Abstract: To investigate community structure and the role of dominant species of secondary forest in montane region of eastern Liaoning, we examined interspecific association and correlation among 17 dominant species at different quadrat scales based on 2×2 contingency tables, variance ratio (VR), χ²test, Pearson correlation coefficient and Spearman rank correlation coefficient. The results showed that the overall association was positive among 17 dominant species at different quadrat scales. At 20 m×20 m quadrat scale, the examination of interspecific association or correlation among the 136 species pairs of 17 dominant species showed that 87, 65 and 81 species pairs were positive, and 49, 71 and 55 species pairs were negative, based on χ²test, Pearson correlation coefficient test and Spearman rank correlation coefficient test, respectively. Such examination provides evidence for revealing the population distribution patterns under comprehensive effect of species biological characteristics, interspecific relationship and habitat conditions.

Key words: subalpine meadow, species diversity, correlation analysis., pedigree diversity, &alpha