Syntaxonomic ranks, biogeography and typological inflation

Abstract

To reduce the typological inflation observed in some territories where intensive phytosociological studies have been carried out and numerous descriptive papers have been published, an outline of the biogeographical amplitude of the different syntaxonomic ranks is proposed. Phytosociological classes are divided into five main vegetation clusters: 1. Zonal vegetation, determined mainly by climatic conditions; 2. Azonal coastal and saline vegetation; 3. Azonal rocky vegetation; 4. Azonal wetland and aquatic vegetation; 5. Highly disturbed anthropogenic vegetation. In each of these, the various ranks (class, order, alliance, association and subassociation) have a particular range which is expressed by the biogeographical territory in which they most likely occur. This area can refer to different respective categories: kingdom, region, province, sector and district. Some additional comments about typological inflation are made in order to focus on two phenomena: desire for fame and geographic drift.