2014 Volume 20 Pages 115-120
This study proposed a new index "plant community cluster" which can be applied to middle landscape scale between plant community scale and land cover scale such as grassland and woodland. The new index classified plant communities based on physical environment using cluster analysis. In the results, the new index combined the plant communities existing on similar physical environment, and could clarify the relationships between plant community and physical environment. In addition, the new index could simplify complex vegetation succession processes and could abstract main paths from the processes. The results indicated that we could apply the new index, "plant community cluster" on river environment assessment, vegetation management and vegetation succession forecasting.
