XYLEM STRUCTURE AND ECOLOGICAL DOMINANCE IN A FOREST COMMUNITY

The relative dominance of deciduous trees having diffuse, semiring, or ring porous xylem is considered in relation to percent slope, site, vertical stratification within site, and to disturbance. Xylem type relative dominance was calculated on the basis of basal area by a procedure that is generally employed for the determination of species relative dominance. The study area was located within the central hardwoods region of the Eastern Deciduous Forest. On a moisture gradient, the sites were a hydric floodplain, a mesic river terrace and cove, and a xeric hillside spur. There was an increase from lowland to upland sites in absolute number of species having diffuse porous and those having ring porous xylem; however, the data showed no significant difference among the four sites or between the cove's northwest and southwest aspects in the percentages of species having diffuse porous xylem and those having ring porous xylem. In contrast to species number data, relative dominance data showed that diffuse porous species were dominant on the floodplain, on the northwest aspect of the cove, and in lower strata beneath the dominant ring porous upper canopy on the spur and southwest aspect of the cove. Ring porous species were dominant in the upper canopy only on the spur and on the southwest aspect of the cove. Semiring porous species had a high dominance level on the disturbed terrace site, a much lower level of dominance on the less disturbed floodplain, and very low dominance on the relatively undisturbed cove and spur sites. The results demonstrated that sets of closely and distantly related tree species having the same xylem anatomy share some common ecological characteristics, suggesting that xylem structure is a critical character in the adaptation of trees to variations in the environment over small geographical areas.