TY - JOUR ID - 1045 TI - Vegetation-Environmental Relationships and Ecological Species Groups of the Ilam Oak Forest Landscape, Iran JO - Caspian Journal of Environmental Sciences JA - CJES LA - en SN - 1735-3033 AU - S., Arekhi AU - Heydari, M. AU - Pourbabei, H. AD - Dept. of Range and Forest, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Ilam, Ilam, Iran. AD - Dept. of Forestry, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Guilan, Someh Sara, P.O. Box 1144, Iran. AD - Dept. of Forestry, Faculty of Natural Resources, University of Guilan, Someh Sara, P.O. Box 1144, Iran Corresponding Author's E-mail: Saleh148@yahoo.com Y1 - 2010 PY - 2010 VL - 8 IS - 2 SP - 115 EP - 125 KW - Ecological species groups KW - Environmental factors KW - Ilam Province KW - Multivariate analysis KW - PC KW - ORD KW - Site classification DO - N2 - The study was carried out in the Ilam Oak forest that is located in the west part of Iran. The objective of this research was to determine the plant ecological groups and site classification in this region. Data were collected from 117 sample plots using the systematic-random sampling method. The size of sampling plots was 20 m?20 m for the tree and shrub species and 1.5 m ?1.5 m for herbaceous species. Whittaker?s nested plot method was used in order to record the herbaceous species. Soil samples were collected and analyzed to study soil properties. Multivariate analysis methods were used to classify and determine the relationship between species composition and environmental factors and to recognize ecological species groups. PC-ORD and SPSS software were used for data analyzing. Five ecological groups were specified in the study area. Cerasus microcarpa was the indicator species in the first group, which showed high correlation with carbon and nitrogen. Quercus brantii showed the strongest correlation with CaCO3. The third group was Acer monspessulanum. 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