The use of vegetation series to assess α and β vegetation diversity and their relationships with geodiversity in the province of Almeria (Spain) with watersheds as operational geographic units

With this paper we suggest that vegetation series is a useful conceptual tool to identify a clear level of biodiversity of land systems among the many possible logical levels. The suggestion is supported by the results of a case study carried out for the province of Almeria (Spain) using the watersheds as operational geographic units. The application of standard correlation analysis, simple and partial, the Mantel’s test, and the cluster analysis has shown that α and β vegetation diversities, based on vegetation series, are significantly predictive with respect to environmental heterogeneity expressed by pedodiversity, lithodiversity, and some parameters of digital elevation model. Being a product of the Braun Blanquet’s floristic approach, vegetation series could be the key to enter into vegetation databases for biodiversity analysis of land systems at many other levels of knowledge.Peer reviewe