The nature of vegetation science

摘要

Vegetation is universal – the thinner or thicker green layer of living plants on our planet. Sometimes vegetation is dense forest, sometimes hidden biodiversity of annuals in seemingly bare desert. In all cases coexisting plants form complex communities and interact with other trophic levels. Vegetation science is just as diverse. From the webpage of our society – International Association for Vegetation Science (IAVS) – we read that vegetation scientists deal with theoretical and practical studies of vegetation: its composition and structure, history, classification, distribution, ecology, dynamics, management and uses in the landscape.