Vegetation Sampling + Analysis Exam

9/18/25 (Thursday)

Plants create…

atmospheric oxygen and organic nitrogen

African Monsoon

trees carry water to other regions

Lake Chad

diminished from deforestation reduces regional rainfall

Perennial

regrows annually from surviving root structures + can be herbaceous or woody

Annual

regrows from seed when conditions are favorable

Herbaceous

aboveground plant tissues die back each year (no wood)

Woody

produce persistent wood tissue + lignin rich vascular tissues

Forbes

herbaceous with broad leaves

Grasses

herbaceous with elongated leaves

Deciduous

lose leaves annually when they are unnecessary

Evergreen

retains leaves year-round

Coniferous

non-flowering + bear seeds within cones + needle-shaped leaves + most are
evergreen

Hardwood

wood (xylem) has vessels + broad-leaf angiosperms (make fruits and flowers, not cones)

Softwood

xylem only contains tracheids not vessels

Shrub

woody perennial with multiple stems + max 6-10 ft

Vegetation

all plant species in region and the way they are spatially or temporally distributed

Formation

vegetation type that extends over large region (ex. tropical rainforest)

Associations (Community Types)

subdivided formations described by dominant species

Classified by Physiognomy (Global)

formation class, subclass, formation

Classified by Biogeography (Regional)

division, macrogroup, group

Classified by Floristics (Local)

alliance + association

Evolutionary Timeline

1. ancestral green algae - start

2. nonvascular plants (mosses, liverworts, hornworts) - above

3. first vascular plants - below

4. first seed plants - below

5. vascular plants (nonseed + seed plants) - above

6. nonsked plants (ferns) - above

7. seed plants (conifers + flowering plants) - above

Polypodiacea

fern

Pinacea

pine, spruce, hemlock, fir

Fagacea

beech (chestnuts, beeches, oaks)

Presence / Absence

is the organism there or not

Count / Density

how many are there

Biomass

how much does the organism weigh

Cover

how much surface ground is covered

Structure

height or arrangement of plants

Cover Frequency Method

estimate in plots or quadrat

Line-Intercept Method

% of a transect occupied by a species

Point-Intercept Method

counts of species at points along transect - % cover = total distance / distance transect x 100

Pros + Cons of Cover

pro - resource use, dominance

con - not accurate, time-consuming

Density

number of species / unit area

Relative Density

number of individuals of species / total number of individuals x 100

Pros + Cons of Density

pro - less affected by seasonality, year-to-year observations, population status and distribution

con - time-consuming, no indication of health or productivity, can’t always count individuals

Pros + Cons of Frequency

pro - fast, large-scale distribution, easy for measurements

con - no health or dominance data, no spatial distribution, no mean population densities

Frequency

number of plots where species occur / total number of plots x 100

Leaf Area Index

amount of one dimensional leaf material per unit of ground

Gross Primary Production (GPP)

total amount of photosynthesis - hard to measure

Net Primary Production

amount of carbon leftover for growth or productivity - solve annual biomass

Bryophytes

nonvascular plants

Moss Division

bryophyta

Tracheophytes

vascular plants

Fern division

Pteridophyta

Clubmoss Family

Lycopodiophyta

Spermatophytes

seed vascular plants

Conifer Division

pinophyta

Flowering Division

magnoliophyta

Flowering Plant Class

monocot or dicot

Raunkiaer’s Classification System

1 and 2 - hydrophytes

3 - halophytes

4 and 5 - crytophytes or geophytes

6 - hemicryptophytes

7 and 8 - chamaephytes

9 - phanerophytes

Hydr- Meaning

water plants

Helo- Meaning

winter buds under water / flowering plants above water

Geof- Meaning

winter buds below ground

Hemi- Meaning

winter Buda love or just below ground

Cham- Meaning

winter buds up to 50 cm above ground

Phan- Meaning

winter buds at least 50 cm above ground (trees and shrubs)

Carl Linnaeus

taxonomic naming system (binomial nomenclature)

Allocation

relative biomass / production

plants allocate most growth to tissues that maximize capture of limiting resources

annual plant biomass

entire plant biomass at end of growing season

perennial plant biomass

apical and secondary growth (DBH)

Allometry

scaling relationships between size of organisms and their relationship as a whole

Morphology

shape and structure

Phylogeny

ancestral evolutionary relationships

Monocot

1 cotyledon, fibrous root, scattered vascular, parallel leaf veins, flower multiples of 3

Dicot

2 cotyledon, tap roots, ringed vascular, net-like veins, flower multiples of 4 or 5

Life Forms Found in Wet-Tropical

Phanerophytes + Chamaephytes

Life Forms Found in Hot Desert

Phanerophytes, Chamaephytes, Hemicryptophytes, Cryptophytes, Therophytes

Life Forms Found in Tundra

Chamaephytes, Hemicryptophytes, Cryptophytes, Therophytes