Drivers of above-ground understorey biomass and nutrient stocks in temperate deciduous forests

Research output: Journal contributionsJournal articlesResearchpeer-review

Authors

  • Dries Landuyt
  • Sybryn L. Maes
  • Leen Depauw
  • Evy Ampoorter
  • Haben Blondeel
  • Michael P. Perring
  • Guntis Brūmelis
  • Jörg Brunet
  • Guillaume Decocq
  • Jan den Ouden
  • Werner Härdtle
  • Radim Hédl
  • Thilo Heinken
  • Steffi Heinrichs
  • Bogdan Jaroszewicz
  • Keith J. Kirby
  • Martin Kopecký
  • František Máliš
  • Monika Wulf
  • Kris Verheyen

The understorey in temperate forests can play an important functional role, depending on its biomass and functional characteristics. While it is known that local soil and stand characteristics largely determine the biomass of the understorey, less is known about the role of global change. Global change can directly affect understorey biomass, but also indirectly by modifying the overstorey, local resource availability and growing conditions at the forest floor. In this observational study across Europe, we aim at disentangling the impact of global-change drivers on understorey biomass and nutrient stocks, from the impact of overstorey characteristics and local site conditions. Using piecewise structural equation modelling, we determine the main drivers of understorey biomass and nutrient stocks in these forests and examine potential direct and indirect effects of global-change drivers. Tree cover, tree litter quality and differences in former land use were the main drivers of understorey biomass and nutrient stocks, via their influence on understorey light and nitrogen availability and soil acidity. Other global-change drivers, including climate and nitrogen deposition, had similar indirect effects, but these were either weak or only affecting nutrient concentrations, not stocks. Synthesis. We found that direct effects of global-change drivers on understorey biomass and nutrient stocks were absent. The indirect effects of global change, through influencing resource availability and growing conditions at the forest floor, were found to be less important than the effects of overstorey cover and composition. These results suggest that understorey biomass and nutrient stocks might respond less to global change in the presence of a dense overstorey, highlighting the buffering role of the overstorey in temperate forests.

Original languageEnglish
JournalJournal of Ecology
Volume108
Issue number3
Pages (from-to)982-997
Number of pages16
ISSN0022-0477
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 01.05.2020

    Research areas

  • ecosystem functioning, ground layer, herb layer, PhytoCalc, piecewise SEM, productivity
  • Ecosystems Research

DOI

Recently viewed

Publications

  1. The Impact of Power Distance Orientation on Recipients' Reactions to Participatory Versus Programmatic Change Communication
  2. Effect of Temperature and Strain Rate on Formability of Titanium Alloy KS1.2ASN
  3. Addendum to L. Lauwers and L. Van Liedekerke, “Ultraproducts and aggregation"
  4. Humane Orientation as a New Cultural Dimension of the GLOBE Project:
  5. Processability of Mg-Gd Powder via Friction Extrusion
  6. DAS STATISCHE SFB 3-MIKROSIMULATIONSMODELL - KONZEPTION UND REALISIERUNG MIT EINEM RELATIONALEN DATENBANKSYSTEM.
  7. Minimization of answer distortion in personality questionnaires
  8. Drivers of intraspecific trait variation of grass and forb species in German meadows and pastures
  9. A short review on diffusion coefficients in magnesium alloys and related applications
  10. Less is sometimes more
  11. Deformation by design
  12. Linguistically Responsive Teaching in Multilingual Classrooms
  13. Risk preferences under heterogeneous environmental risk
  14. Prospective material flow analysis of the end-of-life decommissioning
  15. Responsible Artificial Intelligence Systems
  16. Soil chemical legacies trigger species-specific and context-dependent root responses in later arriving plants
  17. The Relationship of Environmental and Economic Performance at the Firm Level
  18. AN INVESTIGATION OF LENGTH ESTIMATION SKILLS OF HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WITH MILD INTELLECTUAL DISABILITY
  19. Investigation on Flexible Coils Geometries for Inductive Power Transmission Systems
  20. Almost-invariant sets and invariant manifolds
  21. Plant diversity effects on aboveground and belowground N pools in temperate grassland ecosystems
  22. Influence of grid-connected solar inverters and mains monitoring systems on the spectral grid impedance
  23. Residual stresses of the as-cast Mg-xCa alloys with hot sprues by neutron diffraction
  24. Microstructural evolution of Mg–14Gd–0.4Zr alloy during compressive creep
  25. The Assessment of Substitution Through Event Studies-An Application to Supply-Side Substitution in Berlin's Rental Market*
  26. Tundra Trait Team
  27. Local perceptions as a guide for the sustainable management of natural resources
  28. The social-cognitive basis of infants’ reference to absent entities
  29. Predicting Therapy Success and Costs for Personalized Treatment Recommendations Using Baseline Characteristics
  30. Not Only the Miserable Receive Help
  31. Cost Minimization in a Firm's Power Station
  32. The perceiver’s social role and a risk’s causal structure as determinants of environmental risk evaluation
  33. Pennycress-corn double-cropping increases ground beetle diversity
  34. Involving Corporate Functions
  35. Selection harvest in temperate deciduous forests: impact on herb layer richness and composition
  36. An IAD framework analysis of minigrid institutions for sustainable rural electrification in East Africa
  37. Opportunities and Drawbacks of Mobile Flood Protection Systems
  38. Spielt es nur eine Rolle "was" gepromptet wird oder auch "wann" gepromptet wird.
  39. Armed to Kill
  40. Working group on dry grasslands in the nordic and baltic region - Outline of the project and first results for the class Festuco-Brometea