Structural characteristics of oak communities (Quercus infectoria) in Shineh Galayie Forest, Lorestan province

In order to provide quantitative characteristics of the oak forests structure, a six-hectare area was selected in the Shine Qalaee area of Lorestan province and the structural diversity of tree communities was investigated using the nearest neighbor Method. The Clarke-Evans, mingling, diameter and height differentiation and distance indices were employed to quantify the structure of oak forests. The mean of diameter, tree height and number of shoots per cohorts was 38.8 cm, 2.50 m and 11.33 tree, respectively. Also, the mean of mingling, height differentiation, diameter differentiation was calculated 0.33, 0.21 and 0.12 respectively. Tree to tree interval was 4.07 m and Clark-Evans was 0.9. Results revealed that tree species spatial pattern was clumped associate with low diversity of species and relatively homogeny in tree dimension that distance increase cause to falling down in diameter differentiation and raising up tree vitality. Accordingly, we could conclude that oak trees in natural habitats tend to have low diversity and high inter- species completion. In order to maintain structural diversity of stands we suggest enclosing and restoration operation in studied sites.