Editing Vegetation (section)

==Classifications==
[[File:Vegetation-no-legend.PNG|thumb|right|400px|Biomes classified by vegetation<br>

{{legend|#9fd6c9|[[Tundra]]}}
{{legend|#006d64|[[Taiga]]}}
{{legend|#a4e05d|[[Temperate broadleaf and mixed forest]]}}
{{legend|#f7ec6f|[[Temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands|Temperate grasslands]]}}
{{legend|#0d7e0d|[[Laurel forest|Subtropical moist forest]]}}
{{legend|#907699|[[Mediterranean vegetation|Mediterranean]]}}
{{legend|#6f956f|[[Tropical and subtropical moist broadleaf forests|Monsoon forest]]}}
{{legend|#95583c|[[Desert]]}}
{{legend|#b97553|[[Xeric shrubland]]}}
{{legend|#9b8447|[[Steppe|Dry steppe]]}}
{{legend|#deb887|[[Semi-desert]]}}
{{legend|#cdc954|[[Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrub lands|Grass savanna]]}}
{{legend|#aca719|[[Tropical and subtropical grasslands, savannas, and shrub lands|Tree savanna]]}}
{{legend|#768e34|[[Tropical and subtropical dry broadleaf forests|Tropical and subtropical dry forest]]}}
{{legend|#005c00|[[Tropical rainforest]]}}
{{legend|#a7bddb|[[Alpine tundra]]}}
{{legend|#3c9798|[[Montane forest]]}}
]]

{{Main|Vegetation classification}}
There are many approaches for the classification of vegetation (physiognomy, flora, ecology, etc.).<ref>de Laubenfels, D. J. 1975. ''Mapping the World's Vegetation: Regionalization of Formation and Flora''. Syracuse University Press: Syracuse, NY.</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Küchler|first1=A. W.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HGzyCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA67|title=Vegetation mapping|last2=Zonneveld|first2=I. S.|date=2012-12-06|publisher=Springer Science & Business Media|isbn=978-94-009-3083-4| pages=67–80|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book|last1=Sharma|first1=P. D.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fjmhn4g5VHkC&pg=PA140|title=Ecology And Environment| page=140| date=2012|publisher=Rastogi Publications|isbn=978-81-7133-905-1|language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web|title=Classification and Mapping of Plant Communities: a Review with Emphasis on Tropical Vegetation |last=Mueller-Dombois |first=D. |date=1984 |editor-first=G. M. |editor-last=Woodwell |pages=21–88 |publisher=J Wiley and Sons |location=New York |url=http://dge.stanford.edu/SCOPE/SCOPE_23/SCOPE_23_2.1_chapter2_21-88.pdf|access-date=2023-02-07|website=bse.carnegiescience.edu |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100717052018/http://dge.stanford.edu/SCOPE/SCOPE_23/SCOPE_23_2.1_chapter2_21-88.pdf |archive-date=July 17, 2010}}</ref> Much of the work on vegetation classification comes from European and North American ecologists, and they have fundamentally different approaches. In North America, vegetation types are based on a combination of the following criteria: climate pattern, [[plant habit]], [[phenology]] and/or growth form, and dominant species. In the [[U.S. National Vegetation Classification|current US standard]] (adopted by the [[Federal Geographic Data Committee]] (FGDC), and originally developed by [[UNESCO]] and [[The Nature Conservancy]]), the classification is [[hierarchy|hierarchical]] and incorporates the non-floristic criteria into the upper (most general) five levels and limited floristic criteria only into the lower (most specific) two levels. In Europe, classification often relies much more heavily, sometimes entirely, on floristic (species) composition alone, without explicit reference to climate, phenology or growth forms. It often emphasizes [[Indicator value|indicator or diagnostic species]] which may distinguish one classification from another.

In the FGDC standard, the hierarchy levels, from most general to most specific, are: ''system, class, subclass, group, formation, alliance, ''and'' association''. The lowest level, or association, is thus the most precisely defined, and incorporates the names of the dominant one to three (usually two) species of a type. An example of a vegetation type defined at the level of class might be "''Forest, canopy cover > 60%''"; at the level of a formation as "''Winter-rain, broad-leaved, evergreen, sclerophyllous, closed-canopy forest''"; at the level of alliance as "''Arbutus menziesii'' forest"; and at the level of association as "''Arbutus menziesii-Lithocarpus dense flora'' forest", referring to Pacific madrone-tanoak forests which occur in California and Oregon, US. In practice, the levels of the alliance and/or an association are the most often used, particularly in vegetation mapping, just as the Latin binomial is most often used in discussing particular species in taxonomy and in general communication.