Classification of the high-mountain coniferous forests in Taiwan

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Authors

LIN Cheng-Tao LI Ching-Feng ZELENÝ David CHYTRÝ Milan NAKAMURA Yukito CHEN Ming-Yih CHEN Tze-Ying HSIA Yue-Joe HSIEH Chang-Fu LIU Ho-Yih WANG Jenn-Che YANG Sheng-Zehn YEH Ching-Long CHIOU Chyi-Rong

Year of publication 2012
Type Article in Periodical
Magazine / Source Folia Geobotanica
MU Faculty or unit

Faculty of Science

Citation
Web http://www.springerlink.com/content/d604pw8227gp6452/
Doi http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s12224-012-9128-y
Field Ecology
Keywords Braun-Blanquet approach; Phytosociology; Plant communities; Syntaxonomy; Vaccinio-Piceetea; Vegetation classification; Woodland
Description Vegetation of boreal coniferous forests has been extensively studied in many areas of northern Eurasia and North America, but similar forests in the high mountains of subtropical and tropical eastern Asia have been poorly documented so far. This paper, focusing on such forests, is the first phytosociological study at a national scale in Taiwan. The relevés from the National Vegetation Diversity Inventory and Mapping Project database were used to define vegetation types of the high-mountain coniferous forests and to characterize their distribution in Taiwan. Environmental variables such as aspect, elevation, soil rockiness and slope were related to species composition. Cluster analysis was used to classify relevés and establish groups that were interpreted as nine associations belonging to two alliances. The alliance Juniperion squamatae represents woodlands and forests scattered in the subalpine belt, in which Juniperus squamata dominates the canopy and subalpine meadow species occur in the understory. The Abieti kawakamii-Tsugion formosanae alliance includes forests dominated by Abies kawakamii and Tsuga chinensis var. formosana with shade-tolerant herb species in the upper montane belt. In addition to regional vegetation description, an identification key for the studied forests was developed based on the classification tree technique.
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