British National Vegetation Classification

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The British National Vegetation Classification or NVC is a system of classifying natural habitat types in Great Britain according to the vegetation they contain.

Contents

A large scientific meeting of ecologists, botanists, and other related professionals in the United Kingdom resulted in the publication of a compendium of five books: British Plant Communities , edited by John S. Rodwell, which detail the incidence of plant species in twelve major habitat types in the British natural environment. [1] They are the first systematic and comprehensive account of the vegetation types of the country. They cover all natural, semi-natural and major artificial habitats in Great Britain (not Northern Ireland) and represent fifteen years of research by leading plant ecologists.

From the data collated from the books, commercial software products have been developed to help to classify vegetation identified into one of the many habitat types found in Great Britain – these include MATCH, TABLEFIT and MAVIS. [2] [3]

Terminology used in connection with the British National Vegetation Classification

The following is a list of terms used in connection with the British National Vegetation Classification, together with their meanings:

Communities, subcommunities and variants

Constant species

For a list of the constant species, and the NVC communities in which they are present, see List of constant species in the British National Vegetation Classification.

Rare species

The sources used by the authors of British Plant Communities for assessing rarity were as follows.
a) for vascular plants, two sources were used:
  • Perring, F. H. and S. M. Walters (1962) Atlas of the British Flora – a species was regarded as rare if it was given an "A" rating in this work (these were plants which Perring & Walters judged to be sufficiently rare to merit a special search in order to ensure all records were included in the atlas).
  • Any species included on lists compiled by the Nature Conservancy Council of plants found in less than 100 hectads.
b) for bryophytes, the source used was Corley, M. F. V. and M. O. Hill (1981) Distribution of bryophytes in the British Isles. This lists the species and the vice-counties in which they are recorded; presence in under 20 vice-counties was the criterion used for selection as rare.
c) for lichens, no source was available, and the authors used their own selection of species.

For a list of these rare species, and the NVC communities in which they are present, see List of rare species in the British National Vegetation Classification.

Communities by category

In total there are 286 communities in the British National Vegetation Classification. They are grouped into the following major categories:

A full list of these communities, grouped into the above categories, can be found at List of plant communities in the British National Vegetation Classification.

Related Research Articles

NVC community W13, also known as Yew woodland, is one of the woodland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system; it is the only Yew woodland community in the NVC.

NVC community SD18 is one of the 16 sand-dune communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system.

NVC community SD1 is the only shingle community in the British National Vegetation Classification system.

NVC community SD12 is one of the 16 sand-dune communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system.

British NVC community MC10 is one of the maritime cliff communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of five communities categorised as maritime sea-cliff grasslands.

British NVC community MG9 is one of the mesotrophic grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of three communities associated with poorly drained permanent pastures.

NVC community SD2 is one of two strandline community in the British National Vegetation Classification system.

NVC community SD3 is one of two strandline community in the British National Vegetation Classification system.

British NVC community MG5 is one of the mesotrophic grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of four such communities associated with well-drained permanent pastures and meadows.

British NVC community OV41 is one of the open habitat communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of six communities of crevice, scree and spoil vegetation.

British NVC community OV39 is one of the open habitat communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of six communities of crevice, scree and spoil vegetation.

British NVC community MC12 is one of the maritime cliff communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of five communities categorised as maritime sea-cliff grasslands.

British NVC community OV10 is one of the open habitat communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of eight arable weed and wasteland communities of fertile loams and clays.

British NVC community OV12 is one of the open habitat communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of eight arable weed and wasteland communities of fertile loams and clays.

British NVC community OV25 is one of the open habitat communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of four tall-herb weed communities.

British NVC community OV27 is one of the open habitat communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of four tall-herb weed communities.

British NVC community OV37 is one of the open habitat communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of six communities of crevice, scree and spoil vegetation.

British NVC community OV38 is one of the open habitat communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of six communities of crevice, scree and spoil vegetation.

NVC community W17 is one of the woodland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system. It is one of the six communities falling in the "mixed deciduous and oak/birch woodlands" group.

NVC community U19 is one of the calcifugous grassland communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system.

References

  1. ↑ Rodwell, John S., ed. (1998–2000). British Plant Communities . Cambridge University Press. ISBN   0521797160.
  2. ↑ Goldberg, E, ed. (April 2001). "National Vegetation Classification – Ten years' experience using the woodland section" (PDF). JNCC. citing: Joint Nature Conservation Committee (Great Britain). Species Conservation Branch (1992). Trial of MATCH and TABLEFIT Computer Programs for Placing Survey Data Within the National Vegetation Classification. Issue 20 of Joint Nature Conservation Committee report (Report). Species Conservation Branch, UK Joint Nature Conservation Committee. ISSN   0963-8091.
  3. ↑ "Modular Analysis of Vegetation Information System (MAVIS)". Centre for Ecology & Hydrology . Retrieved 26 February 2016.
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