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Woody riparian plant distributions in western Oregon, USA: comparing landscape and local scale factors

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Abstract

We studied riparian forests along mountain streams in four large watersheds of western Oregon and far northern California, USA, to better understand the multiscale controls on woody riparian vegetation in a geographically complex region. In each of the four-study watersheds, we sampled woody riparian vegetation in161-ha sampling reaches that straddled the stream channel. Within each hectare, we sampled riparian vegetation and local environmental factors in 40 m2 sampling plots arrayed along topographic transects. We also surveyed natural disturbance gaps in 6 ha in each watershed to explore the effects of fine scale disturbance on species distributions. We compared species composition across our study watersheds and used Nonmetric Multidimensional Scaling (NMS) and chi-squared analyses to compare the relative importance of landscape scale climate variables and local topographic and disturbance variables in explaining species distributions at sampling plot and hectare scales.

We noted substantial turnover in the riparian flora across the region, with greatest numbers of unique species in watersheds at the ends of the regional gradient. In NMS ordinations at both scales, variation in woody riparian species composition showed strongest correlations with climatic variables and Rubus spectabilis cover, but the latter was only an important factor in the two northern watersheds. At the smaller scale, topographic variables were also important. Chi-squared analyses confirmed that more species showed landscape scale habitat preferences (watershed associations) than associations with topographic position (94.7% vs. 42.7% of species tested) or gap versus forest setting (94.7% vs. 24.6% of species tested). The woody riparian flora of western Oregon shows important biogeographic variation; species distributions showed strong associations with climatic variables, which were the primary correlates of compositional change between riparian sites at both scales analyzed. Additional local variation in composition was explained by measures of topography and disturbance.

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Acknowledgements

Earlier versions of this manuscript were greatly improved by comments from Dominique Bachelet, Mary Kentula, Jeff Shatford, Rob Pabst, Richard Waring, and Jim Wigington, of Oregon State University, David Cooper of Colorado State University, and two anonymous reviewers. Support for this research was provided by the Cooperative Forest Ecosystem Research Program at Oregon State University, Corvallis, USA.

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  1. D. A. Sarr

    Present address: Klamath Network-National Park Service, 1250 Siskiyou Blvd, Ashland, OR, 97520-5011, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Forest Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR, 97331, USA

    D. A. Sarr & D. E. Hibbs

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  1. D. A. Sarr
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  2. D. E. Hibbs
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Correspondence to D. A. Sarr.

Appendix

Appendix

Table 6 Species encountered in riparian inventory, species codes, and frequency species was encountered in sampling plots (n = 288) in each watershed (* species recorded in hectare, but not in sampling plots). Table is sorted so that species with highest frequency in the Applegate are at top and in the Alsea at bottom. (a) Trees, (b) Shrubs and ferns
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Table 7 Results of χ2-test of the null hypothesis of homogeneity in species frequency across climatic settings (the four study watersheds) and topographic positions (streamside, midslope and hillslope sampling plots) in the riparian inventory, and gap versus forest settings for the gap inventory
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Sarr, D.A., Hibbs, D.E. Woody riparian plant distributions in western Oregon, USA: comparing landscape and local scale factors. Plant Ecol 190, 291–311 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-006-9208-2

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