Assessing the relative importance of methodological decisions in classifications of vegetation data

摘要

QuestionsWhat is the relative importance of our methodological decisions concerning sampling (plot size) and data analysis (data transformation, resemblance coefficient, hierarchical clustering strategy and number of clusters) in vegetation classification? Are there differences between the conclusions when the full range or only a more practical narrow range of methodological choices is tested? What is the difference between results for actual and random data?