Get 20M+ Full-Text Papers For Less Than $1.50/day. Start a 14-Day Trial for You or Your Team.

Learn More →

Geomorphic principles of terrain organization and vegetation gradients

Geomorphic principles of terrain organization and vegetation gradients Abstract. Moisture and nutrient gradients consistently explain much of the variation in plant species composition and abundance, but these gradients are not spatially explicit and only reveal species responses to resource levels. This study links these abstract gradients to quantitative, spatial models of hill‐slope assembly. A gradient analysis in the mixed‐wood boreal forest demonstrates that patterns of upland vegetation distribution are correlated to soil moisture and nutrient gradients. Variation in species abundance with time since the last fire is removed from the gradient analysis in order to avoid confounding the physical environment gradients. The physical‐environment gradients are related to qualitative positions on the hill slope i.e. crest, mid‐slope, bottom‐slope. However, hill‐slope shape can be quantitatively described and compared by fitting allometric equations to the slope profiles. Using these equations, we show that hill‐slope profiles on similar surficial materials have similar parameters, despite coming from widely separated locations. We then quantitatively link the moisture and nutrient gradients to the equations. Moisture and nutrients significantly increase as distance down‐slope from the ridgeline increases. Corresponding vegetation composition changes too. These relationships characterize the general pattern of vegetation change down most hill slopes in the area. Since hill slopes are a universal feature of all landscapes, these principles may characterize landscape scale spatial patterns of vegetation in many environments. http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Journal of Vegetation Science Wiley

Geomorphic principles of terrain organization and vegetation gradients

Download PDF
14 pages

Loading next page...
 
/lp/wiley/geomorphic-principles-of-terrain-organization-and-vegetation-gradients-kbmMqMpa0d

References (48)

Publisher
Wiley
Copyright
2000 IAVS ‐ the International Association of Vegetation Science
ISSN
1100-9233
eISSN
1654-1103
DOI
10.2307/3236776
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Abstract. Moisture and nutrient gradients consistently explain much of the variation in plant species composition and abundance, but these gradients are not spatially explicit and only reveal species responses to resource levels. This study links these abstract gradients to quantitative, spatial models of hill‐slope assembly. A gradient analysis in the mixed‐wood boreal forest demonstrates that patterns of upland vegetation distribution are correlated to soil moisture and nutrient gradients. Variation in species abundance with time since the last fire is removed from the gradient analysis in order to avoid confounding the physical environment gradients. The physical‐environment gradients are related to qualitative positions on the hill slope i.e. crest, mid‐slope, bottom‐slope. However, hill‐slope shape can be quantitatively described and compared by fitting allometric equations to the slope profiles. Using these equations, we show that hill‐slope profiles on similar surficial materials have similar parameters, despite coming from widely separated locations. We then quantitatively link the moisture and nutrient gradients to the equations. Moisture and nutrients significantly increase as distance down‐slope from the ridgeline increases. Corresponding vegetation composition changes too. These relationships characterize the general pattern of vegetation change down most hill slopes in the area. Since hill slopes are a universal feature of all landscapes, these principles may characterize landscape scale spatial patterns of vegetation in many environments.

Journal

Journal of Vegetation Science – Wiley

Published: Feb 1, 2000

There are no references for this article.