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Plant synecology in the service of rangeland management

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Vegetation science applications for rangeland analysis and management

Part of the book series: Handbook of vegetation science ((HAVS,volume 14))

Abstract

Plant synecology deals with the classification and/or ordination of vegetation and the relationships of plant communities to environments. Understanding these aspects of rangelands is important for stratifying inventories, extrapolating research, transferring experience, and effectively evaluating and applying management alternatives. Many different approaches to classifying and mapping vegetation have been used across the rangelands of the world. Each of the approaches has underlying assumptions about the dynamics and organization of vegetation. Vegetation is but one of the most easily seen portions of ecosystems — the level of nature that inevitably responds to management. We are, however, far from agreement on how to classify ecosystems. Thus, vegetation has and will likely remain a major way we stratify land. We should not, however, be satisfied with only a classification scheme for the vegetation of a given area because recognition of how vegetation relates to environmental patterns is needed to explain why certain management approaches succeed or fail.

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Authors
  1. Neil E. West
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Range, Wildlife and Forestry, University of Nevada Reno, Reno, Nevada, 89512, USA

    P. T. Tueller (Professor of Range Ecology) (Professor of Range Ecology)

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© 1988 Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht, Boston, London

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West, N.E. (1988). Plant synecology in the service of rangeland management. In: Tueller, P.T. (eds) Vegetation science applications for rangeland analysis and management. Handbook of vegetation science, vol 14. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3085-8_2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-3085-8_2

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-94-010-7886-3

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