Variation in the herb species response and the humus quality across a 200‐year chronosequence of beech and oak plantations in Belgium

Abstract

Godefroid, S., Massant, W. and Koedam, N. 2005. Variation in the herb species response and the humus quality across a 200-year chronosequence of beech and oak plantations in Belgium. Á/ Ecography 28: 223 Á/235.The present study aimed at exploring the long-term impact of pure and mixed beech Fagus sylvatica and oak Quercus robur stands on the forest floor by documenting changes in the herb species' behaviour and in humus index across a 200-yr chronosequence of forest stands. The research was conducted in central Belgium, in a 4383 ha beech-dominated forest. Analyses were carried out in stands which are replicated, of the same age, managed in the same way, and growing on the same soil type with the same land-use history. The results of this study indicate that stand aging is an important determinant of herb species occurrence in the studied area. Most of the species studied show a different response to stand age in pure compared to mixed stands. Our results clearly show a decrease of the humus quality with age in pure stands (beech as well as oak). On the other hand, we found that mixing beech and oak maintained or improved the humus status along the chronosequence according to the proportion of each tree. So the addition of some oak to the beech made it possible to keep a constant quality of the humus. We found that, even if the understory tree species is very scarce, it may be sufficient to maintain the humus status on the long term. In the present study, a cover of 1% oak in a beech stand was sufficient to show an effect of the minor species on these soils. This pattern contrasts with the widespread idea that substantial effects of the minor tree species on soils might not develop if the ratio of major/minor species is low.

Potential use of pine plantations to restore native forests in a highly fragmented river basin

“…Coniferous plantations should become slightly more similar in plant species to the natural stands with increasing age, as has been reported for Canadian plantations (Roberts, 2002) and Belgium forests (Godefroid et al, 2005). There were no correlations between the age of plots and species richness for natural forests, possibly due to the low number of plots and the small age range of the natural forests.…”

Predicting forest site productivity in temperate lowland from forest floor, soil and litterfall characteristics using boosted regression trees

“…Based on species abundance in the herb and shrub layers, mean indicator values for moisture 168 (mF), light (mL), acidity (mR) and nitrogen (mN) were calculated (Hill et al 1999), as well as 169 the combined mR x mN index of soil trophicity (Muys and Granval 1997 (Ellenberg et al 1992) for the 171 Atlantic region and are assumed to reflect more accurately the species' ecological behaviour 172 in our study area (Godefroid et al 2005). 173…”

Changes in plant species diversity over 5 years in Larix kaempferi plantations and abandoned coppice forests in central Japan

“…Many studies have focused on the relationship between species diversity and plantation stand age, which is closely related to stand management (e.g., timing of thinning, rotation age), and have applied a chronosequence approach (e.g., Howard and Lee, 2003;Nagaike et al, 2003b;Godefroid et al, 2005). However, the direct measurement of changes in species diversity over time in a permanent plot is more accurate than the chronosequence approach (Pickett, 1989).…”