Forest Border Community Structure

Abstract

In this volume, there has so far been little discussion of the boreal forest as a plant community. It is true also of recent symposia and compendia mentioned in the Preface that most boreal forest research has been concentrated upon matters related to silvicultural characteristics of trees, the nature of the soils, nutrient cycles, and to the productivity of the forest, and less to the aggregation of species making up the understory, relationships to one another, and to the climate and other environmental factors. It was my intent in previous reports to draw attention to the boreal forest ecosystem as a distinctive plant community, varying in composition from place to place in response to environmental variables, particularly the regional climatic regimes. The ecosystem was viewed in the light of statistical community composition and dynamics, and it is the purpose of the discussion undertaken now to add something more to what has been written (Larsen, see refs.) on boreal community structure, particularly at the northern edge of the taiga, the northern forest border, the northern edge of the forest-tundra, or the lichen woodland—whatever may be the terminology preferred.