Patterns of Plant Diversity in Overbrowsed Primary and Mature Secondary Hemlock-Northern Hardwood Forest Stands

Rooney, Thomas P.; Dress, William J.

doi:10.2307/2996597

Cited by 24 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…A decrease in species richness following clearcutting has been reported by Duffy and Meier (1992) and Meier et al (1995) for forest floor herbs in cove hardwood forests in the southern Appalachians, USA. Rooney and Dress (1997) also reported a similar finding with respect to the forest floor vegetation of hemlock-northern hardwood forests in Pennsylvania, USA. In contrast to the findings of these studies, many reports have noted that clearcutting increases species richness, and the increase in species richness results primarily from the occurrence of early-successional, shade-intolerant species or ruderal species (e.g., Beese and Bryant, 1999;Kirby, 1990;Ozaki and Ohsawa, 1995;Jenkins and Parker, 1998;Aiba et al, 2001).…”

Section: Effects Of Traditional Management On Alpha and Beta Diversitiessupporting

confidence: 66%

“…Alpha diversity indicates species diversity or richness within a community, whereas beta diversity indicates the degree of difference in species compositions among different communities. Previous studies have found that the alpha diversity is lower in secondary forests than in primary or old-growth forests (Duffy and Meier, 1992;Meier et al, 1995;Guariguata et al, 1997;Rooney and Dress, 1997). Some studies have also reported differences in beta diversity along a topographical gradient between old-growth and secondary forests (Robertson et al, 1978;Muller, 1982;Christensen and Peet, 1984;Ozaki and Ohsawa, 1995).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

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Comparison of species composition and richness between primary and secondary lucidophyllous forests in two altitudinal zones of Tsushima Island, Japan

Ishida

Hashizume

Takeda

2005

Forest Ecology and Management

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Section: Effects Of Traditional Management On Alpha and Beta Diversitiessupporting

confidence: 66%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Comparison of species composition and richness between primary and secondary lucidophyllous forests in two altitudinal zones of Tsushima Island, Japan

Ishida

Hashizume

Takeda

2005

Forest Ecology and Management

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“…Foresters often prescribe fire or scarification to improve seedbed conditions (Maissurow 1941, Pubanz 1996. The widespread replacement of natural disturbance regimes by short-rotation timber management may have eliminated rotting logs, pit and mound topography, or some other more cryptic but essential habitat feature needed for successful hemlock establishment (Alverson et al 1994, Rooney 1995, Rooney and Dress 1997, Rooney and Waller 1998.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regional Variation in Recruitment of Hemlock Seedlings and Saplings in the Upper Great Lakes, USA

Rooney

McCormick

Solheim

et al. 2000

Ecological Applications

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Abstract. Mature eastern hemlock-northern hardwood forest cover decreased drastically in the upper Midwest following European settlement and has yet to rebound substantially. Previous studies show that stands retaining substantial hemlock canopy coverage have low hemlock seedling and sapling densities. Results from various geographically restricted studies suggest several possible mechanisms that could cause low seedling or sapling density. We examined the relative importance of these proposed mechanisms in the Southern Superior Uplands Section of the Laurentian Forest Province. We surveyed 294-m 2 plots in 100 hemlock stands in northern Wisconsin and western upper Michigan to assess how these proposed mechanisms affect the number of hemlock seedlings and saplings in four sequential size classes. Seedling and sapling abundance increases with greater light availability and differs significantly among geographically distinct ecological units (ecological subsections). In contrast, the abundance of medium and large saplings (30-99 and 100-300 cm tall) appears unrelated to light and geographic factors but declines as deer browsing increases, diminishing recruitment of larger saplings. The abundance of seedlings and saplings in each size class also depends strongly on the number of seedlings or saplings in the next smaller size class at the same site, reflecting demographic inertia. Path analysis integrates and separates these effects, explaining 24% of the regional variation in seedling abundance, 63% of small sapling abundance, and ϳ80% of medium and large sapling abundance. Light and ecological subsection directly affect the number of seedlings and small saplings, whereas deer browsing directly affects the number of medium saplings. Demographic inertia remains important for all larger size classes. These results imply that restoring hemlock populations requires both appropriate microsites for seedling establishment and sanctuary from excessive browse for successful recruitment.

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“…The majority of the observed changes in the herbaceous layer show an explicit trend, as a consequence of direct or indirect anthropogenic effects. A marked successional shift towards species-poorer herbaceous layer communities was detected as a result of abandonment of former management practices (Baeten et al 2010, Hédl et al 2010, lack of disturbance (Brewer 1980) and herbivory (Rooney and Dress 1997). A loss of rarer native plants (Hédl 2004) and the homogenization of the herbaceous layer was detected, and was attributed to high browsing pressure by deer herbivory (Wiegmann and Waller 2006), acidification (Durak 2010) and light deficit (Davison andForman 1982, Heinrichs et al 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Resurvey studies investigated the understorey to detect potential long-term changes and to assess the role of different environmental variables as driving forces in deciduous forests. The observed changes were attributed to different background causes, such as combined effect of temperature increase and canopy opening (De Frenne et al 2013, abandonment of former forest management practices (Hédl et al 2010, Heinrichs et al 2014, lack of disturbance (Brewer 1980, Taverna et al 2005, deer herbivory (Rooney and Dress 1997, Taverna et al 2005, Wiegmann and Waller 2006, increased soil acidity (Falkengren-Grerup and Tyler 1991, Durak 2010, Šebesta et al 2011, nitrogen deposition (Verheyen et al 2012) and often the intermingled influence of several factors (Heinrichs et al 2014, Vanhellemont et al 2014, Bernhardt-Römermann et al 2015, Naaf and Kolk 2016. The majority of the observed changes in the herbaceous layer show an explicit trend, as a consequence of direct or indirect anthropogenic effects.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Temporal changes in vegetation of a virgin beech woodland remnant: stand-scale stability with intensive fine-scale dynamics governed by stand dynamic events

Standovár¹,

Horváth²,

Aszalós³

2017

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The aim of this resurvey study is to check if herbaceous vegetation on the forest floor exhibits overall stability at the stand-scale in spite of intensive dynamics at the scale of individual plots and stand dynamic events (driven by natural fine scale canopy gap dynamics). In 1996, we sampled a 1.5 ha patch using 0.25 m² plots placed along a 5 m × 5 m grid in the best remnant of central European montane beech woods in Hungary. All species in the herbaceous layer and their cover estimates were recorded. Five patches representing different stand developmental situations (SDS) were selected for resurvey. In 2013, 306 plots were resurveyed by using blocks of four 0.25 m² plots to test the effects of imperfect relocation.We found very intensive fine-scale dynamics in the herbaceous layer with high species turnover and sharp changes in ground layer cover at the local-scale (< 1 m 2 ). A decrease in species richness and herbaceous layer cover, as well as high species turnover, characterized the closing gaps. Colonization events and increasing species richness and herbaceous layer cover prevailed in the two newly created gaps. A pronounced decrease in the total cover, but low species turnover and survival of the majority of the closed forest specialists was detected by the resurvey at the stand-scale. The test aiming at assessing the effect of relocation showed a higher time effect than the effect of imprecise relocation. RESEARCH ARTICLE Launched to accelerate biodiversity conservation A peer-reviewed open-access journalTibor Standovár et al. / Nature Conservation 17: 35-56 (2017) 36The very intensive fine-scale dynamics of the studied beech forest are profoundly determined by natural stand dynamics. Extinction and colonisation episodes even out at the stand-scale, implying an overall compositional stability of the herbaceous vegetation at the given spatial and temporal scale. We argue that fine-scale gap dynamics, driven by natural processes or applied as a management method, can warrant the survival of many closed forest specialist species in the long-run.Nomenclature: Flora Europaea (Tutin et al. 2010) for vascular plants; Soó 1968Soó -1980 for syntaxa

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Patterns of Plant Diversity in Overbrowsed Primary and Mature Secondary Hemlock-Northern Hardwood Forest Stands

Cited by 24 publications

References 37 publications

Comparison of species composition and richness between primary and secondary lucidophyllous forests in two altitudinal zones of Tsushima Island, Japan

Comparison of species composition and richness between primary and secondary lucidophyllous forests in two altitudinal zones of Tsushima Island, Japan

Regional Variation in Recruitment of Hemlock Seedlings and Saplings in the Upper Great Lakes, USA

Temporal changes in vegetation of a virgin beech woodland remnant: stand-scale stability with intensive fine-scale dynamics governed by stand dynamic events

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