A new classification of the forests of the Muniellos Biological Reserve in Northwest Spain

By means of a cluster analysis, we classified 135 relevés of the forests of the Muniellos Reserve into 8 groups and the species in these relevés into 28 groups. The concentration analysis applied allows to study the relationship between relevé group and species group. The forest types in Muniellos Reserve are: mixed riverside forest, mixed forest with hazel, semideciduous pyrenean oak forest, xerophilous and mesophilous sessile oak forest, beech forest and open and thick birch forest. These forest types are characterized floristically, structurally and ecologically. The pattern of distribution of forest types in the Muniellos Reserve is also discussed; in the siliceous areas of the Orocantabric province this pattern is widespread, but differes to some extent from the accepted pattern.