Edatopic Grids: Identifying Plant Communities
An edatopic grid helps us identify plant communities in the forest. The vertical axis describes increasing moisture and the horizontal axis describes increasing nutrients. An accompanying chart lists indicator species. The grid gives us a way of understanding environmental factors and helps identify plant associations. The number “01” denotes the zonal site or typical plant association, The number “02” denotes the driest conditions and the number “12” represents the wettest forested condition. As the site number increase, wetter and more nutrient rich conditions prevail.
