%0 Research Notes
%T Patterns of diversity in boreal mire margin vegetation
%A Korpela, Leila
%A Reinikainen, Antti
%D 1996
%J Suo - Mires and peat
%V 47
%N 1
%U http://suo.fi/article/9752
%X Mire margin communities are mosaics of forest and mire vegetation which consist of several ecological guilds (forest, spruce mire, marsh and spring vegetation). Diversity patterns of undrained forested mire margin communities were examined by using numerical classification (TWINSPAN) and ordination (DCA) techniques. The understorey vegetation was tested for both alfa (species richness, Shannon H' and Pielou J diversity indices) and beta diversity (DCA dimensions). The structural diversity of the overstorey was examined by producing structural (TWINSPAN) clusters based on the percentage cover of tree and shrub species in six canopy layers and in one shrub layer. The study was based on the systematic sample plot data collected from permanent plots of the 8th Finnish National Forest Inventory (1985-86). The material consisted of 92 plots of undrained forested mire margin sites in south and central Finland (60o-66o). The alfa diversities between the seven site clusters differed more clearly than those between the site types. A considerable variety of species of different ecological guilds were found that represented the ecological sources of high beta diversity. Structural diversity varied between clusters formed from overstorey data.