Natural Communities
The web of life begins in the soil and progresses to the giant trees and top predators. Microbes, fungi, plants, insects and larger animals all exist together in communities. Each player has a role in the success of the community. None are secure if their neighbors are threatened. Successful land management requires knowing all the actors and understanding the role that each species plays in maintaining a thriving natural community.
Similar to human communities, natural communities are a complex interplay of soil, water, microbes, plants, animals, and cultural management practices. People belong to families, work groups, neighborhoods, political groups. and religious communities, and so forth. At some level, each of those communities is distinct, but their boundaries are not always clearcut. Any classification systems that we develop will, at some level, be merely an approximation of nature, which does what it does irrespective of our efforts to define it. Natural communities, however, are a useful way to talk about the complex relations in the natural world. Applying the concept of natural communities allows private landowners and land managers to establish management goals, and make land management decisions based that work with rather than against nature.
The concept of Wisconsin natural communities was first explored by John Curtis in his landmark book Vegetation of Wisconsin: An Ordination of Plant Communities, first published in 1959, by University of Wisconsin Press. Following its publication, now retired Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources specialist Randy Hoffman published Wisconsin’s Natural Communities: How to Recognize Them and Where to Find Them, published in 2002, also by University of Wisconsin Press. Hoffman makes the natural communities described by Curtis are straightforward and easier to understand. Focusing on wetland and associated communities, Wetland Plants and Plant Communities of Minnesota & Wisconsin aims to address wetland plants of the upper Mississippi River basin. Published in 1997, this Army Core of Engineers document by Steve Eggers and Donald Reed, serves as an authoritative field guide for botanists and wetland delineation professionals.
Natural Communities in this website are organized geographically using the original Curtis classifications. Where applicable, each community is cross referenced to other authors’ classification systems, according to the assessment preformed by Eggers and Reed. Below are links to the natural communities in Wisconsin.
Forests
Northern Forests
Black Spruce Swamp
Boreal Forest
Forested Seep
Northern Dry Forest
Northern Dry-mesic Forest
Northern Hardwood Swamp
Northern Mesic Forest
Northern Tamarack Swamp
Northern Wet-mesic Forest
Northern Wet Forest
Southern Forests
Central Sands Pine-Oak Forest
Floodplain Forest
Hemlock Relic
Pine Relict
Southern Dry Forest
Southern Dry-mesic Forest
Southern Hardwood Swamp
Southern Mesic Forest
Southern Tamarack Swamp
White Pine-Red Maple Swamp
Savannas & Woodlands
Bracken Grassland
Eastern Red-Cedar Thicket
Great Lakes Barrens
Oak Barrens
Oak Opening
Oak Woodland
Pine Barrens
Shrub Communities
Peat, Muck, or Mineral Soils: Tall Deciduous Shrubs Dominant
Alder Thicket
Shrub-carr
Peat or Mucky Peat Soils: Low Evergreen Shrubs and/or Stunted Conifers Dominant
Bog Relict
Muskeg
Open Bog
Herbaceous Communities
Fens
Boreal Rich Fen
Calcareous Fen
Central Poor Fen
Great Lakes Shore Fen
Poor Fen
Marshes
American Lotus-lily Marsh
Coastal Plain Marsh
Emergent Marsh
Floating-leaved Marsh
Oligotrophic Marsh
Submergent Marsh
Wild Rice Marsh
Prairies
Dry Prairie
Dry-mesic Prairie
Mesic Prairie
Sand Prairie
Wet-mesic Prairie
Wet Prairie
Sedge Meadows
Northern Sedge Meadow
Southern Sedge Meadow
Primary Communities
Bedrock Types
Algific Talus Slope
Alvar
Bedrock Glade
Bedrock Shore
Dry Cliff
Glaciere Talus (Felsenmeer)
Great Lakes Alkaline Rockshore
Talus Forest
Wet Cliff (Moist Cliff)
Bare Soil Types
Great Lakes Beach
Great Lakes Dune
Inland Beach
Interdunal Wetland
Lacustrine Mud Flat
Riverine Mud Flat/Beach
Clay Seepage Bluff
Community Complexes
Great Lakes Estuary
Great Lakes Ridge and Swale Complex
Patterned Peatland
Ephemeral Ponds