NVC publications

Main NVC Volumes

The NVC is published by Cambridge University Press in a five-volume series entitled British Plant Communities, which area edited by John Rodwell. The final volume includes a phytosociological conspectus of British Plant Communities, placing the NVC in a European framework.

British Plant Communities Volume 1: Woodlands and scrub. Edited by John Rodwell © Cambridge University Press/JNCC

Other NVC-related publications

NVC Users' handbook cover © JNCC

The NVC Users' Handbook gives an introduction to the NVC, its application, and advice on carrying out and analysing an NVC site survey.

Cover to An Illustrated Guide to British Upland Vegetation © JNCC

An Illustrated Guide to British Upland Vegetation is a major work that brings together and describes all NVC communities found in the uplands. It includes updated distribution maps for the communities involved.

About a third of Great Britain is upland, and here we find many of the wildest and most beautiful parts of our countryside and the largest areas of natural-looking vegetation. Upland Great Britain encompasses a tremendous variety of habitats and vegetation types, including heaths, bogs, grasslands, woods, scrub, cliffs, screes, snow-beds and high rocky summits. The plant species composition of much of the vegetation here, and also in the Irish uplands, is unique in Europe.

NVC field guides and summary descriptions

Field guides and summary descriptions for the NVC are available for the following habitats:

NVC field guide to woodland

NVC field guide to woodland ^{(includes updated distribution maps for woodland
communities)}

The NVC woodland classification is based on 2,648 samples from ancient and recent woods throughout Britain (Rodwell 1991). This is the biggest data set yet analysed for the production of a woodland classification in Britain (the Stand Type system, for example, was based on about 800 samples (Peterken 1981)). Apart from the sheet numbers of samples, the geographic and ecological spread of sampling makes it the classification most representative of the range of British woodland. The relationships between the NVC and other woodland classifications are shown in Appendix 1.

NVC summary descriptions woodland

Summary of NVC woodland descriptions ^{(largely superseded by above)}

Straightforward descriptions of the 18 woodland types identified by the NVC, and keys to their sub-communities. A valuable complement to the NVC, especially for use in the field.

NVC field guide to mires and heaths

This volume gives a detailed account of 38 mire communities and 22 heath communities in the UK, providing information on their composition, structure and distribution. From these descriptions, it also relates their similarity and environmental status to other types of vegetation categories, both in Britain and on the continent.

NVC summary descriptions of grassland and montane communities

Summary descriptions of NVC grassland and montane communities

An aide-memoir for field workers and others that combines a series of keys and summary descriptions covering all mesotrophic, calcicolous and calcifugous grassland types within Volume 3 of the National Vegetation Classification.