首页|Impact of forest stand development on long-term changes in the herb layer of semi-natural Carpathian beech forests
Impact of forest stand development on long-term changes in the herb layer of semi-natural Carpathian beech forests
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NSTL
Elsevier
? 2022The distinction of changes in herb layer communities related to the dynamics of the forest stand and / or the regimes of forest management from that managed by random or non-random, global environmental disturbance, would allow for more precise recognition, and counteracting the effects of contemporary threats. In this work, we integrated databases of long-term vegetation records from tree research periods and archival forest inventory datasets to examine the changes in forest herb layer communities over time intervals of up to five decades across the major mountain forest habitat in the Polish Eastern Carpathians (managed semi-natural fertile mountain beech forests). Over the past half – century, these forests have been gradually aging. In this work, based on long-term datasets, we found clear differences in herb layer composition and diversity between beech forest developmental stages. Herb layer characteristics were compared between three forest stages, classified as broadly defined Growing (G), Optimum (O), and Terminal (T) stage. Stands in the Growing stage had the largest stocking, as well as the smallest volume, tree DBH and high, and age. Stands in the Optimum stage had the largest volume and tree height. Stands in the Terminal stage had the smallest stocking and the largest tree DBH and age. Although in the Optimum stage, the lowest beta diversity was recorded, this stage provided the best habitat conditions for species important from a beech forest's conservation status point of view (e.g. diagnostic for beech forests, ancient forest species). Moreover, in this stage the highest alpha diversity was recorded. We found that in gradually aging Carpathian forests the changes in the structure of stands play a significant role in controlling herb vegetation composition and diversity. The cause was the dominance of single developmental stages during temporally synchronous forest development in the studied region of the Carpathians over the past half – century (i.e. G in the 1970s, O in the 2000s and T in 2010s). Our results have important implications for forest management and biodiversity conservation. In particular, forest managers should ensure the creation and maintenance of forest landscapes with a more even share of development stages (mosaic of different age-classes). Additionally, this age differentiation of stands should be planned not on a local scale but on a regional scale.
NSTL
Elsevier
