Forest classification, made up by Plíva and Průša (Plíva 1971), has been using in the Czech Republic forestry since 1970. This classification is based on ecological factors of the environment. Edaphic conditions are at the first position, then climatic conditions follow (by their vertical [altitudinal] distribution mainly). These two factors form the basic construction called ecological grid (Table 1).

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Abstract:Traditional land classifications developed on the basis of what was once prevailing expert knowledge have since largely become obsolete. We assessed expert knowledge based landscape-level units delineated in central European temperate forests: Natural Forest Areas (NFA) and Forest Vegetation Zones (FVZ). Our focus was determining to what degree these units reflect vegetation-environmental relationships. After considering as many as 49,000 plots with vegetation and 25,000 plots with environmental data within a territory of the Czech Republic, we analyzed 11,885 plots. We used multivariate statistics to discriminate between the landscape-level units. While NFAs performed extremely well, FVZ results were less successful. Classification of the environment provided better results than classification of vegetation for both the Hercynicum and Carpaticum phytogeographic part of the Czech Republic. Taking into account significance of the environment in our analysis, a delimitation of FVZs and similar vegetation-driven structures worldwide via explicit a priori stratification by tree species without consideration of environmental limits would not be supported by our analysis. We suggest not relying only on vegetation in classification analyses, but also including the significant environmental factors for direct classification of FVZ and units in particular in altered vegetation composition setting such as the central European forests. We propose a novel interpretation of FVZ via appropriate vegetation stratification throughout the environment used in conjunction with the zonal concept. Understanding of coarse-scaled vegetation-environmental relationships is not only fundamental in forest ecology and forest management, but is also essential for improving lower classification levels. Valuable expert knowledge should be combined with formal quantification, which is consistent with recent calls for advanced multidisciplinary ecological classifications in Europe and North America and for forming classifications in Asia.

The concepts of diagnostic species and fidelity have been used frequently in European phytosociology but rarely in North American vegetation classification. We developed a classification of the vegetation of a mountainous area of northern Utah and compared the diagnostic species approach with the indicator-species approach of habitat type classification sensu Daubenmire prevailing in the U.S. Interior West. A total of 157 forest and nonforested plots were described by vascular plants and basic environmental factors. Clustering with RandomForest classification and ordination reduced the original number of plots to 26 meaningful vegetation units. Of these 26 units, 22 were strong, having four or more faithful species. Four units were weak, having less than three faithful species. We identified species diagnostic of particular vegetation units that are potentially useful for recognition of these units in the field. We proposed vegetation types at the level of vegetation alliances and associations, and correlated them with environmental factors. We found our vegetation units to be more strongly associated with the underlying environment than major habitat types sensu Daubenmire. Our approach to classification has the potential to directly link vegetation with the physical environment and could be the basis for a substantial improvement of vegetation classification in the central Rocky Mountains.

Due to global climate change and increased forest transformation by humans, accounting for the dynamics of forest ecosystems is becoming a central problem in forestry. We reviewed the success of considering vegetation dynamics in the most influential ecological forest classifications in Russia, the European Union, and North America. Out of the variety of approaches to forest classification, only those that are widely used in forestry and forest inventory were selected. It was found that the system of diagnostic signs developed by genetic forest typology based on the time-stable characteristics of habitats as well as the developed concept of dynamic series of cenosis formation allows us to successfully take into account the dynamics of vegetation. While forest dynamics in European classifications is assessed at a theoretical level, it is also possible to assess forest dynamics in practice due to information obtained from EUNIS habitat classification. In ecological classifications in North America, the problem of vegetation dynamics is most fully solved with ecological site description (ESD), which includes potential vegetation and disturbance factors in the classification features. In habitat type classification (HTC) and biogeoclimatic ecosystem classification (BEC), vegetation dynamics is accounted based on testing the diagnostic species and other signs of potential vegetation for resistance to natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Understanding of vegetation–environment associations is fundamental in forming proper forest management methods and improving existing classification structures. We believe that this topic is relevant as part of the ongoing search for new solutions within all significant forest ecological classifications.