Assessing Species Composition in Second Growth and Old Growth Rich Coves of the Southern Appalachians

Abstract

I compared composition of plant communities in second growth (60 - 80 years old) and old growth rich coves for evidence of reduced abundance or presence of plant species in the second growth communities. I evaluated the utility of both univariate and multivariate analytical methods. Data were collected from twenty-six 1000 m2 plots located across three distinct mountain ranges and geologies in the southern Appalachians of North Carolina. Comparison of nested and non-nested sampling protocols found no statistical differences in the parameters of species-area curves. Furthermore, I found no difference between the species-area curves of old growth and second growth; but, multiple comparison procedures identified 13 of 79 species with either lower abundance or incidence of occurrence in second growth rich coves. Nonmetric Multidimensional Scaling (NMS) revealed no age class differences, but detected significant block differences associated with the three mountain ranges. Elevation and base cation concentrations were strongly correlated with the first and third NMS axes, respectively, but there was no strong correlate with the second NMS axis. In comparing univariate and multivariate analysis methods, I found that (1) aggregate univariate methods (like species diversity and species-area relationships) facilitate comparison of unrelated communities (2) multivariate methods support comparison of related communities and (3) univariate, multiple comparison procedures readily detect specific species changes within a community .