Habitat associations of wood species in the Gutianshan subtropical broad-leaved evergreen forest

Many studies of species coexistence explained by niche theory and the unified neutral theory of biodiversity have focused on tropical rain forest.However,there were only a few of similar studies on subtropical broad-leaved evergreen forest.In this paper,the relationship between microtopography(mean elevation,convexity,slope) and the distribution of 106 wood species with individuals>18 stems and DBH≥10 mm in the 24 hm² permanent plot in the subtropical broad-leaved evergreen forest at Gutianshan,Zhejiang Province were analyzed,and 84(79%) out of 106 species showed significant associations with microtopographical variation were analyzed by Chi-squared test(P<0.05).Using canonical correspondence analysis(CCA) and permutation test to analyze the species distributions constrained by habitat factors,most of species showed correlation with different habitat types.It was indicated that the species in Gutianshan plot had strong differentiation of microtopographic niche.Therefore,the community was niche structured and species coexistence in this case was concluded.