Can anyone help me out with a true definition of vegetation community? I know the 1987 COE Manual has plant communities defined but I am interested in a more thorough definition that possibly involves case law or scientific articles, etc.
That’s quite a question. I study almost exclusively community level plant ecology. I not sure how deep you want to get into it. Odum tells us that a community is one of the ecological levels of organization hierarchy. It includes all the populations inhabiting specific area at the same time. A vegetation community is simply all plant populations inhabiting specific area at the same time.
Its sounds like you want a better answer than that. William Mitsch and James Gosselinks Wetlands 3rd Ed not 4th gives a good overview of wetland plant communities. All the best work in the field of vegetation community ecology are based in the work of Braun Blanquet J. 1932 Plant sociology: the study of plant communities. New York.: McGraw- Hill. 439 p. Also a great read is Pattern and Process in the Plant Community Alex S. Watt The Journal of Ecology, Vol. 35, No. 1/2 (Dec., 1947), pp. 1-22.
Attached are 15 court cases that at less briefly mention vegetation community.
I believe its just asking for the overall composition of the plant community. In my state there are several distinct plant communities that have been mapped, such as longleaf Pine upland, or mixed hardwood bottomlands (these can be further subdivided). Check with your state GIS agency (or Dept of Wildlife) for a Historical forest cover or current forest cover map. If you are lucky it will have been mapped on the quadrangle level rather than a statewide level.
Posts: 12 | Location: Hattiesburg, MS | Registered: 22 February 2008
