Nicola Arndt und Matthias Pohl - Neobiota

for geographically and ecologically defined locations. Natural vegetation data can hence provide
significant information on the actual development state of present-day landscapes and add perspectives
for future developments with regard to the role of natural dynamics.
2.2 The Hemerobie concept for assessing naturalness
The focus on natural vegetation is not only interesting from a strictly ecological or perception point of
view, it also appears to be closely related to the concept of sustainability. Being fixed to the ground
and dependent on local abiotic factors, plants need to be extremely site-adapted as they consume all
essential elements from their direct environment (DONIŢĂ 1999). Today’s knowledge on the indicator
values of plants and plant communities enables scientists to determine virtually all relevant qualities of
abiotic site factors, primary production, organic matter components as well as of the ecosystem type,
providing insights into the whole ecological richness of vegetation maps. Borders between vegetation
units are hence also boundaries between abiotic factors, biomass productivity, ecosystems or
ecosystem complexes where these vegetation units provide the ecological main structure.
The indicator quality of natural vegetation types for the relation between the geosphere and the
landscape component has also been illustrated by the development of a so-called landscape prism
(FORTESCUE 1980).
Figure 2: A landscape prism (or ecotope) drawn to show relationships between the geosphere and landscape
components in a typical forest ecosystem (FORTESCUE 1980).
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