Nordic Journal of Botany 35: 240–250, 2017 doi: 10.1111/njb.01221, ISSN 1756-1051 © 2016 The Authors. Nordic Journal of Botany © 2016 Nordic Society Oikos Subject Editor: Hans Sandén. Editor-in-Chief: Torbjörn Tyler. Accepted 13 September 2016 Environmental factors–ecological species group relationships in the Surash lowland-mountain forests in northern Iran Fatemeh Bazdid Vahdati, Shahryar Saeidi Mehrvarz, Daniel C. Dey and Alireza Naqinezhad F. Bazdid Vahdati and Sh. Saeidi Mehrvarz (
[email protected]), Dept of Biology, Faculty of Science, Univ. of Guilan, Rasht, Iran. – D. C. Dey, USDA Forest Service, Northern Research Station, Columbia, MO, USA. – A. Naqinezhad, Dept of Biology, Faculty of Basic Sciences, Univ. of Mazandaran, Babolsar, Iran. Identification of the primary factors that influence the ecological distribution of species groups is important to managers of lowland-mountain forests in northern Iran. The aim of this study was to identify main ecological species groups, describe the site conditions associated with these species groups and the relationships between environmental factors and the distribution of ecological species groups using multi-variate analysis (Detrended correspondence analysis (DCA) and Canonical correspondence analysis (CCA)). For this purpose, 50 relevés (400 m2 each) were sampled using the Braun- Blanquet method. Vegetation was classified into three ecological species groups using a modified two-way indicator species analysis (TWINSPAN). In each relevé, environmental factors (topographic and soil variables) were measured and analysed using one-way ANOVA and Pearson r statistics. Further, species diversity indices were determined for the identified ecological species groups. Our results show that the environmental factors, e.g.