Species composition and community structure of vines along the transaction of habitats at the Nanhsi forest dynamics plot in Yushan National Park of the Central Taiwan

Background/Question/Methods

A 9-ha plot of the broad-leaved forest at an elevation of about 2000 m in the upstream basin of the Nantzuhsienhsi River in mid-southern Taiwan was set up for long-term monitoring of forest dynamics. Where covering habitats of the uphill, downhill and creek areas, it also provided a transaction zone from the deciduous to broad-leaved forests. How the species composition and community structure of vines varied along the changes of habitats was achieved by using standard procedures of vines’ inventory protocol to investigate the inventory of vines, the analysis of vines’ distribution, abundance and species composition, and the IVI (=important value index =(basal area% + density%)/2) for the TWINSPAN (=two-way indicator species analysis) of community structure with Pcord4 program.

Results/Conclusions

The vine inventory recorded a total of 41 species of 31 genera in 22 families in 3- ha transaction plot. Only 4647 stems with diameter over 0.8 cm were used for survey and resulted in the IVI was 11.96% of Celastrus kusanoi Hayata (Celastraceae), 5.07% of Embelia lenticellata Hayata (Myrsinaceae), 3.84% of Polygonum multiflorum Thunb. var. hypoleucum (Ohwi) Liu, Ying & Lai (Polygonaceae) and 3.84% of Piper kadsura (Choisy) Ohwi (Piperaceae) for the common vine species and families in deciduous forest plot and C. kusanoi and P. multiflorum were indicating species. The species composition changed to 11.87%E. lenticellata- 10.78%P. kadsura- 6.78%Ficus sarmentosa var. nipponica- 4.82%Celastrus punctatus vine community in broad-leaved forest. TWINSPAN resulted in five patterns of vine communities; i. e. C. kusanoi- Rosa sambucina suspending vine community around the forest gap at western upper slope, Hydrangea integrifolia suspending vine community associated with the Alnus forest near the northern slope, scatteredly distributed C. punctatus suspending vine community, P. kadsura attaching vine community at steep slope or beneath the tree crown and E. lenticellata suspending vine community with extensive distribution. The extensive distribution as P. kadsura and E. lenticellata along varied habitats showed a trend but no boundary as the indicating species among vine species or distribution in plots. Results suggest that the climbing mechanism, forest gaps, light gradient and topography may affect the vine community in complex process.