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Vegetation extent is the definition applied under the National NRM Monitoring and Evaluation Framework. In this context the term extent is applied to the monitoring of Native Vegetation Communities Integrity. The concept of native vegetation communities extent, applied here, is quite different to that of cover as defined above. As well as the plants themselves, vegetation communities and the ecosystems they represent also consist of areas of bare ground or rock (sometimes referred to as lithic communities). These communities also exist in a range of states according to various disturbance regimes such as fire. The extents of vegetation communities then are more complex to map than vegetation cover because they incorporate a wide range of environments – representing a wide range of reflectance values and textures - that occur in complex spatial patterns.