Af. Lebrocque et Rt. Buckney, MULTIVARIATE RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN FLORISTIC COMPOSITION AND STAND STRUCTURE IN VEGETATION OF KU-RING-GAI CHASE NATIONAL-PARK, NEW-SOUTH-WALES, Australian Journal of Botany, 45(6), 1997, pp. 1033-1044
The relationships between stand structure and floristic composition we
re examined from data collected from 100 quadrats on two soil types: H
awkesbury sandstone and Narrabeen group soils, occurring within Ku-rin
g-gai Chase National Park, New South Wales. Floristic composition was
determined using the frequency of species occurring within nine concen
tric sub-quadrats of total area 500 m(2). Stand structure was determin
ed by a multivariate classification scheme utilising the foliage proje
ctive cover of eight strata within each quadrat. The patterns in flori
stic composition and stand structure were examined through multivariat
e analyses. Procrustes analysis of non-metric multidimensional scaling
ordinations of both the stand structure and composition data showed f
loristic composition gradients to be well recovered by the structure d
ata. Similar gradients were evident in both vegetation attributes, bet
ween and within the two soil types, with the rank order of community t
ypes across the ordinations being the same. However, some important di
fferences were evident between the ordinations of floristic compositio
n and stand structure between and within soil types. A number of flori
stically dissimilar communities exhibited very similar multivariate st
ructural characteristics. In particular, two floristically distinct co
mmunities on different soil types were indistinguishable in terms of t
heir structural characteristics. The multivariate analyses suggest a p
ossible convergence of some compositionally distinct communities towar
ds a common structural formation.