A comparison of cluster analysis and diversity-ordering in community classification

We investigated how cluster analysis and diversity-ordering can be used for the classification of geographically and historically distinct plant and insect communities. The study sites include fens and Brachypodium pinnatum dominated grasslands. The stands of the fen vegetation type could be arranged into similar groups by cluster analysis, principal component analysis and diversity ordering techniques. In the case of the B. pinnatum dominated grasslands of diverse development, however, no groups could be differentiated on the basis of either diversity ordering or ordination. Of the various cluster analyses, the result of global optimisation was similar to those of PCA ordination and diversity ordering techniques