Resources and Standards for Community and Plant Classification

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Resources and Standards for Community and Plant
Classification

• Robert K. Peet
• University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

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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.

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• 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

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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//pla
nts.usda.gov/ Flora of North America
http//hua.huh.harvard.edu/FNA/

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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.

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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
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What are the fir trees of the West?
USDA Plants ITIS Abies lasiocarpa var.
lasiocarpa var. arizonica
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What is Abies lasiocarpa?
Flora North America Abies lasiocarpa Abies
bifolia
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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
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Which species occur with Andropogon virginicus?

• Record data
• Find data
• Merge data

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Taxonomic headaches

• The Andropogon virginicus complex in Carolina 1
  - 9 taxa, 17 different concepts, applied by 8
  authors using 27 scientific names.

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• 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

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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
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Add dynamic access to NCU collection
NCU RAB
Carya carolinae-septentrionalis
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Add USDA PLANTS records CVS vegetation plot
data
NCU RAB USDA CVS
Carya carolinae-septentrionalis
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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

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Nominal occurrences might or might not represent
the taxon
Carya carolinae-septentrionalis
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Community types with the concept
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Resources for community composition

• Carolina Vegetation Survey website
  http//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)

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www.vegbank.org
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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
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• T

NatureServe Explorer current home of the NVC
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• T

Community descriptions with links to VegBank
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How reference targets are generated

1. Pulse Week-long sampling events hosted by CVS
   (location specific)

2) Research projects (community specific)
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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

http//cvs.bio.unc.edu/vegetation.htm
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Example from CP Alluvial Wetlands.
Formation
Ecological
NVC Association
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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

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Looking forward to continued collaboration