Spatial pattern of woody species in Chartagh forest reserve, Ardal

Document Type : Research article

Author

Assistant Professor, Department of Forestry, Faculty of Natural Resources and Marine Sciences, Tarbiat Modares University, Noor, Iran

Abstract

Spatial distribution pattern of species plays an important role for understanding forest ecosystem dynamics due to its effect on ecological factors such as establishment, growth, competition, regeneration, mortality, resource allocation, gap dynamic and understory development. In this study, the spatial pattern of twelve tree and shrub species (including Oak, Pistachio, Hawthorn, Juniper, Mahleb, Montpellier Maple, Ash, Almond, Honeysuckle, Cotoneaster, Wild Cherry and Daphne) was explored in Chahartagh forest reserve in Chaharmahal-o-Bakhtiari Province in Iran. Attributes recorded in field included species type and geographic position for individual trees with DBH > 5 cm as well as for shrubs with crown width > 0.5 m within a 52 ha rectangular area. We used Ripley's K function for determination of species-specific spatial distribution pattern as well as the spatial pattern of total woody species across the study. Despite of existing differences in the intensity of aggregation, the results showed that all woody species are distributed in aggregated pattern. The Oak and Montpellier Maple showed the most aggregated distribution amongst the tree species. Furthermore, the trees were shown to follow a aggregated distribution than the shrubs. Compared with other similar studies, the distribution pattern of woody species seems to be aggregated form everywhere across the Zagros region of Iran. The results of this study are concluded to provide useful guidelines for conducting reforestation and afforestation projects for similar test sites. In addition, the study suggests a more cautious choice of sampling strategy for such areas, since the use of common methods such distance sampling can presumably lead to a biased estimation of forest parameters across similar regions.
 

Keywords

References

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