Pattern of understory species richness and diversity along an altitudinal gradient in Persian oak (Quercus brantii Lindl.) forests
2021
hamzeh jafarisarabi | babak pilehvar | batool Shabani Rad | elham Mal Asadi
To manage and conserve biodiversity, comprehensive knowledge of spatial patterns of species richness and diversity and effective factors on them is necessary. The changes of diversity and richness indices at an altitudinal gradient (700 meters) in Persian oak (Quercus brantii Lindl.) forests “Taf catchment in Khoram Abad” was investigated in this study. The physiographic and soil properties, and tree canopy cover were measured by the two 500 m2 sampling plots in each 100 m altitudinal classes. The three randomly located subplots (4m2), was used to investigate the ground herbal layer in each sampling plot. Based on the results there is not any significant correlation between richness, evenness, and diversity indices with altitude and slope, while a negative significant correlation was seen between evenness and diversity indices with tree canopy cover. Contrary to the absence of correlation between evenness and diversity indices with soil properties, there is a positive correlation between the amount of soil clay and silt and negative correlation between soil OC, K, N, and sand with richness indices. The results of PCA analysis showed that the amount of K, P, OC, saturated water content, pH, altitude, and tree canopy cover are the most important environmental factor in the study area. Despite the absence of specific patterns in richness, and diversity indices along the altitude gradient, the findings show that tree canopy cover affects evenness and diversity indices, and the soil properties affect richness indices.
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