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Taxonomic and Community Classification Resources and Standards
Robert K. Peet University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
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Resources for plant names
Beware of dangerously obsolete standards A.E. Radford, C.R.Bell. H.Ahles Manual of the vascular flora of the Carolinas. J.K. Small Manual of the southeastern flora.
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Why we need to use new floras and new resources
New names New taxon concepts (lumps & splits) New discoveries Taxa new to science New collections & overlooked collections New data sources (Plots, Heritage lists) New determinations
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Resources for plant names
Our preferred standard! Alan S.Weakley (or subsequent eds). Flora of the Carolinas,Virginia, Georgia, and surrounding areas.
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Resources for plant names
Other modern standards: USDA Plants database Flora of North America
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Species concepts & data
Data integration requires unambiguous identification of organisms. Taxonomic names are ambiguous. Taxonomic concepts should be represented by a name and a reference. Single largest impediment to large-scale synthesis in ecology is the failure to document taxonomic concepts.
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Three concepts of subalpine fir
Splitting one species into two illustrates the ambiguity often associated with scientific names. Abies bifolia Abies lasiocarpa Abies lasiocarpa sec. Little sec. USDA PLANTS sec. Flora North America
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What are the fir trees of the West?
USDA Plants & ITIS Abies lasiocarpa var. lasiocarpa var. arizonica
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What is Abies lasiocarpa?
Flora North America Abies lasiocarpa Abies bifolia Partnership with USDA plants to provide plant concepts for data integration
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High-elevation fir trees of western North America
AZ NM CO WY MT AB eBC wBC WA OR Distribution Abies lasiocarpa var. arizonica Abies lasiocarpa var. lasiocarpa USDA - ITIS Abies lasiocarpa Abies bifolia Flora North America A B C Minimal concepts
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Which species occur with Andropogon glomeratus?
Record data Find data Merge data
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Taxonomic headaches The Andropogon virginicus complex in Carolina has between 1 and 9 taxa, with 17 different concepts variously applied by 8 important authors.
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The challenge: The good news:
Few large-scale compilations of concepts and their relationships are available. The good news: Multiple organizations are developing tools for concept use and integration. The greatest progress has been made here in the Southeast
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Toward a new Atlas How to integrate new sources of data??
How to integrate new sources of data?? Carya carolinae-septentrionalis, Radford et al. 1968
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Add dynamic access to NCU collection
RAB Carya carolinae-septentrionalis
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Add USDA PLANTS records & CVS vegetation plot data
NCU RAB USDA CVS Carya carolinae-septentrionalis
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But wait !! There is a concept issue
According to Radford 1968, USDA PLANTS v 4.0, & Weakley 2006 Carya carolinae-septentrionalis Carya ovata According to Stone 1997 in Flora of North America. Carya ovata var australis Carya ovata var. ovata
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Some nominal occurrences might or might not represent the taxon
Carya carolinae-septentrionalis
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Community types with the concept
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Resources for community composition
Carolina Vegetation Survey website Mike Schafale & Alan Weakley Classification of the natural communities of North Carolina. Third approximation. U.S. National Vegetation Classification (NVC; see below)
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NatureServe Explorer – current home of the NVC
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Community descriptions with links to VegBank
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Links Thanks Carolina Vegetation Survey http://cvs.unc.edu
Weakley flora NCU Atlas of the SE flora Thanks EEP, NSF (SEEK, VegBank), NC Bot. Garden
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