| Abstract: | The understorey vegetation of nine localities with different fire histories from open eucalypt forest near Melbourne, Victoria, was analysed by principal component analysis. Floristically, localities were quite similar; however, structural differences caused mainly by different burning regimes of recent years were more evident. An analysis of presence-absence data displayed a marked discontinuity that was explainable in terms of the timing and intensity of a recent fire. Using unstandardized height data the pattern was related to inter- and intra-locality differences in time since the last fires. An analysis of standardized height data demonstrated a connection between understorey structure and fire frequency. Despite apparent differences in the scatter diagrams obtained a statistical comparison of the analytical results indicated that, in many respects, the ordinations were similar |
