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Multiple environmental changes drive forest floor vegetation in a temperate mountain forest.

Norbert Helm1, Franz Essl1, Michael Mirtl2

  • 1Division of Conservation, Vegetation and Landscape Ecology University of Vienna Vienna Austria.

Ecology and Evolution
|April 14, 2017
PubMed
Summary

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Forest understory plant communities are shifting due to human impacts. Light availability, influenced by disturbances, and climate change (warming and drying) are key drivers of these changes, with evidence of recovery from acidification.

Area of Science:

  • Ecology
  • Environmental Science
  • Plant Community Dynamics

Background:

  • Temperate forest understory plant communities face human-induced environmental changes.
  • The specific contributions of individual environmental factors to herb layer shifts remain unclear.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine the relative contributions of various environmental factors to changes in temperate forest understory plant communities.
  • To analyze long-term vegetation survey data in the Northern Limestone Alps, Austria.

Main Methods:

  • Utilized 21-year vegetation survey data from 143 permanent plots.
  • Collected data on soil chemistry, light, soil temperature/moisture, disturbance, climate, and atmospheric sulfur (S) and nitrogen (N) deposition.
  • Employed path analysis with Ellenberg indicator values to attribute vegetation changes to environmental factors.
Keywords:
LTER Zöbelbodenacidificationclimate changedisturbanceforest floor vegetationresurvey

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Main Results:

  • Observed a significant directional shift in the forest understory plant community.
  • Documented recovery of ground-layer vegetation from acidification linked to decreased S deposition.
  • Identified altered climatic conditions (thermophilization and drying) and changes in light regime (linked to disturbances) as major drivers of community shifts.

Conclusions:

  • Decreased sulfur deposition has led to understory vegetation recovery from acidification.
  • Climate change, specifically warming and drying, significantly impacts forest understory communities.
  • Changes in light availability, often resulting from small-scale disturbances, exert the most substantial influence on herb layer community composition.