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Ordination and classification in the upland Rugege forest (Rwanda, Central Africa)

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Summary

Quantitative data on habitat and vegetation from 42 releves of the Rugege forest have been submitted to different ordination and classification methods.

The habitat factors which have an important effect upon vegetation are: hydromorphy, abundance of tree layer and depth of soil.

The different ordination (principal components analysis and reciprocal averaging) and numerical classification methods applied to the same set of data lead to consistent results. The numerical classification seems better than the Braun-Blanquet's method.

Four groupings have been defined.

The future developments of ecological studies in the Rugege forest are discussed in relation to the forest conservation.

Résumé

Des données quantitatives sur le milieu et la végétatiòn de 42 relevés de la forêt de Rugege ont été soumises à différentes méthodes d'ordination et de classification.

Les facteurs du milieu qui ont une action importante sur la végétation sont: l'hydromorphie, l'abondance de la strate ligneuse et la profondeur du sol.

Les différentes méthodes d'ordination (analyse des composantes principales et analyse factorielle des correspondances) et de classification numerique appliquées au même ensemble de données conduisent à des résultats compatibles. La classification numérique semble supérieure à la méthode de Braun-Blanquet.

Quatre groupements végétaux ont été définis.

Les développements futurs d'études écologiques dans la forêt de Rugege sont discutés en relation avec la protection de la nature.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Rue des Sorbiers, 33, 5101, Erpent, Belgium

    G. Bouxin

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  1. G. Bouxin
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Additional information

Plant nomenclature follows: Flore d'Afrique Centrale (Zaïre, Rwanda-Burundi). Flora of Tropical East Africa, Flore du Rwanda (in preparation), Flora of West Tropical Africa, Flora Zambesiaca and A.E.T.F.A.T. Bulletin.

All data presented in this work were collected during my stay in the National Institute of Scientific Research of Rwanda, 1971 – 1972. Part of the computations (numerical analysis and principal components analysis) was carried out at the Nijmegen University's IBM 370/155; I am happy to thank Dr. E. van der Maarel and Dr. J.G.M. Janssen for their welcome and assistance. The reciprocal averaging ordinations and the principal components analysis on the basis of correlation between relevés were performed on the Louvain-La-Neuve University's IBM 370/158; I am very grateful to Professeur Berthet for this important assistance.

This paper corresponds to part of a thesis presented at the Liège University on 7th November 1973.

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Bouxin, G. Ordination and classification in the upland Rugege forest (Rwanda, Central Africa). Plant Ecol 32, 97–115 (1976). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02111904

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