- Aquatic communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system
This article gives an overview of the aquatic communities in the
British National Vegetation Classification system.Introduction
The aquatic communities of the NVC were described in Volume 4 of "
British Plant Communities ", first published in 1995, along with the swamps and tall-herb fens.In total, 24 aquatic communities have been identified.
The aquatic communities fall into the following six groups:
* four communities of the water surface and sub-surface, in which
duckweed s and/orFrogbit are the constant species; these communities (A1, A2, A3 and A4) are found in moderately-rich toeutrophic standing waters* eight free-floating or rooted and submerged, pondweed communities (A5, A6, A11, A12, A13, A14, A15 and A21)
* six communities in which rooted water-lilies and pondweeds with floating leaves are the constant species (A7, A8, A9, A10, A19 and A20)
* three communities in which
water-crowfoot s and/orstarwort s are the constant species (A16, A17 and A18)* two hairgrass and quillwort communities (A22 and A23)
* a single community characterised by free-floating vegetation found in impoverished base-poor standing waters (A24)
List of aquatic communities
The following is a list of the communities that make up this category:
* A1"Lemna gibba" community "Lemnetum gibbae" Miyawaki & J. Tx. 1960
* A2 "Lemna minor" community "Lemnetum minoris" Soó 1947
* A3 "Spirodela polyrhiza - Hydrocharis morsus-ranae" community
* A4 "Hydrocharis morsus-ranae - Stratiotes aloides" community
* A5 "Ceratophyllum demersum" community "Certaophylletum demersi" Hild 1956
* A6 "Ceratophyllum submersum" community "Certaophylletum submersi" Den Hartog & Segal 1964
* A7 "Nymphaea alba" community "Nymphaeetum albae" Oberdorfer & Mitarb. 1967
* A8 "Nuphar lutea" community
* A9 "Potamogeton natans" community
* A10 "Polygonum amphibium" community
* A11 "Potamogeton pectinatus - Myriophyllum spicatum" community
* A12 "Potamogeton pectinatus" community
* A13 "Potamogeton perfoliatus - Myriophyllum alterniflorum" community
* A14 "Myriophyllum alterniflorum" community "Myriophylletum alterniflori"
* A15 "Elodea canadensis" community
* A16 "Callitriche stagnalis" community
* A17 "Ranunculus penicillatus" ssp. "pseudofluitans" community
* A18 "Ranunculus fluitans" community "Ranunculetum fluitantis" Allorge 1922
* A19 "Ranunculus aquatilis" community "Ranunculetum aquatilis" Géhu 1961
* A20 "Ranunculus peltatus" community "Ranunculetum peltati" Sauer 1947
* A21 "Ranunculus baudotii" community "Ranunculetum baudotii" Br.-Bl. 1952
* A22 "Littorella uniflora - Lobelia dortmanna" community
* A23 "Isoetes lacustris/setacea" community
* A24 "Juncus bulbosus" community
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