Zur Methodik der Untersuchung von Gesellschaftskomplexen mit Beispielen aus Hessen und Afrika

On the Methodology of Studies on Community Complexes with Examples in Hessen and Africa: The technical term "geosyntaxon" is proposed for a defined community complex (in parallelity to "syntaxon" = defined plant community). 4 groups can be distinguished: Natural and anthropogenie groups, both of them divided into syndynamically stable and instable community complexes. Measurements on the length of the transect parts or of the survey route divisions covered by the particular plant communities are recommended for quantitative treatments and for numerical deductions. A method for the determination of the necessary minimum size of survey areas or of transect routes is developed. An analysis of frequency is appropriate to characterize the structure and the uniformity of community complexes. The better representation of high frequency classes in stands of geosyntaxa as compared with those within syntaxa marks special features of the relations between habitat (site) and community complexes. Other attributes expressing properties of the community complex structure are the quotient S (medium diameter of syntaxon stands): R (percentage of a syntaxon in the geosyntaxon area) and the average boundary distance (quotient of the transect length divided by the number of boundaries between syntaxa on the transect concerned).