Comparison of plant species diversity with different plant communities in deciduous forests

Abstract

Species diversity is one of the most important indices used for evaluating the sustainability of forest communities. This study aims to characterize the forest communities and to identify and compare the plant species diversity in the study area. For this purpose, 152 relevés were sampled by a randomized-systematic method, using the Braun-Blanquet scale. Classification of the vegetation was conducted by the twinspan algorithm. Four communities, including Querco-Carpinetum betulii, Carpineto-Fagetum Oriental, Rusco-Fagetum Oriental and Fagetum Oriental were recognized. Species richness, Shannon, and Simpson indices were applied to quantify diversity of the different communities. Turkey test was used to investigate the differences in the species richness, diversity and evenness indices among the different communities. The results illustrate that Querco-Carpinetum betulii and Carpineto-Fagetum Oriental communities are significantly more diverse than Rusco-Fagetum Oriental and Fagetum Oriental communities. The spatial structure of the releves becomes more 'homogenous' and the dominance structure changes: the proportion of beech-forest species is gradually increasing. At the same time, the number of species per unit area decreases constantly, reaching eventually the value comparable to that recorded for hornbeam forest. Generally, species diversity is inversely correlated with the dominance of shade tolerant climax species.

Interactions between repeated fire, nutrients, and insect herbivores affect the recovery of diversity in the southern Amazon

“…The Shannon-Wiener index is the most commonly used index in ecological studies, and it describes both abundance and richness and is sensitive to rare species. Simpson's index describes dominance and is less sensitive to rare species (Rad et al 2009). Values for the Shannon-Wiener index were normally distributed, and the other variables were log-transformed for normality.…”

Biodiversity in urban ecosystems: Plants and macromycetes as indicators for conservation planning in the city of Coimbra (Portugal)

“…2). When analysed by growth-forms, the Olive-stands showed the lowest and highest Shannon diversity index for trees and herbaceous plants, respectively ( Rad, Manthey, & Mataji, 2009), and that the ground flora in Olivestands is dominated by herbaceous plants (Allen, Randall, Amable, & Devereux, 2006). In contrast, the Eucalyptus-stands showed the lowest and highest Shannon diversity index for herbaceous species and trees, respectively ( Table 1).…”

Türkmendağı orman vejetasyonu ve bitki çeşitliliği ile bazı yetişme ortamı faktörleri arasındaki ilişkiler (Eskişehir-Kütahya, Türkiye)

“…Before calculating species diversity values of the plant groups and the sampling plots, the codes of the Braun-Blanquet scale were converted to values from 0 to 1 (r: 0.01; +: 0.02; 1: 0.04; 2: 0.15; 3: 0.375; 4: 0.625; 5: 0.875) (Fontaine et al, 2007). For each plant group, Shannon H (Wittaker, 1972;Rad et al, 2009Rad et al, , Özkan, 2016 and Simpson 1-D diversity indices (Simpson, 1949;Gülsoy and Özkan, 2008;Özkan, 2016) were used to determine alpha (α) diversity in Past 3 software (Hammer et al, 2001).…”

“…Studies on plant species diversity usually associate the parameters of species diversity identified in sampling plots with environmental factors (Gimaret-Carpentier et al, 1998;Gould and Walker, 1999;Brewer et al, 2003;Pausas et al, 2003;Mc-Master, 2005;Özkan, 2006;Heydari and Mahdavi, 2009;Chytrý et al, 2010;Sfenthourakis and Panitsa, 2012). But there are also other studies that explored the relations between plant groups (communities) and species diversity and environmental factors (Gupta et al, 2008;Rad et al, 2009).…”