Tree structures in an oak-dominated maritime woodland: edge effects

抄録

Oak-dominated assemblages are characteristic of temperate-subtropical coastal ecosystems in southwestern Japan. The woodland under study exists on a narrow sand-spit projecting into the sea, thus receiving a full impact of marine environmental vagaries. This paper deals with the analysis of local-scale variation in community structure, particularly between the edge and the inside of this maritime woodland, with reference to the ecology of a dominant species in the study site, Quercus glauca. Although there was a difference in community structure between the edge and the inside site, the most dominant species (Q. glauca) and its relative abundance were the same in both sites. Q. glauca demonstrated a broad morphological response to the environmental gradient from the edge to the inside of the woodland. This plasticity of the most dominant species may be considered to affect the niche apportionment of other lower rank species in the edge and the inside.