Die Wälder und Gebüsche Österreichs

For the Republic of Austria, two comprehensive overviews of the forest communities have been published so far (Mayer 1974, Mucina et. al. 1993). Both works represent milestones, nevertheless none of the presented classifications could really satisfy. One reason for this is certainly the enormous diversity of Austria. Comprising parts of the Alps, the Bohemian massif and the Pannonian lowlands, any attempt to provide an Austrian overview equals practically a treatment of whole Central Europe. The most important difference between this book and its two predecessors lies in the presentation of phytosociological tables. This makes the syntaxonomical classification transparent and verifiable. Table work, however, requires very intensive and critical study. Data gaps and inconsistencies cannot be covered (or not so easily, at least). Mere literature compilation was therefore no option. Since 1993, more than 8.000 new releves have been made in Austrian forests. Together with the possibilities of numeric data processing, vegetation systematics could be raised to a new level of objektivity. Altogether, more than 20.000 releves of Austrian forest and scrub vegetation have been stored in a TURBOVEG database. The larger part of the data was taken from literature (journals, monographs, theses) or provided by colleagues and institutions, a smaller part was newly sampled in the field. In a first step, the total data set was subdivided into subsets according to the dominant tree species, mostly corresponding to traditional higher syntaxa (alliances, orders, classes). These subsets were classifed numerically, and the result was interpreted in detail from a ecological and syntaxonomical perspective, leading in many cases to a modification of the preliminary results. For the delimitation of higher syntaxa, the species of the dominant layer (i.e. the tree species in forests) have been given higher weight than the species of the understorey. Thus, the highest ranks of the floristic systems are homogeneous from a physiognomic point of view and can easily be incorporated into a global formation system. The description of all syntaxa (from classes to associations) include: scientific name of the syntaxon; german name(s) of the syntaxon; synonyms, verbal diagnosis: physiognomy and dominant species, ecological stand characteristics (incl. soil types and altitudinal range), distribution in Austria; character species; species with high constancy (only given for associations); Natura 2000-coce; corresponding biotope type(s) in the "Red List of threatened biotope types in Austria"; geographical and/or altitudinal variability of the association; subassociations; most important literature with study area in Austria, federal country, and (optional) original name. The full author citation of the scientific names of syntaxa as well as nomenclatural types and remarks are given in the annex.