Environmental correlates of vegetation distribution in tropical Juri forest, Bangladesh

In this paper, we provide a primary assessment on the relationships between vegetation and environmental factors for the ecologically unexplored tropical Juri forest, Bangladesh, using numerical methods. Vegetation and environmental data (13 variables) were collected from 120 sample plots. We classified and verified vegetation communities using Two- Way Cluster Analysis (TWCA) and Multi-response Permutation Procedures (MRPP), respectively. We also estimated species alpha diversity and compositional similarity between the communities. In total, 146 vascular plant species belonging to 66 families of 122 genera were surveyed. Finally, Canonical Correspondence Analysis (CCA) with associated Monte Carlo permutation tests was performed to explore the patterns of variation in vegetation distribution explained by the environmental variables. We identified eight community types that significantly varied in species composition. Soil acidity, phosphorus, calcium, and organic matter content were identified as the most influential soil variables responsible for species compositional variation.