Analysis for the relationship of environmental factors and vegetation structure at natural streamside valley and riparian forest in South Korea

We classified the streamside plant community by phyto-sociological method and analyzed the relationship between environment factors and vegetation structure by using the classification and ordination method. We found that twenty one plant communities were classified according to dominant species at the natural streamside valley forest with surveying the 65 quadrats (10 m × 10 m). From the survey results, the hardwood plant communities were classified as streamside valley forest and the softwood plant communities as riparian forest according to the degree of flooding. The valley forest had a distribution of 17 plant communities which was 65% (42 quadrats) of 65 quadrats: Maackia amurensis community, Betula davurica community, Quercus variabilis community, Pinus densiflora community, Q. serrata community, Prunus sargentii community, and Meliosma oldhamii community etc. The riparian forest had a distribution of four plant communities which was 35% (23 quadrats) of 65 quadrats: Salix koreensis community, S. rorida community, S. purpurea var. japonica community, and S. glandulosa community, etc. From the two-way indicator species analysis (TWINSPAN) analysis, we found indicator species Oplismenus undulatifolius and Lindera obtusiloba for the streamside valley forest and Humulus japonicus, Phragmites japonica, and S. koreensis for the riparian forest. From the results of the canonical correspondence analysis (CCA), coordinates, altitude, and stream structure showed low correlation to the distribution of the plant community. Therefore, it seemed that valley forest and riparian forest were distinguished by the stream gradient and waterway width which determined by the stream water level.