Natural Landscapes of Maine: A Classification of Ecosystems and Natural Communities

Maine Natural Heritage Program

This classification names and briefly describes the natural communities of Maine, and further describes how different communities occur together as larger-scale "ecosystems" over the Maine landscape. Its immediate purpose is to provide a framework by which the Maine Natural Heritage Program can identify and track natural communities as important components of the state's ecological diversity. The Maine Natural Heritage Program is a statewide inventory and data management system for rare plants, rare animals, and natural communities. Our primary objectives are to track the location and status for these features--the "Elements" of natural diversity, so that we can provide objective and current data for conservation planning, permit review, and land use planning by private and public agencies. The Program maintains "element" lists of natural communities, rare plants and rare animals. This classification has two major sections. Part I provides an overview by showing how natural communities are grouped into ecosystems; Pan II lists and describes the natural communities themselves, and includes dichotomous keys to community identification. The Natural Community Classification is dynamic, and intended to be periodically updated. Our understanding of associations of plants and animals shifts as we learn more about Maine's flora and fauna. We lack good descriptions of many communities. The coverage of aquatic communities (or any communities not dominated by vascular plants) is particularly sketchy. Also, as inventory work continues, our understanding of the relative rarity of the different community types may change.