.edu/ • Mike Schafale & Alan Weakley. 1990. Classification of the natural communities of North Carolina. http://www.ncnhp.org/Images/Other%20Publications/class.pdf • U.S. National Vegetation Classification (NVC)

  20. www.vegbank.org

  21. National Vegetation Classification Objective: consistent classification system to product uniform statistics on vegetation cover Hierarchical: - Upper Levels defined by climate & broad geography -Lower Levels (associations) defined by floristics

  22. T NatureServe Explorer – current home of the NVC

  23. T Community descriptions with links to VegBank

  24. How reference targets are generated: • Pulse: Week-long sampling events hosted by CVS (location specific) 2) Research projects (community specific)

  25. Vegetation of the Carolinas (Physiognomic Groups) Mountain Vegetation • Montane upland forests • Montane open upland vegetation • Montane alluvial wetland vegetation • Montane nonalluvial wetland vegetation Piedmont Vegetation • Piedmont upland forests • Piedmont open upland vegetation • Piedmont alluvial wetland vegetation • Piedmont nonalluvial wetland vegetation Coastal Plain Vegetation • Coastal Plain upland forests • Coastal Plain upland open & woodland vegetation • Coastal Plain alluvial wetland vegetation • Coastal Plain nonalluvial wetland vegetation Coastal Fringe Vegetation • Maritime upland forests & shrublands • Maritime open upland vegetation • Maritime nontidal wetland vegetation • Tidal wetland vegetation http://cvs.bio.unc.edu/vegetation.htm

  26. Example from CP Alluvial Wetlands…. Formation Ecological NVC Association

  27. Links Carolina Vegetation Survey http://cvs.bio.unc.edu Weakley flora http://herbarium.unc.edu/flora.htm NCU Atlas of the SE flora http://herbarium.unc.edu/seflora/firstviewer.htm Thanks EEP, NSF (SEEK, VegBank), NC Bot. Garden

  28. Looking forward to continued collaboration

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