Analysis of vegetation response to naturally occurring gaps in old-growth forests of Quercus ilex L. in Corsica

Green oak (Quercus ilex L.) is the most common forest species growing under Mediterranean climate. Because of important past anthropic perturbations, green oak old-growth forests are very unfrequent and constitute, for that reason, a most interesting domain where to analyze the natural evolution of green oak stands. Such forests exist in Corsica and this study deals with vegetation successions as they occur in naturally occuring gaps. Because of the taxonomic poorness (32 species), two statistical tools (canonical correspondence analysis and random permutations) were used to take into account vegetation spatial structure according to types (herbaceous, shrubby, or arborescent). These statistical analyses show that plant succession does not really exist in gaps of green oak old-growth forests but rather a structural organization of common species found in the maquis. Results support the hypothesis about the internal dynamics of these forests going through a maquis phase.