TY - JOUR

T1 - Dalby Söderskog revisited

T2 - long-term vegetation changes in a south Swedish deciduous forest

AU - von Oheimb, Goddert

AU - Brunet, Joerg

N1 - Funding Information: We would like to thank Bill Loneragan and one anonymous reviewer for their helpful comments on an earlier version of the manuscript. This study was financed by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences and the University of Lüneburg.

PY - 2007/3/1

Y1 - 2007/3/1

N2 - In this study, we report on 67 years of secondary succession in the temperate deciduous forest Dalby Söderskog, southern Sweden. In 2002 vegetation analyses were conducted in 74 systematically distributed plots and the results compared with similar investigations during the years 1935, 1969 and 1976. Additionally, a floristic survey of the forest was made and compared with inventories of the years 1925, 1935 and 1970. From 1970 to 2002, overall species richness of the forest continued to decline, but at a lower rate than before. In 2002, for the first time, shade-tolerant forest species constituted the largest group. In the upper tree layer Fraxinus excelsior became the most important species, at the expense of Quercus robur and Ulmus glabra. In the herb layer, no changes in total or mean species richness were exhibited at plot scale between 1976 and 2002. In contrast to the lack of quantitative changes in species richness, we observed major changes in species composition at the plot level. In particular, the former dominant species Mercurialis perennis had declined markedly. After release from a historical regime of livestock grazing and irregular cuttings, the predicted steady-state community dominated by Ulmus and Mercurialis only prevailed for a few decades before unexpected external events, in this particular case Dutch elm disease and invasion by the slug Arion lusitanicus, initiated a successional change. We conclude that unexpected diseases or pests or rare climatic extremes can play a decisive role in forest dynamics and strongly interact with more gradual autogenic changes of forest structure and composition.

AB - In this study, we report on 67 years of secondary succession in the temperate deciduous forest Dalby Söderskog, southern Sweden. In 2002 vegetation analyses were conducted in 74 systematically distributed plots and the results compared with similar investigations during the years 1935, 1969 and 1976. Additionally, a floristic survey of the forest was made and compared with inventories of the years 1925, 1935 and 1970. From 1970 to 2002, overall species richness of the forest continued to decline, but at a lower rate than before. In 2002, for the first time, shade-tolerant forest species constituted the largest group. In the upper tree layer Fraxinus excelsior became the most important species, at the expense of Quercus robur and Ulmus glabra. In the herb layer, no changes in total or mean species richness were exhibited at plot scale between 1976 and 2002. In contrast to the lack of quantitative changes in species richness, we observed major changes in species composition at the plot level. In particular, the former dominant species Mercurialis perennis had declined markedly. After release from a historical regime of livestock grazing and irregular cuttings, the predicted steady-state community dominated by Ulmus and Mercurialis only prevailed for a few decades before unexpected external events, in this particular case Dutch elm disease and invasion by the slug Arion lusitanicus, initiated a successional change. We conclude that unexpected diseases or pests or rare climatic extremes can play a decisive role in forest dynamics and strongly interact with more gradual autogenic changes of forest structure and composition.

KW - Biology

KW - Dutch elm disease

KW - Forest dynamics

KW - Mercurialis perennis

KW - Quercus robur

KW - Secondary succession

KW - Slug herbivory

KW - Ulmus glabra

KW - Ecosystems Research

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33847291742&partnerID=8YFLogxK

UR - https://www.mendeley.com/catalogue/f546566f-abaf-3596-806f-1f91916d99ba/

U2 - 10.1016/j.actao.2006.12.001

DO - 10.1016/j.actao.2006.12.001

M3 - Journal articles

VL - 31

SP - 229

EP - 242

JO - Acta Oecologica

JF - Acta Oecologica

SN - 1146-609X

IS - 2

ER -