Ecological Type Classification for California: The Forest Service Approach

摘要

National legislation has mandated the development and use of an ecological data base to improve resource decision making, while State and Federal agencies have agreed to cooperate in standardizing resource classification and inventory data. In the Pacific Southwest Region, which includes nearly 20 million acres (8.3 million ha) in California, the Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, has begun a long term project to develop an ecosystem type classification system. It will identify and describe vegetation/soil/physiographic units called ecological types, which are site-specific units distinguished from each other by significant differences in species composition, soils, productivity, and expected response to management; and which are identifiable in the field in any seral stage.