Effect of topography on tree species composition and volume of coarse woody debris in an Oriental beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky) old growth forests, northern Iran

There is an emerging interest in the relationships between forest structure and topographic aspects. Still, such patterns have been scarcely studied in undisturbed mixed beech forests in northern Iran. We investigated the influence of topographical factors including aspect, slope degree, and landfor...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:IForest (Viterbo) 2016-08, Vol.9 (4), p.658-665
Main Authors: Sefidi, K, Esfandiary Darabad, F, Azaryan, M
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Beech
Biodiversity
Canopies
Caspian Forest
Debris
Density
Dominant species
Ecosystems
Fagus orientalis
Forest management
Forests
Geographical distribution
Landform
Landforms
Old growth
Physical Geography
Plant species
Redundancy
Species composition
Stand Structure
Topography
Trees
Vegetation
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Summary:There is an emerging interest in the relationships between forest structure and topographic aspects. Still, such patterns have been scarcely studied in undisturbed mixed beech forests in northern Iran. We investigated the influence of topographical factors including aspect, slope degree, and landform index (LI) on the distribution of dominant tree species and coarse woody debris (CWD). Tree density and basal area were not significantly correlated with any of the measured parameters, except a moderate relation between basal area and LI (r = - 0.376; P = 0.029). Redundancy analysis (RDA) of the tree layer revealed a significant relationship between the measured environmental variables and species distributions. CWD volume showed significant negative correlation with percent canopy coverage and was highly correlated with slope. Density of CWD in decay class IV was significantly correlated with aspect and percent of canopy cover. Analyses of CWD distributions in relation to both living vegetation and topographic gradients showed a highly complex interplay of factors driving the distribution of CWD across the forest stands.
ISSN:1971-7458
1971-7458
DOI:10.3832/ifor1080-008