Mountain Zebra National Park phytosociological classification: A case study of scale and management in the Eastern Cape, South Africa

Abstract

Mountain Zebra National Park has been extended over a number of years. To develop a scientifically sound management programme for the Park it was essential that an inventory of its natural resources was instituted. As a result various phytosociological studies were undertaken on the newly acquired farms to identify the different plant communities present on each. These detailed maps and descriptions are regarded too fine scale for the management of this large area taking into account the limited time, human and financial resources. The aim of this study was to use the detailed plant community descriptions together with land type data and produce a broad vegetation map, which can serve as management units. Land type data for the Park was used to stratify the area into physiographic units which was further refined into terrain landscape units (TLU's) and terrain units (TU's). The floristic data was analysed using both the BBPC suite and JUICE software packages. The large units identified from a TWINSPAN analysis were related to the different terrain landscape units (TLU's) and landscape units (LU's) from where a broad vegetation map was produced. The study resulted in the identification, classification and description of three major terrain landscape units (TLU) which have been divided into 13 landscape units (LU) and two sub-units. This new approach proved to be an accurate and effective way whereby various floristically defined plant communities for a large area could be lumped together into landscape units (LU's) that can be used for management purposes.