Correspondences between plants and soil/environmental factors in beech forests of Central Apennines: from homogeneity to complexity

Data have been collected in beech forests of central Apennines through 94 phytosociological relevès and 37 soil profiles. The main edaphic factors have been analyzed. Environmental factors [light (L), temperature (T), continentality (K), soil moisture (F), reaction (R), nitrogen (N), hemeroby (H)] have been expressed by Ellenberg bioindication model and hemeroby index to estimate anthropogenic disturbance. Significant correlations have been found by Pearson correlation test: the distribution of beech forest typical species, such as Cephalantheradamasonium, Aquilegia vulgaris were positively correlated with carbon/nitrogen (C/N) ratio. Five factors (T and L indicator values, hemeroby index, CaCO3, C/N ratio) explained almost the whole variability of data set in the canonical correspondence analysis. The relationships found between soil/environmental factors and species/communities allow to detect significant differences within an homogeneous habitat providing management indications at fine-scale.