Using classification assignment rules to assess land-use change impacts on forest biodiversity at local-to-national scales

Forest Ecosystems

Table 1 The proportion (and number) of forest plots from three river gorges assigned to different vegetation alliances

Alliance (Code, Name)	Area (ha) Nationally	Mokihinui lower gorge (n = 45)	Mokihinui upper gorge (n = 42)	Karamea lower gorge (n = 43)
A:BBlPF3 Weinmannia racemosa – Cyathea smithii – Prumnopitys ferruginea / Blechnum discolor forest	371,000	56% (25)	7% (3)	44% (19)
A:BlPF1 Weinmannia racemosa – Prumnopitys ferruginea – Dacrydium cupressinum / Blechnum discolor forest	794,000	9% (4)	5% (2)	5% (2)
A:BlPF2 Melicytus ramiflorus – Cyathea smithii – Dicksonia squarrosa – Carpodetus serratus (Beilschmiedia tawa^a) forest	393,000	2% (1)	0	7% (3)
A:BlPF4 Cyathea dealbata – Melicytus ramiflorus – Freycinetia baueriana – Ripogonum scandens forest	605,000	2% (1)	0	0
A:BBlF3 Lophozonia menziesii – Weinmannia racemosa – Fuscospora fusca / Blechnum discolor forest	711,000	0	45% (19)	14% (6)
A:BBlPF2 Pseudowintera colorata – Griselinia littoralis – Fuscospora fusca (Lophozonia menziesii) / Microlaena avenacea forest and successional shrubland	454,000	0	14% (6)	0
A:BF6 Fuscospora truncata – Weinmannia racemosa (Lophozonia menziesii) / Leucopogon fasciculatus forest	68,054	0	5% (2)	2% (1)
A:BlPF5 Pseudowintera colorata – Fuchsia excorticata – Griselinia littoralis / Polystichum vestitum forest	75,615	0	2% (1)	0
A:BlPF3 Beilschmiedia tawa^a – Weinmannia racemosa – Melicytus ramiflorus / Ripogonum scandens forest	522,000	0	0	7% (3)
Outliers		31% (14)	21% (9)	19% (8)

Vegetation alliances are as defined by Wiser et al. (2011) and Wiser and De Cáceres (2013). The value for the gorge where the alliance was most frequent is indicated in bold. Alliances are ordered by descending frequency in the Mokihinui lower gorge, Mokihinui upper gorge, and Karamea lower gorge, respectively. Floristic and environmental details of the alliances can be found in the above citations and at http://www.landcareresearch.co.nz/publications/factsheets/woody-types. Alliance names follow the convention of the International Vegetation Classification (Grossman et al. 1998). Code letters indicate broad structural forest types:
BF beech forest, BBlF beach-broadleaved forest, BBlPF beech-broadleaved-podocarp, BlPF broadleaved-podocarp forest
^aThe study area is south of the distributional limit of Beilschmiedia tawa. These plots were assigned to these alliances because they contain most other distinguishing species in common