Vegetation Description and Data Analysis: A Practical Approach

Vegetation Description and Data Analysis: A Practical Approach,second edition is a fully revised and up–dated edition of thiskey text. The book takes account of recent advances in the fieldwhilst retaining the original reader–friendly approach to thecoverage of vegetation description and multivariate analysis in thecontext of vegetation data and plant ecology.

Since the publication of the hugely popular first edition therehave been significant developments in computer hardware andsoftware, new key journals have been established in the field andscope and application of vegetation description and analysis hasbecome a truly global field.
This new edition includes full coverage of new developments andtechnologies.

This contemporary and comprehensive edition of this well–knownand respected textbook will prove invaluable to undergraduate andgraduate students in biological sciences, environmental science,geography, botany, agriculture, forestry and biologicalconservation.

Fully international approach Illustrative case studies used throughout Now with new materialincluding: the nature of plant communities; induction and deductionin plant ecology; the potential relevance of Bayesian statisticalanalysis; recent advances in methods of ordination andclassification (cluster analysis) and links to spatial analysis; acomprehensive and up–to–date review of the wide range of computersoftware now available; the increasing importance of R–relatedsoftware Accessible, reader–friendly style Now with new and improved illustrations

Preface to the second edition ix

Acknowledgements xi

Safety in the field xiii

Chapter 1 The nature of quantitative plant ecology andvegetation science 1

Chapter 2 Environmental gradients, plant communities andvegetation dynamics 23

Chapter 3 The description of vegetation in the field 49

Chapter 4 The nature and properties of vegetation data 101

Chapter 5 Basic statistical methods for understandingmultivariate analysis 139

Chapter 6 Ordination methods 171

Chapter 7 Phytosociology and the Z¨urich–Montpellier(Braun–Blanquet) School of subjective classification 273

Chapter 8 Numerical classification, cluster analysis andphytosociology 307

Chapter 9 Computer software for the analysis of vegetation andenvironmental/biotic data 359

Chapter 10 Future developments in vegetation science andquantitative plant ecology 369

References 371

Index 403

Martin Kemp is the Emeritus Professor of Biogeography, School of Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Plymouth, Devon, UK. His website can be found here: http://www.plymouth.ac.uk/staff/mkent