Patterns of Forest Species Association in a Broadleaf Forest in Romania

Abstract

Ecological patterns of species distribution can reveal essential information on the spatial and functional relationship between species or species and their environment. Various approaches can be used to assess species associations, and our study aimed to compare three methods at different scales: the co-occurrence indices for binary presence–absence data, principal component analysis (PCA) on species abundance and point process analysis. Our goal was to gain a deeper understanding of the species’ co-occurrence patterns and notice if the three methods capture roughly the same spatial distribution trends. Our observational study of the analysed sapling community displayed several positive relationships between species (e.g., the association between ash and linden). However, many relationships were inconsistent across different scales. Furthermore, attraction between species was more prevalent than repulsion. Overall, there is a positive association trend, with more relationships being significantly positive across all scales. This trend is consistent with other recent studies of tree–species interaction. Nonetheless, the results suggest that the scale significantly influences spatial patterns of associations. Positive associations tend to be more prevalent on larger scales, while negative associations are more commonly found on smaller scales, regardless of the analysis method used. While the PCA results are less consistent, the point process analysis allowed us to detect more refined patterns of species associations based on the distance of their interaction. In addition, the binary presence–absence analysis provided solid results, with a coarser spatial perspective but with significantly less sampling effort.