A Comparison of Soil, Climate, and Biota of Conifer and Aspen Communities in the Central Rocky Mountains

Abstract

That the dominant vegetation in a community influences and even controls to a considerable degree the nature of the soil, the microclimate, and the non-dominant plants and animals is well known (McDougall, 1949), but the exact extent to which different kinds of dominant plants modify the various physical and biological environmental factors within most biotic cornmunities has received little study. The present investigation of aspen communities and coniferous communities in the Central Rocky Mountain Region (fig. 1) was conducted in an attempt to determine the various differences in soil, microclimate, and biota occurring under the influence of coniferous and broadleafed deciduous trees. It is well established in the literature (Oosting, 1948) that the groves of aspen (Populus tremuloides var. aurea (Tides.) Daniels) found in the montane coniferous forests of the Rocky Mountain Region represent subclimax communities of the secondary sere. This ecological position in the sere can readily be established by finding remains of coniferous wood, either