Compound analysis: a preliminary report on a new numerical approach in phytosociology

A method has been developed to analyse and classify a single releve, recorded at a given area. The vegetation of the area can be interpreted with reference to a set of releves, representing a much larger area. From a set containing releves from coastal and inland salt vegetations in Europe overlapping species groups are erected. The vegetation of a salt marsh on the West Frisian island of Schiermonnikoog is analysed sociologically on the basis of this table. Some remarks are made on details of the system of the French-Swiss school of phytosociology.