Variation In Old-Growth Coast Redwood (Sequoia sempervirens) Reference Sites In Mendocino County, California

Abstract

Abstract Restoration and management of old-growth conditions in coast redwood (Sequoia sempervirens [D. Don] Endl.) forests are traditionally based on an idealized set of characteristics that occur in productive stands. We compared three old-growth sites to quantify variability among remaining reference stands of the central coast redwood range in Mendocino County, California. Two of the sites are protected from coastal influence, have rich alluvial soils, and relatively high visitor usage. The third site is in close proximity to the coast with variable soil conditions and little visitor access. We randomly sampled twenty, 20-meter circular diameter plots in each site to evaluate basal area, tree density, species richness, canopy cover, shrub cover, and herbaceous species cover. We conducted multivariate analyses including nonmetric multidimensional scaling (NMDS), perMANOVA, and indicator species analysis (ISA) to examine the structural clustering and compositional metrics among the sites. Results indica...