PARENT SESSION
Poster Session 2: Forest Ecology
Monday, August 8, 5:00 PM - 6:30 PM, Exhibit Hall 220 A-E, Level 2, Palais des congrès de Montréal

Spatial patterns of tree species in a broad-leaved Korean pine mixed forest in Changbai Mountain, China.

Hao, Zhanqing¹, Ye, Ji¹, He, Fangliang², ¹ Institute of Applied Ecology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shenyang, 110016, China, Sehnyang² Department of Renewable Resources, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB Canada T6G 2H1, Edmonton

ABSTRACT- Spatial patterns of tree species were studied in a 25-hm² broad-leaved Korean pine mixed forest in Changbai Mountain, northeast China. The plot was censused and stem-mapped in September 2004, following the field protocol of the 50 hm² plot locating on the Barro Colorado Island (BCI) in Panama. There are 51 tree species with diameter at breast height >=1 cm and 59144 individuals. In abundance the forest is clearly dominated by three species that are composed of 60% of all individuals with the rarest 37 species taking account of 5% of the individuals. The density of the most abundant species, Corylus mandshurica, is 637 trees/hm², and its average nearest-neighbor distances is 1.3 m. Out of the 47 species occurring with abundance > 4, 89.4% have an aggregated distribution, 10.6 % are randomly distributed, and no species is regularly distributed. The spatial patterns of rare versus common species are compared. Rare species are generally less aggregated than common ones. The study suggests that the spatial structure of the temperate forest and the mechanisms underlying the structure are very different from tropical forests, e.g., the BCI forest. We call for detailed comparison studies among large-scale stem-mapping plots in different geographical zones for understanding global biodiversity patterns. The establishment of the 25-hm² plot in Changbai Mountain is a first step of such effort.

Key words: Spatial patterns of tree species, broad-leaved Korean pine mixed forest, Changbai Mountain, species diversity