XVI International Botanical Congess

The concept of the life form of vegetation generalizes the concept of the life form of plants. The first concept reflects conformity and adaptation of vegetation to the environment (ecotope). It is based on an integral view on vegetation as well as an analysis of composition, spatial and functional structure and dynamics of vegetation. The vegetation life form concept is closely connected with the ecolo-physiognomic (Grisebach, Warming, Drude, Diels, Brockmann-Jerosch, Raunkier, Rugel et al.) And the ecologo-phytocenotical (Sukachev, Lavrenko, Shennikov et al.) approaches. For classification of plant synusias, communities and vegetation micro-and mesocomplexes of the Bureinskiy highland (the russian Far East) the life form of vegetation have been used as the multidimensional and multilevel characteristic. It consists of the next more detailed characteristics of vegetation: a general structural type (synusia, community and others), a general dynamic type (type of climaxes or successions), a spectrum (composition and importance value) of plant life forms.