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. • J. K. Small. 1933. Manual of the southeastern flora.

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

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 database http: //plants. usda. gov/ Flora of North America http: //hua. huh. harvard. edu/FNA/

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.

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

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

What is Abies lasiocarpa? Flora North America Abies lasiocarpa Abies bifolia

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

Which species occur with Andropogon virginicus? Record data Find data Merge data

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Community types with the concept

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%20 Publications/class. pdf U. S. National Vegetation Classification (NVC)

www. vegbank. org

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

T Nature. Serve Explorer – current home of the NVC

T Community descriptions with links to Veg. Bank

How reference targets are generated: 1) Pulse: Week-long sampling events hosted by CVS (location specific) 2) Research projects (community specific)

Mountain Vegetation of the Carolinas Montane upland forests Montane open upland vegetation (Physiognomic Groups) 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

Example from CP Alluvial Wetlands…. Formation Ecological NVC Association

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, Veg. Bank), NC Bot. Garden

Looking forward to continued collaboration