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Fine‐grain pattern in Southern Cape plateau forests
Author(s) -
Midgley J.,
Seydack A.,
Reynell D.,
McKelly D.
Publication year - 1990
Publication title -
journal of vegetation science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.1
H-Index - 115
eISSN - 1654-1103
pISSN - 1100-9233
DOI - 10.2307/3235788
Subject(s) - canopy , understory , ecology , shade tolerance , tree canopy , biology
. Regeneration levels, size class distributions and a nearest neighbour technique were used to describe apreliminary dynamics frameworkfortheplateauforests. Taken over a large area, most of the canopy dominants have a negative exponential distribution of stems > 10 cm dbh per size class. In small (0.04 ha) plots, if present as more than one stem, most species are present as both canopy (> 25 cm dbh) and understorey (10–15 cm dbh) individuals. The canopy dominants maintain their rank in the bank of advance regeneration (> 5 cm height < 10 cm dbh). However, relative numbers of all regeneration of most canopy individuals are not strongly correlated with canopy closure or local abundance of conspecific adults. The mean area of nearest neighbour polygons of canopy individuals around saplings of the more common species are small. In conclusion, most species appearto be shade tolerant and locally persistent conferring a fine grain on this forest. We support recent questioning of universality of the gaps/non gaps paradigm.