Zurich–Montpellier school of phytosociology

Zurich–Montpellier school of phytosociology (Montpellier school of phytosociology) A group led by J. Braun-Blanquet and his associates, who developed a set of floristic methods for vegetation classification (in 1927 and later) at Zurich and Montpellier. These have been widely adopted in Europe although they are less accepted elsewhere. The aim was to provide a framework for the classification of the vegetation of the world, but in practice the scheme is most useful in regional and national surveys. The approach depends on detailed field surveying to identify vegetation associations, which can then be grouped hierarchically into alliances, orders, classes, etc., with the vegetation circle (global scale) being the most complex hierarchical level. Suffixes added to the genitive stem of the generic names of the plants label the communities so identified and indicate the hierarchical status of the community:

RANK	ENDING
class	-etea
order	-etalia
alliance	-ion
association	-etum
sub-association	-etosum
variant	(specific name used)

An extensive ecological literature discusses the system and introduces many modifications. The most often quoted objections relate to the use of homogeneous stands only in the description of vegetation; the concept of minimal area as it is used to define homogeneity; and in particular to the use of fidelity, and the associated problem of defining faithful species in order to characterize the associations. Compare UPPSALA SCHOOL.