THE RELATIONSHIP OF SOIL AND PHYSIOGRAPHIC ATTRIBUTES TO AN ECOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION SYSTEM
The ability of a phytosociologically based, ecological classification system to explain the variability of soil and physiographic properties is tested. Sixty stands from a research forest in southwestern British Columbia are defined in terms of three categorical levels of the ecosystem taxonomy of V. J. Krajina. The stands belong to 14 associations, eight alliances, and three orders. Using these taxa, nested and one-way analyses of variance are performed on 40 soil and physiographic properties of the included ecosystems. Because the hierarchy tested is unbalanced and the samples are of unequal size, the estimates and significance of the variance components for both analyses are determined by approximation techniques. The results from the one-way analyses show that for mineral soil pH and for most physiographic factors between one-half and two-thirds of the variability can be explained by the classification of the ecosystems into associations. For the other properties and for the alliances and orders, this proportion is typically much lower. The study suggests that for general pedologic and environmental characterization there may be little justification for using the alliance and order categories. Key words: Soil-plant relationships, taxonomy, biogeocoenose, integrated classification