Effects of forest management intensity on herb layer plant diversity and composition of deciduous forest communities in Northern Germany

Publikation: Beiträge in ZeitschriftenZeitschriftenaufsätzeForschung

Authors

Forest management is assumed to significantly affect herb layer species richness and community composition. Thus, the main objective of this study was to assess the effects of a reduction in forest management intensity on herb layer species assemblages in deciduous forests of Northern Germany. We selected forest stands which had been managed according to different management intensities (i.e., single-tree and group selection harvest) up to the year 1994, and which were subject to a low-impact management approach (i.e., single-tree harvest with minimal thinning interventions and the development of high growing stocks) since then. Unmanaged forest stands were used as a reference for the managed stands. Results from a previous study using vegetation data recorded in 1997 showed that species richness and compositional differences of the herb layer increased significantly with management intensity. The present study is based on a re-survey of these forest stands after 17 years. We therefore hypothesized that – as a result of the less intensive the forest management – the herb layer in both types of managed stands became more similar to that of the unmanaged stands over time. Specifically, we expected the changes in the stands with former group selection harvest to be stronger than those of the stands with former single-tree selection harvest. We found that herb layer species richness and cover decreased considerably over time, and that these changes were most pronounced in stands with the formerly more intensive management (i.e., former group selection harvest). Detailed analyses of species composition and species groups of the herb layer revealed that only a few differences remained in the managed stands when compared to the unmanaged stands. These differences are suggested to be related to previous soil disturbances in synergy with canopy openings. Our results suggest that a minimal intervention single-tree selection harvest system may have a low impact on the typical forest herb layer communities, and that a shift to low-intensity management may lead to a recovery of the plant communities over time even in formerly more intensively managed stands.

Titel in ÜbersetzungEffekte der Waldbewirtschaftungsintensität auf die Diversität und Artenzusammensetzung der Krautschicht von Laubwaldgesellschaften in Norddeutschland
OriginalspracheEnglisch
ZeitschriftTuexenia
Jahrgang38
Seiten (von - bis)79-96
Anzahl der Seiten18
ISSN0722-494X
DOIs
PublikationsstatusErschienen - 01.08.2018

    Fachgebiete

  • Ökosystemforschung - biodiversity change, deciduous forests, forest management intensity, understorey vegetation, vegetation resurvey

DOI

Zuletzt angesehen

Publikationen

  1. Kälteschock und Schmelze
  2. Textproduktion in der Sekundarstufe I
  3. “It’s not what you say, but how you say it”: How the provision of qualitative, quantitative and monetary environmental information influences companies’ internal decision making
  4. Managing the Business Case for Sustainability
  5. Historie
  6. Metaphysik der praktischen Welt
  7. Modifizierte Rückschlagspiele
  8. Gelli Baff – Superabsorber, der wieder flüssig wird
  9. Risikobewusste Planung
  10. Conclusion
  11. Mathematik im Ingenieurwissenschaftsstudium
  12. Entrepreneurial strategies for professional service firms
  13. Strategiegetriebene, adaptive Budgetierung
  14. Widerfahrnisse.
  15. Parents’ Views of Video Games
  16. Adopters build bridges: Changing the institutional logic for more sustainable cities
  17. Systematisch zur (E-) Learning Excellence
  18. Halboffene Weidelandschaft Höltigbaum
  19. Air concentrations and particlegas partitioning of polyfluoroalkyl compounds at a wastewater treatment plant
  20. Enhanced granular medium-based tube and hollow profile press hardening
  21. Fehlgeburt und Stillgeburt
  22. Der Westberliner "underground"
  23. Spiegelbild, sprechender Spiegel, leerer Spiegel
  24. Ludus non tollit abusum
  25. Innovating entrepreneurial pedagogy
  26. Aufsätze im SMS-Stil?
  27. Age and Future
  28. Effect of salinity on filtration rates of mussels Mytilus edulis with special emphasis on dwarfed mussels from the low-saline Central Baltic Sea
  29. Gesundheitsfördernde Hochschulen
  30. Originäre und derivative Unternehmensgründung
  31. PRBs for remediation of PAHs, BTEX and related contaminants
  32. Der Überpapst
  33. Nachhaltigkeitswissenschaften
  34. Organizational Behaviour - Verhalten in Organisationen
  35. Atomrecht im Wandel
  36. Crowdfunding
  37. Promoting decentralized sustainable energy systems in different supply scenarios
  38. Forschungsethik in der Kindheitsforschung - Dilemmata, Standards und Reflexionen für das Forschen über, zu und mit Kindern
  39. Stakeholder expectations on CSR management and current regulatory developments in Europe and Germany
  40. Organizational working time regimes
  41. Democratising platform governance in the sharing economy
  42. Big Drama - Small Spaces
  43. Max Weber and the Modern Problem of Discipline
  44. Mainstream und Gegenwartskunst