Roadside grassland vegetation in an oak forest, Oak Creek Wildlife Area, the Cascade Range, USA

doi:10.3832/ifor0527-003

Roadside grassland vegetation in an oak forest, Oak Creek Wildlife Area, the Cascade Range, USA

iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, Volume 3, Issue 2, Pages 52-55 (2010)
doi: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor0527-003
Published: Mar 02, 2010 - Copyright © 2010 SISEF

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Roadside grassland vegetation in a Quercus garryana forest, that is one of the dominant species in west Cascade, on the Oak Creek Wildlife Area, Naches, Washington, USA, was investigated to determine the patterns of human impact on the vegetation along mountain trails. Vegetation and environmental data were collected on forty-eight 50 cm × 50 cm plots. Plot cover ranged from 3 to 100% (1 to 8 species) and most of the cover was from exotic species. In order to explore vegetation patterns the following environmental variables were measured: slope, tree canopy area, bare area, distance from road, and litter thickness. The vegetation data and environmental variables were examined using Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA). CCA showed that canopy area played important roles in vegetation development. Litter thickness and soil firmness also seemed to be related to the vegetation pattern. Distance from the road affected plant cover but was not related to canopy area, and litter thickness, suggesting that the distance was not a prime determinant on the vegetation pattern a priori. Species richness was the highest in mid-vegetation cover plots, i.e., 40-60%. An exotic plant, Sisymbrium officinale, increased in frequency with a decrease in vegetation cover, and two exotic plant species, Achillea millefolium and Anthoxanthum odoratum, occurred with S. officinale. S. officinale may be a good indicator for evaluating environmental deterioration. The preservation of canopy cover is of prime importance for nature conservation in forested recreational areas.

Keywords

Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA), Oak forest, Roadside, Litter thickness, Species indicator

Authors’ address

(1)

Graduate School of Environmental Earth Science, Hokkaido University, Sapporo 060-0810 (Japan)

(2)

Biology Department at SUNY Fredonia, NY 14063 (USA)

Corresponding author

S Tsuyuzaki
tsuyu@ees.hokudai.ac.jp

Citation

Tsuyuzaki S, Titus JH (2010). Roadside grassland vegetation in an oak forest, Oak Creek Wildlife Area, the Cascade Range, USA. iForest 3: 52-55. - doi: 10.3832/ifor0527-003

Academic Editor

Marco Borghetti

Paper history

Received: Nov 05, 2009
Accepted: Dec 29, 2009

First online: Mar 02, 2010
Publication Date: Mar 02, 2010
Publication Time: 2.10 months

Open Access

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

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