Discontinu et continu de la végétation et du milieu. De la théorie des étagements en altitude à la phytoclimatologie dynamique

摘要

Continuity and discontinuity of vegetation and environment. From the theory of altitude stories to dynamic phytoclimatology. — At the very dawn of the 19th century, Humboldt established a sharp distinction between landscape story and continuums, a theme taken up by Schroter a century later. Botanists and phytogeographers then attempted to reconcile the two concepts by looking for discrete structures in vegetation, the climate and the associate landscapes ; thus emerged a syncretic type of phytodimatic story. The models derived from this new concept are founded on the hypothesis of the existence of plant communities and homogenous climates, yet this cannot be sustained in places dominated by climatic gradients, particularly in mountainous areas where the unwinding of species «in scales» along the slopes, depending on the climatic niche of each one, does indeed end up in the continuums sensed by Humboldt and verified by the approach of dynamic phytoclimatology.