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Abstract
We used spatial predictions from gradient models to examine the influence of environment, disturbance, and ownership on patterns of forest vegetation biodiversity across a large forested region, the Oregon Coast Range (USA). Gradients in tree species composition were strongly associated with physical environment, especially climate, and insensitive to disturbance. In contrast, forest structure was strongly correlated with disturbance measures and only weakly with environmental gradients, and several attributes of forest structure differed among ownerships. Differences among ownerships were blurred, however, by the presence of legacy trees that originated prior to current forest management regimes. The multiownership perspective revealed biodiversity concerns and benefits not readily visible in single-ownership analyses, and all ownerships contributed to regional biodiversity values. The detailed tree-, stand-, and species-level data in the vegetation maps revealed regional trends that would be masked in traditional coarse-filter assessment. Our findings suggest that regional conservation planning include all ownerships and land allocations, as well as fine-scale elements of vegetation composition and structure.
Keywords
Conservation biology,
community structure,
environmental gradients,
forest composition,
forest structure,
plant associations,
vegetation types,
coarse woody debris-terrestrial,
disturbance history,
landscape analysis,
ordination,
Landsat TM,
regional assessments
Citation
Ohmann, J.L.; Gregory, M.J.; Spies, T.A. 2007. Influence of environment, disturbance, and ownership on forest vegetation of coastal Oregon. Ecological Applications. 17(1): 18-33
