Investigation of Hawthorn and Maple's Stands Structures of Zagros Forest Using Nearest Neighbors Indices

Considering the importance of forest structure and interaction among different tree species, this study conducted aimed to determine and compare spatial pattern, heterogeneity, and dimensions of Hawthorn and Maple trees with other neighbor trees. For determining Hawthorn and Maple trees structure, 30 individual of each trees were identified and studied. Based on the results, uniform angle index for Hawthorn and Maple trees were 0/744, and 0/733 respectively, which would propose a clumped pattern for these two species. Computed mingling index values for Hawthorn and Maple were 0/877 and 0/955 respectively that show a high tree species mixture. Also, the average of crown canopy differentiation and crown canopy dimension were 0/582 and 0/322 respectively, for Hawthorn tee and it was 0/42 and 0/656 respectively for Maple tree. Based on mean values, these results show that Hawthorn had high level of differentiation but was inferior in comparing to its neighbors; whereas Maple has intermediate differentiation and is dominant to the other neighbors. The average distance to nearest neighbors for Hawthorn and Maple were calculated 7/374 and 6/278 respectively. The results of an absolute discrepancy algorithm (AD) showed a high differentiation of Hawthorn and Maple mixture in comparing to the other indices. It is concluded that maple is superior to hawthorn in dimension and because of low frequency of these two species, they hold high values of mingling indices.