Taxonomic and Community Classification Resources and Standards Robert K. Peet University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

Resources for plant names Beware of dangerously obsolete standards A.E. Radford, C.R.Bell. H.Ahles. 1968. Manual of the vascular flora of the Carolinas. J.K. Small. 1933. Manual of the southeastern flora.

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

Resources for plant names Our preferred standard! Alan S.Weakley. 2006 (or subsequent eds). Flora of the Carolinas,Virginia, Georgia, and surrounding areas. http://www.herbarium.unc.edu/flora.htm

Resources for plant names Other modern standards: USDA Plants database http://plants.usda.gov/ Flora of North America http://hua.huh.harvard.edu/FNA/

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.

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

What are the fir trees of the West? USDA Plants & ITIS Abies lasiocarpa var. lasiocarpa var. arizonica

What is Abies lasiocarpa? Flora North America Abies lasiocarpa Abies bifolia Partnership with USDA plants to provide plant concepts for data integration

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

Which species occur with Andropogon glomeratus? Record data Find data Merge data

Taxonomic headaches The Andropogon virginicus complex in Carolina has between 1 and 9 taxa, with 17 different concepts variously applied by 8 important authors.

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

Toward a new Atlas How to integrate new sources of data?? http://herbarium.unc.edu/seflora/firstviewer.htm How to integrate new sources of data?? Carya carolinae-septentrionalis, Radford et al. 1968

Add dynamic access to NCU collection RAB Carya carolinae-septentrionalis

Add USDA PLANTS records & CVS vegetation plot data NCU RAB USDA CVS Carya carolinae-septentrionalis

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

Some nominal occurrences might or might not represent the taxon Carya carolinae-septentrionalis

Community types with the concept

Resources for community composition Carolina Vegetation Survey website http://cvs.bio.unc.edu/ Mike Schafale & Alan Weakley. 1990. Classification of the natural communities of North Carolina. Third approximation. http://www.ncnhp.org/Images/Other%20Publications/class.pdf U.S. National Vegetation Classification (NVC; see below)

NatureServe Explorer – current home of the NVC

Community descriptions with links to VegBank

www.vegbank.org

Links Thanks Carolina Vegetation Survey http://cvs.unc.edu Weakley flora http://herbarium.unc.edu/flora.htm NCU Atlas of the SE flora http://herbarium.unc.edu/seflora/firstviewer.htm Thanks EEP, NSF (SEEK, VegBank), NC Bot. Garden