In organismal taxonomy, evolution is the basis of the system of classification. He classified much of Europes vegetation in the early part of the century. Also known as the Zurich-Montpelier school. Then sample stands within each type to describe the abundance, etc of species. Placement of sample units can be either subjective or objective.
Results are hierarchical .
Cluster Analysis - Sorting of stands into groups based on their degree of similarity. Produces dendrogram from bottom up. Can be either divisive or agglomerative . Agglomerative begin by combining individual stands into larger groups. Basically tests the degree of association of species from stand data.