Non-random extinctions dominate plant community changes in abandoned coppices

Area of Science:

• Ecology
• Botany
• Conservation Biology

Background:

• European lowland forests experienced significant 20th-century changes, including biodiversity decline.
• Ecological processes driving these changes are poorly understood due to methodological challenges.

Purpose of the Study:

• Analyze temporal changes in forest plant communities after coppicing abandonment.
• Investigate ecological processes, specifically immigration and extinction, underlying community shifts.
• Determine if species gains and losses were random or non-random.

Main Methods:

• Utilized 122 semi-permanent plots surveyed in the 1950s and 2000s.
• Applied Temporal Nestedness Analysis to differentiate immigration and extinction processes.
• Assessed the ecological randomness of species turnover.

Main Results:

• Vegetation shifted from species-rich, open forests to species-poor, closed-canopy forests.
• Beta diversity decreased, indicating taxonomic homogenization of the forest understorey.
• Non-random extinctions of light-demanding species occurred, with shade-adapted species increasing.

Conclusions:

• Ecologically non-random extinction of light-demanding species dominated post-coppicing abandonment.
• This leads to impoverished, temporally nested plant communities, threatening European forest biodiversity.
• Canopy opening in abandoned coppices is crucial for restoring declining species.