Course: NVC: Winter Habitat Survey - Understanding and Describing Plant Communities

This intermediate course will provide you with the skills required to confidently use the National Vegetation Classification (NVC) in winter as a framework to approach how plant communities are responding to environmental change.

Understanding the methods used for assessing, classifying and mapping vegetation communities is an essential part of ecological practice. In the UK these are underpinned by the National Vegetation Classification (NVC). These methods can be of immense value in determining the environmental and management factors that have shaped plant communities.

This course includes:

• Introduction to the NVC in the field.
• How this fits with other classification systems (e.g phase 1, UKHab).
• Use of indicator species.
• Useful software for vegetation analysis and identification.
• Touching on plant identification and using keys.

This intermediate course is designed to enable both professionals and amateurs to assess habitats in the winter through the use of plant and habitat identification. The assessment of vegetation type and condition in the winter is equally as important as in the summer and can provide indicators of species diversity. There will be an element of botanical identification, especially of plants in their vegetative state, and also some important bryophytes. You will spend plenty of time in the field putting your newfound knowledge into practice. We will spend as much time as possible outside looking at vegetation in the lovely countryside surrounding the venue where we will be looking at complex “real-world” habitats.

There will also be opportunities to use a range of computer programmes to investigate vegetation data, and opportunities to explore vegetative keys.

By the end of the course, you will be able to:

• A knowledge of how the NVC works and how it corresponds with other vegetation classification systems.
• Use of indicator species in the NVC.
• Using NVC to interpret ecological processes.