CLASSIFICATION OF VEGETATION - PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE

This paper is a report on the past, status-quo and perspectives of veg etation classification, still a major occupation of many vegetation sc ientists. The history of vegetation classification is discussed agains t a background of several controversial issues such as the problem of continuum vs. discontinuum, naturalness vs. arbitrariness of the natur e of plant communities, universality vs. ad hoc character of syntaxono mic schemes, as well as classical versus numerical approaches to data analysis for classification purposes. The development of the methodolo gy of vegetation science and the present image of vegetation classific ation is documented by a bibliometric analysis of the publication reco rd of four major journals: Journal of vegetation Science; Vegetatio, P hytocoenologia and Tuexenia. This analysis revealed a persisting contr oversy between traditional and numerical approaches to vegetation clas sification. A series of important changes in vegetation science (found ation of new journals, change of editorial policy by the established, important meetings) punctuate a period called the 'Innovation period'. Several trends in the development of methods of vegetation systematic s are summarized under the headings formalism, pluralism, functionalis m, pragmatism and imdeterminism. Some new features, such as the develo pment and improvement of numerical tools, use of large data banks and attempts to summarize the theory of vegetation classification are disc ussed. The new growth-form system of Barkman initiated a revival of ph ysiognomy-based vegetation classification. Within this framework the u se of the character-type concept and the development of new numerical methods for studying the hierarchical structure of character-set types seems to be a promising approach. The achievements of population biol ogy and ecophysiology have affected vegetation science by emphasizing the functionality of species within plant communities. The use of guil ds and other functional groups has experienced an increasing interest from vegetation scientists. Applied in vegetation science, fuzzy-set t heory has bridged the techniques of classification and ordination of p lant communities.