Aquatic communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system
# Aquatic communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system

This article gives an overview of the aquatic communities in the British National Vegetation Classification system.

## Introduction

The aquatic communities of the NVC were described in Volume 4 of British Plant Communities, first published in 1995, along with the swamps and tall-herb fens.

In total, 24 aquatic communities have been identified.

The aquatic communities fall into the following six groups:

* four communities of the water surface and sub-surface, in which duckweeds and/or Frogbit are the constant species; these communities (A1, A2, A3 and A4) are found in moderately-rich to eutrophic standing waters
* eight free-floating or rooted and submerged, pondweed communities (A5, A6, A11, A12, A13, A14, A15 and A21)
* six communities in which rooted water-lilies and pondweeds with floating leaves are the constant species (A7, A8, A9, A10, A19 and A20)
* three communities in which water-crowfoots and/or starworts are the constant species (A16, A17 and A18)
* two hairgrass and quillwort communities (A22 and A23)
* a single community characterised by free-floating vegetation found in impoverished base-poor standing waters (A24).

## List of aquatic communities

The following is a list of the communities that make up this category:

* A1 Lemna gibba community Lemnetum gibbae Miyawaki & J. Tx. 1960
* A2 Lemna minor community Lemnetum minoris Soó 1947
* A3 Spirodela polyrhiza - Hydrocharis morsus-ranae community
* A4 Hydrocharis morsus-ranae - Stratiotes aloides community
* A5 Ceratophyllum demersum community Certaophylletum demersi Hild 1956
* A6 Ceratophyllum submersum community Certaophylletum submersi Den Hartog & Segal 1964
* A7 Nymphaea alba community Nymphaeetum albae Oberdorfer & Mitarb. 1967
* A8 Nuphar lutea community
* A9 Potamogeton natans community
* A10 Polygonum amphibium community
* A11 Potamogeton pectinatus - Myriophyllum spicatum community
* A12 Potamogeton pectinatus community
* A13 Potamogeton perfoliatus - Myriophyllum alterniflorum community
* A14 Myriophyllum alterniflorum community Myriophylletum alterniflori
* A15 Elodea canadensis community
* A16 Callitriche stagnalis community
* A17 Ranunculus penicillatus ssp. pseudofluitans community
* A18 Ranunculus fluitans community Ranunculetum fluitantis Allorge 1922
* A19 Ranunculus aquatilis community Ranunculetum aquatilis Géhu 1961
* A20 Ranunculus peltatus community Ranunculetum peltati Sauer 1947
* A21 Ranunculus baudotii community Ranunculetum baudotii Br.-Bl. 1952
* A22 Littorella uniflora - Lobelia dortmanna community
* A23 Isoetes lacustris/setacea community
* A24 Juncus bulbosus community.
