Environmental gradients across four rainforest-open forest boundaries in northeastern Queensland

Abstract This paper examines gradients and correlations among nine environmental factors across four contrasting rainforest-open forest boundaries at Skull Pocket in northeastern Queensland. With few exceptions, the environmental factors formed significant gradients across all four boundaries. Gradients were most pronounced for canopy openness, depth of leaf litter, soil pH, soil temperature and understorey solar radiation, and least pronounced or non-existent for total nitrogen and organic carbon. Boundary site location was shown to have some influence on the degree of change in environmental factors across the rainforest-open forest boundary, with depth of leaf litter, organic carbon, soil temperatures in March and June, and understorey solar radiation in June being significantly different among the four boundary sites. The number of significant correlations among the nine environmental factors was also affected by boundary site location.