Sammanfattning

Understorey vegetation plays a key role in Mediterranean forest ecosystem functioning. However, we still lack a thorough understanding of the patterns and drivers of understorey composition and diversity. As a result, understoreys are often ignored during assessments of forest functioning under climate change. Here we studied the effect of silvicultural man-agement, topography, soil fungal community composition and soil physical and chemical properties on understorey com-munity composition and diversity. The plant cover and number of individuals of understorey perennial plants, shrubs and non-dominant trees was recorded on 24 plots (paired: control-thinned) in a Mediterranean pine-dominated mountainous area in Northeast Spain. The study area represented a broad thinning intensity gradient (from 0 to 70 a/o in removed stand basal area) along a 400-m altitudinal range (from 609 m to 1013 m). Our results showed that thinning intensity and topography explained the greatest proportion of the total variance in the understorey species composition, i.e., 18 a/o and 16 a/o, respectively. Interestingly, the effects of the silvicultural treatments were significant only when considering the altitudinal effect, so that, the main impacts of thinning on the understorey community composition occurred at low altitudes (between 609 m and 870 m). Moreover, we found a significant decrease in both richness and abundance of understorey species in both the control and thinned plots with increasing altitude, with thinned plots being signifi-cantly richer in species compared to the control plots. The difference in the understorey community sensitivity to forest thinning along the altitudinal gradient suggests changes in factors that limit plant growth. Low elevation plots were restrained by light availability while high altitudes plots limited by winter freezing temperature.

Nyckelord

Understorey vegetation; Pinus pinaster; Altitude; Forest thinning; Shrub diversity

Publicerad i

Science of the Total Environment
2023, Volym: 858, artikelnummer: 159860
Utgivare: ELSEVIER

SLU författare

• Castaño Soler, Carles

  • Institutionen för skoglig mykologi och växtpatologi, Sveriges lantbruksuniversitet
    

Associerade SLU-program

SLU Nätverk växtskydd
SLU Skogsskadecentrum


Globala målen

SDG15 Skydda, återställa och främja ett hållbart nyttjande av landbaserade ekosystem, hållbart bruka skogar, bekämpa ökenspridning, hejda och vrida tillbaka markförstöringen samt hejda förlusten av biologisk mångfald


UKÄ forskningsämne

Skogsvetenskap


Publikationens identifierare

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.159860

Permanent länk till denna sida (URI)

https://res.slu.se/id/publ/120785