Abstract
Quantitative vegetational data of canopy and woody subcanopy species (two life-forms adapted to occupy different strata at maturity) were compared with data collected in two temperate forest ecosystems to determine whether they exhibit a similar pattern of distribution. Tidal freshwater swamps (21 stands) and southern Appalachian forests (19 stands) were examined from data obtained using identical sampling methods. Separate structural analyses of the canopy, sapling, and subcanopy species were compared using the indirect ordination algorithm Detrended Correspondence Analysis. Environmental measurements collected in each stand were assessed for their relationship to the distribution of stands depicted by the ordination diagrams.
Canopy trees and saplings showed a similar pattern of distribution, suggesting that the resource requirements of saplings and canopy-statured adults are similar. In contrast, the subcanopy species (species genetically adapted to an understory existence, i.e., shrubs and small understory trees) of neither ecosystem showed any discernable distributional relationship to the canopy or sapling layers (in tidal swamps, there was no clear way to even segregate subcanopy stands into communities). Environmental gradients associated with the subcanopy ordinations differed from those of the canopy and sapling strata in both forest systems, suggesting that subcanopy species partition different resources than do canopy species.
If a lack of similarity in distribution patterns between canopy and subcanopy species is universal in temperate forests, then the common practice of combining sapling and subcanopy species in structural analyses may hinder our understanding of subcanopy structural patterns in forests.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Beers T. W., Dress P. E. & Wensel L. C. 1966. Aspect transformation in site productivity research. Journal of Forestry 64: 691–692.
Bratton S. P. 1975. A comparison of the beta diversity functions of the overstory and herbaceous understory of a deciduous forest. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 102: 55–60.
Braun E. L. 1950. Deciduous forests of eastern North America. Hafner Press: New York, 596 pp.
Canham C. D. & Marks P. L. 1985. The response of woody plants to disturbance: patterns of establishment and growth. In: S. T. A. Pickett and P. S. White, eds. The ecology of natural disturbance and patch dynamics. Academic Press: New York, NY, USA, 472 pp.
Daubenmire R. ed. 1968. Plant communities: a textbook of plant synecology. New York: Harper and Row. 300 pp.
Ehrenfeld J. G. & Gulick M. 1981. Structure and dynamics of hardwood swamps in the New Jersey Pine Barrens: contrasting patterns in trees and shrubs. American Journal of Botany 68: 471–481.
Forcier L. K. 1975. Reproductive strategies and the covariance of climax tree species. Science 189: 808–810.
Good N. F. & Good R. E. 1972. Population dynamics of tree seedlings and saplings in a mature eastern hardwood forest. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 99: 172–178.
Grime J. P. 1977. Evidence for the existence of three primary strategies in plants and it relevance to ecological and evolutionary theory. American Naturalist 111: 1169–1194.
Grubb P. J. 1977. The maintenance of species richness in plant communities: the importance of the regeneration niche. Biological Reviews 52: 107–145.
Harcombe P. A. & Marks P. L. 1977. Understory structure of a mesic forest in southeast Texas. Ecology 58: 1144–1151.
Harvill A. M.Jr., Bradley T. R., Stevens C. E., Wieboldt T. F., Ware D. M. E. & Ogle D. W. 1986. Atlas of the Virginia flora. Farmville, Virginia: Virginia Botanical Association, 135 pp.
Hill M. O. 1979. DECORANA: a FORTRAN program for detrended correspondence analysis and reciprical averaging. Section of Ecology and Systematics, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 52 pp.
Hill M. O. & Gauch H. G. 1980. Detrended Correspondence Analysis, an improved ordination technique. Vegetatio 42: 145–153.
Huenneke L. F. & Sharitz R. R. 1986. Microsite abundance and distribution of woody seedlings in a South Carolina cypress-tupelo swamp. American Midland Naturalist 115: 328–335.
Rheinhardt, R. D. 1981. The vegetation of the Balsam Mountains of southwest Virginia: a phytosociological study. M.S. Thesis, College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, Virginia. 146 pp.
Rheinhardt, R. D. 1991. Vegetation ecology of tidal freshwater swamps of the lower Chesapeake Bay, USA. Ph.D. Dissertation, College of William and Mary, Virginia Institute of Marine Science, Gloucester Point, Virginia, 188 pp.
Rheinhardt R. D. 1992. A multivariant analysis of vegetation patterns in tidal freshwater swamps of lower Chesapeake Bay, USA. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 119: 193–208.
Rheinhardt R. D. & Ware S. A. 1984. The vegetation of the Balsam Mountains of southwest Virginia: a phytosociological study. Bulletin of the Botanical Club 111: 287–300.
Smith T. & Huston M. 1989. A theory of the spacial and temporal dynamics of plant communities. Vegetatio: 83: 49–69.
Streng D. R., Glitzenstein J. S. & Harcombe P. A. 1989. Woody seedling dynamics in an east Texas floodplain forest. Ecological Monographs 59: 177–204.
Terbough J. 1985. The vertical component of plant species diversity in temperate and tropical forests. American Naturalist 126: 760–776.
Ter Braak C. J. F. 1988. CANOCO: a FORTRAN program for canonical community ordination by partial detrended canonical correspondence analysis, principle components analysis, and redundancy analysis (version 3.1). Agricultural Mathematics Group, Wageningen, The Netherlands, 95 pp.
Tilman D., ed. 1988. Plant strategies and the dynamics and structure of plant communites. Princeton University Press: Princeton, 361 pp.
Titus J. H. 1990. Microtopography and woody plant regeneration in a hardwood floodplain swamp in Florida. Bulletin of the Torrey Botanical Club 117: 429–437.
Whittaker R. H. 1956. Vegetation of the Greast Smoky Mountains. Ecological Monographs 26: 1–80.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Rheinhardt, R.D. Disparate distribution patterns between canopy and subcanopy life-forms in two temperate North American forests. Vegetatio 103, 67–77 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00033418
Accepted:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00033418