Standardized National Vegetation Classification System PDF Download

In 1996, staff with Dugway Proving Ground (DPG) and the U.S. Army Construction Engineering Research Laboratory (CERL) launched a project to classify and describe plant communities occurring at DPG. The goal of the project was to use field data to derive a plant community classification system specific to DPG. The classification followed, with certain modifications, the framework of the Nature Conservancy's Standardized National Vegetation Classification System (SNVCS). The SNVCS is a hierarchical system that summarizes plant communities at four physiognomic and two florist levels. A total of 500 releves were inventoried during the summers of 1996 and 1997. The field data were subjected to several multivariate classification techniques, including hierarchical and non hierarchical cluster analysis, and multi-dimensional scaling. Four physiognomic classes, 5 formations, 17 alliances, and 26 associations were identified at DPG. The results of the derived classification will subsequently be used to assist in mapping the vegetative communities at DPG.