Association (ecology)

Short description: Community of native species in an area, in ecology

In phytosociology and community ecology an association is a type of ecological community with a predictable species composition and consistent physiognomy (structural appearance) which occurs in a particular habitat type.[1]: 181 The term was first coined by Alexander von Humboldt[1]: 16 and formalised by the International Botanical Congress in 1910.[1]: 182 [2]

An association can be viewed as a real, integrated entity shaped either by species interactions or by similar habitat requirements, or it can be viewed as merely a common point along a continuum. The former view was championed by American ecologist Frederic Clements, who viewed the association as a whole that was more than the sum of its parts, and by Josias Braun-Blanquet, a Swiss-born phytosociologist. On the other end of the argument was American ecologist Henry Gleason,[1]: 182–183 who saw these groupings of plant species as a coincidence produced by the "fluctuation and fortuitous immigration of plants, and an equally fluctuating and variable environment".[3][4]

## See also

* Plant community
* Species aggregate
* Alliance (taxonomy)

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Barbour, Michael G.; Jack H. Burk; Wanna D. Pitts, Frank S. Gilliam; Mark W. Schwartz (1999). Terrestrial Plant Ecology (Third ed.). Addison Wesley Longman.
2. ↑ Willner, Wolfgang (2006). "The association concept revisited". Phytocoenologia 36 (1): 67–76. doi:10.1127/0340-269x/2006/0036-0067. https://www.schweizerbart.de/papers/phyto/detail/36/62186/The_association_concept_revisited.
3. ↑ Gleason (1935), cited in Barbour et al. 1999, p. 184[verification needed]
4. ↑ Gleason, H.A. (1926), "The Individualistic Concept of the Plant Association", Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 53 (1): 7–26, doi:10.2307/2479933 p.23

## Further reading

* Weber, H.E.; Moravec, J.; Theurillat, J.-P. (2000), "International Code of Phytosociological Nomenclature. 3rd edition", Journal of Vegetation Science 1 (5): 739–768, doi:10.2307/3236580, http://www.geobotany.org/library/pubs/WeberHE2000_jvs_739-768.pdf

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