Man as a Maker of New Plant Communities

Abstract

SUMMARY (1) Fourty-four sites, dispersed throughout an urban area in Ohio were sampled for their arboreal vegetation. (2) Ordination of the sites yielded five major community types: an inner city complex, a maple complex, a conifer complex, a mixed suburban complex and an old oak complex. (3) Correlation analysis and an overlay of various socio-economic variables on the basic site ordination revealed some of the major cultural factors structuring the urban landscape. (4) In the city, changing patterns of landscape taste and fashion, correlated with various socio-economic variables, appear to have been the primary factors responsible for the ordering of plants into specific associations.