Plant community ecology experiences a crisis due to missing public and scientific support. Dominated by "phytosociological schools", the discipline lost flexibility and innovative power. Multivariate statistical methods introduced in the past few decades represent an exception in that they evolve very quickly. Yet, they have hardly been recognized by traditional phytosociologists, even though a strong trend towards more statistically oriented approaches in theory and applications can now be observed. The most challenging approach in community ecology seems to be the mathematical modelling of complex vegetation systems to predict their change in time and space. Within the framework of modelling, numerical analyses play an important role in tormulating functional relationships.
The following conclusions can be drawn regarding future trends:
1. There is no real need to unify old methodological schools and new numerical approaches. but new practical and theoretical problems require new orientations of the discipline.
2. Numerical methods need to be further developed towards far more flexible tools than actually available.
3. Community ecology faces challenging new problems, such as vegetation response to climate change or CO₂ fertilization. To solve these problems there is a considerable number of old and new theories available and an ever growing collection of methods for solution. This is an optimal prerequisite for future developments.
4. lt is hoped that sufficient resources will be available for research and education in the field of plant ecology to continue in the above-mentioned direction.