Definitions and codes for seral status and structure of vegetation. Forest Service general technical report

Definitions and codes for identifying vegetation seral status and structure are desired for land management planning, appraising wildlife habitat, and prescibing vegetation treatment. Codes are only presented; they are not a system for determining seral status or stand structure. Terms defined are climax, potential natural community (PNC) succession, seral status, thresholds, altered PNCs, life-form layer, dominant species, successional indicator species, structure classes, cover, and strata. Plant communities may be divided into three life-form layers where appropriate: tree, shrub, and herb/cryptogram. Each layer may be appraised and coded separately for seral status, or a single code may be used. Coding is provided for plant community structure class according to size, cover, and strata in a life-form layer. Seral status and structure may be coded together.