Reflections on the Phytosociological Approach and the Epistemological Basis of Vegetation Science

Abstract

It is generally assumed that phytosociology is a true empirical science. In his fundamental theoretical work Braun-Blanquet (1928) identified the task of phytosociologists with the following words’…in der bun ten Vielheit der Vegetationsflecke das Uebereinstimmende erkennen und herausarbeiten, das Typische abgrenzen und unter den abstrakten Assoziationsbegriff zusammenfassen …’: ‘… to recognize and elaborate in the polychrome multiplicity of the vegetation cover the unifying, to delineate the typical and summarize it within the abstract association concept…’. Westhoff (1972) summarized the methodological approach of phytosociology in three steps: (a) the comparison between concrete vegetation stands (phytocoenoses) in nature, (b) carrying out of releves, as samples of the concrete vegetation and (c) reciprocal comparison of the releves and abstraction of vegetation types (plant associations, phytocoenons). The basic ideas on the essence of plant associations and their diagnostic species are exposed by Westhoff HHH van der Maarel (1978).

This paper was written under the auspices of the Programma finalizzato ‘Qualita dell’Ambiente’ of the C.N.R. (Roma) Subprogetto 5 ‘Metodologie matematiche e basi di dati’. I thank the following people for helpful comments: E. Feoli, D. Lausi, P. Nimis, E. Pignatti Wikus (all at the Istituto Botanico, Trieste), D. Dal Maso (Istituto di Matematica, Trieste), E. van der Maarel (Botanisch Laboratorium, Nijmegen).