Classification of European bog vegetation of the Oxycocco-Sphagnetea class

Aims: Classification of European bog vegetation (Oxycocco-Sphagnetea class); identification of diagnostic species for the class and vegetation subgroups (orders and alliances); development of an expert system for automatic classification of vegetation plots; and production of distribution maps of the Oxycocco-Sphagnetea class and its alliances. Location: Europe. Methods: A data set of vegetation-plot records was compiled to include various bog types over most of the European continent. An unsupervised classification (beta-flexible linkage method, Sørensen distance measure) and detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) ordination were applied. Formal definitions of syntaxa based on species pre…