Effect of shelterwood silvicultural method on plant species diversity in beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky.) forests in Shafaroud, Guilan province

• Main Authors: Hasan Poorbabaei, Alireza Ranjavar
• Format: Article
• Language: fas
• Published: Research Institute of Forests and Rangelands of Iran 2008-03-01
• Series: تحقیقات جنگل و صنوبر ایران
• Subjects: shelterwood method; plant species diversity; beech forests; Guilan
• Online Access: http://ijfpr.areeo.ac.ir/article_108115_011aeaae0a1b2df7cd1c7b8b5c6a609b.pdf

In order to study the effects of logging on plant species diversity, two compartments of logged and unlogged of beech forests in the Shafaroud region in western Guilan were selected. Inventory procedure was systematic- random method. Sampling plot area was 50´50m to survey woody species and for herbaceous species, 8´8m nested plot sampling was obtained. Regeneration (seedlings) was studied at 10´10m subplots. Data analysis was carried out by Shannon – Wiener and Pielou’s evenness indices and Jaccard’s similarity index. Results showed that species richness for trees, shrub and herbaceous were obtained 7, 8 and 28 in the logged forest, whereas they were 6, 4 and 18 in the unlogged forest, respectively. The diversity value in the unlogged forest was found higher than in logged forest in tree layer, while in the seedling, small sapling, large sapling, shrub and herbaceous layers were higher in the logged than unlogged forest. In addition, the evenness values in all vegetation layers were found higher in the logged than unlogged forest. Jaccard’s similarity index for tree, shrub and herbaceous layers were 62.50, 50.00 and 60.71 percent in the studied forests, respectively.