A GENERIC PLANT FUNCTIONAL ATTRIBUTE SET AND GRAMMAR FOR DYNAMIC VEGETATION DESCRIPTION AND ANALYSIS

1. Conventional methods of vegetation description rarely convey the be havioural or response-based information needed to describe effectively the world's vegetation for conservation and management purposes. The information required for these purposes may be derived from a generic set of plant functional attributes (PFAs). 2. A grammar provides a syn tactic rule base for generating and comparing individuals as functiona l models or modi based on specific PFA combinations. 3. The method fac ilitates rapid and uniform assessment of plant response to variation i n the physical environment at differing spatial scales independently o f species. This is illustrated by local, regional and global case stud ies.