Species Diversity and Niche Breadth of the Herb Layer Communities in Young Open Natural Pinus densiflora Stands

자연생유령 소나무림내 초본층의 종다양도와 생태적지위량에 대하여

Counts of herb stems were made with each systematic grid sized 10cm by 1300cm within six apparently homogeneous herb layers under the open young Japanese red pine, Pinus densiflora, stands. The stands had often been subjected to strong human interferences such as burning, cutting, grazing, and denuding since human settlement until the conservation scheme practiced in these stands for last decade. In addition, amounts of loss of ignition and field capacity were determined to detect soil heterogeneity among and within the stands. The values of information measure of diversity(H), and Hurlbert's probability of interspecfic encounter(Δ), obtained here do not show any consistent correlation. The amount of interspecific competetion(Δ1), the ratio of interspecific to intraspecific competetion(Δ4), Levin's niche breadth(Sh), and species evenness(V), increase, while the amount of intraspecific competetion decrease, as the soil factors become favorable. One stand examined does not follow the above trends, which is more young and shows strong within site heterogeneity of the soil factors. The stand includes pioneer species which is not detectable without detailed observation. It is argued that in stable or favorable environment more intense interspecific competetion and less intraspecific competetion might occur, but this situation does not necessarily always bring smaller niche breadth. In this connection, the results support Hurlbert's contention that the two components of diversity should be analyzed separately.