This full report presents a classification of mid-seral black spruce ecosystems in the Boreal White and Black Spruce (BWBS) and Sub-boreal Spruce (SBS) zones of British Columbia. The classification is based on a total of 122 plots sampled during the summers of 1997 and 1998. We used multivariate and tabular methods to synthesize and classify ecosystems according to the Braun-Blanquet approach and the methods of biogeoclimatic ecosystem classification. The black spruce ecosystems were classified into 8 vegetation units (associations or subassociations) and the same number of site associations. We describe vegetation and environmental features of these vegetation and site units. Vegetation and environmental tables for individual plots are given in Appendices. In addition, we also present the relationships between site index of black spruce and direct and indirect measures of site quality.

This pamphlet provides a summary of a fuller report issued under the same title.

This full report presents the first approximation of vegetation classification of trembling aspen ecosystems in interior British Columbia. The classification is based on a total of 186 plots sampled during the summers of 1995, 1997 and 1998. We used multivariate and tabular methods to synthesize and classify ecosystems according to the Braun-Blanquet approach and the methods of biogeoclimatic ecosystem classification. The aspen ecosystems were classified into 15 basic vegetation units (associations or subassociations) that were grouped into four alliances. Communities of the Populus tremuloides – Mertensia paniculata, and Populus tremuloides – Elymus innovatus alliances were aligned with the boreal Picea glauca & mariana order and were distributed predominantly in the Boreal White and Black Spruce zone; communities of the Populus tremuloides – Thalictrum occidentale alliance were also aligned with the same order, but were distributed predominantly in the Sub-Boreal Spruce zone; communities of the Populus tremuloides – Symphoricarpos albus alliance were aligned with the wetter cool temperate Tsuga heterophylla order and the drier cool temperate Pseudotsuga menziesii order and were distributed in the Sub-boreal Spruce, Interior Western Hemlock, Montane Spruce, and Interior Douglas-fir zones. We describe the vegatation and environmental features of these units and present vegetation and environmental tables for individual plots and units.

This pamphlet provides a summary of a fuller report issued under the title: Classification of mid-seral black spruce ecosystems of northern British Columbia

This full report describes both forested and non-forested ecosystems of the Mountain Hemlock (MH) zone of British Columbia (also referred to as the subalpine MH zone, coastal subalpine forest, or coastal mountain hemlock forest). It is one of 14 technical reports intended to provide a comprehensive account of the biogeoclimatic ecosystem classification (BEC) system as well as some management implications for each zone in the province. These zonal reports should fill the gap between the general description given in “Ecosystems of British Columbia” (Meidinger and Pojar 1991) and the information on site identification and interpretation given in regional field guides (e.g., Banner et al. 1993, Green and Klinka 1994).

This pamphlet provides a summary of a fuller report also issued under the title: The mountain hemlock zone of British Columbia. It describes both forested and non-forested ecosystems of the Mountain Hemlock (MH) zone of British Columbia (also referred to as the subalpine MH zone, coastal subalpine forest, or coastal mountain hemlock forest). It covers classification, reviews of vegetation regions and environmental relationships, as well as silvicultural and resource management implications.

Currently, there is no comprehensive terrestrial ecosystem classification for the central Rocky Mountains of the United States. A comprehensive classification of terrestrial ecosystems in a mountainous study area in northern Utah was developed incorporating direct gradient analysis, spatial hierarchy theory, the zonal concept, and concepts of diagnostic species and fidelity, together with the biogeoclimatic ecosystem classification approach used in British Columbia, Canada. This classification was derived from vegetation and environmental sampling of both forest and non-forest ecosystems. The SNOwpack TELemetry (SNOTEL) and The National Weather Service (NWS) Cooperative Observer Program (COOP) weather station network were used to approximate climate of 163 sample plots. Within the large environmental diversity of the study area, three levels of ecosystem organization were distinguished: (1) macroclimatic - regional climate; (2) mesoclimatic, accounting for local climate and moisture distribution; and (3) edaphic - soil fertility. These three levels represent, in order, the L+1, L, and L-1 levels in a spatial hierarchy. Based on vegetation physiognomy, climatic data, and taxonomic classification of zonal soils, two vegetation geo-climatic zones were identified at the macroclimatic (L+1) level: (1) montane zone with Rocky Mountain juniper and Douglas-fir; and (2) subalpine zone with Engelmann spruce and subalpine fir as climatic climax species. A vegetation classification was developed by combining vegetation samples (relevés) into meaningful vegetation units. A site classification was developed, based on dominant environmental gradients within the subalpine vegetation geo-climatic zone. Site classes were specified and a site grid was constructed. This site classification was coupled with the vegetation classification. Each plant community was associated with its environmental space within the site grid. This vegetation-site overlay allowed ecosystems to be differentiated environmentally and a structure, combining zonal, vegetation, and site classifications, forms a comprehensive ecosystem classification. Based on assessment of plant communities' environmental demands and site vegetation potential, the comprehensive classification system enables inferences about site history and successional status of ecosystems. This classification is consistent with the recent USDA, Forest Service ECOMAP and Terrestrial Ecological Unit Inventory structure and may serve as a valuable tool not only in vegetation, climatic, or soil studies but also in practical ecosystem management.

Vegetation science, like any science, uses classification to organize knowledge about plants and plant communities. Classification is helpful for understanding how different plant communities relate to one another and their environments, for facilitating further studies of vegetation, and for conservation. To familiarize onself with vegetation of a large area, it is very convenient and efficient to begin with a few general units, such as plant orders rather than with many very detailed units, such as plant associations and subassociation. We offer such an approach and think that the information given in this series will be sufficient to assign any forested coastal community to one the orders or suborders. In spite of a history of vegetation studies in British Columbia, there has not yet been any attempt to develop a comprehensive hierarchical classification of plant communities for the province. As the culmination of fifty years of detailed surveys carried out by V.J. Krajina and his students, the Ecology Program Staff of the BC Forest Service, and other workers, we used tabular and multivariate analyses of 3,779 sample plots established in natural, old-growth, submontane, montane, and subalpine forest communities in coastal BC to develop a hierarchy of vegetation units according to the methods of biogeoclimatic ecosystem classification.

Non-forested ecosystems dominate high elevation sites in coastal British Columbia, yet there has never been a comprehensive classification or mapping of all high-elevation community types. The objective of this study is to collate and expand upon previous classifications, and thereby to increase our understanding of the habitats and composition of these plant communities.

This report expands and clarifies previous classifications of non-forested plant communities from upper subalpine and alpine locations in coastal British Columbia. A total of 80 plots (releves) sampled specifically for this study were added to 202 releves from published and unpublished studies conducted since 1963. We used tabular and multivariate methods to synthesize and classify plant communities according to the Braun-Blanquet approach. Plant communities were classified into 37 vegetation units (associations or subassociations) which served as the basis of the resulting hierarchical classification. We describe the habitat and species composition of these vegetation units and their relationship to units recogized elsewhere in the Pacific Northwest. We then present eight generalized habitat types which we propose as the basic units for future ecosystem mapping. Each of these habitat types includes a predictable mosaic of vegetation units whose pattern occurs at too fine a scale to map individually.