The Development of Climax Index by Analysis of Eco-morphological Characters for Major Deciduous Tree Species

This study was conducted to estimate climax index by eco-morphology for major 36 tree and sub-tree species in natural deciduous forests so as to interpret seral position of each species in the forest community. Fourteen eco-morphological characters which were considered to be associated with successional gradient in the forest were selected for the study. Four levels per character for each species were given on a standardized scale of increasing climax, and the index was computed by the proportion of the sum of total scores, expressed by percent values. With calculated mean value of 54.8 for all indices, Carpinus cordata had the highest index value of 90.5, and Populus davidiana recorded the lowest of 13.2. The most climax group, greater than 70 of the index, contained only 8 species, intermediate group, between 41 to 70 of the index, had 23 species, and the most pioneer group, less than 40 of the index comprised 5 species. The result has noticed that the large number of species would take advantage of most diverse resource and niche in the intermediate stage of the sere in the forest. By cluster analysis all 36 species were subjected to be classified into several species groups which had common similar eco-morphological characteristics. The indices were additionally plotted on the two dimensional graph to recognize the positions related to the light absorption factor and reproduction factor. The climax index of tree and sub-tree species developed by this study could be applied to understand the present status of successional stage on the basis of species composition by the method of summing up the indices. And comparison of forest successional stage among various forest communities could be done by summing up the climax indices of composed species in each community. However, this kind of applied methodology should be limited to the forest of similar species composition and site condition.