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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Plant Sci.
Sec. Functional Plant Ecology
Volume 15 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/fpls.2024.1371898

Niches, interspecific associations and community stability of main understory regeneration species after understory removal in temperate forests

Provisionally accepted
Yanyan Zhang Yanyan Zhang 1*Quan Yuan Quan Yuan 1Jiaojiao Deng Jiaojiao Deng 1Li Zhou Li Zhou 1Dapao Yu Dapao Yu 1Wangming Zhou Wangming Zhou 2
  • 1 Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology (CAS), Shenyang, China
  • 2 College of Life Sciences, Anqing Normal University, Anqing, Anhui Province, China

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Understory removal is frequently used to relieve the renewal pressure on trees and promote the growth capability of trees for maintaining community stability, while the lack of previous study on temperate forests limits our assessment of the effectiveness of this essential management measurement.In this study, we calculated the niche characteristics and interspecific association of main understory species and community stability in temperate forests (original broad-leaved Korean pine forest (BKF), Betula platyphylla secondary forest (BF), Larix gmelinii plantation (LF)) after understory removal for characterizing the resource utilization capacity of the regeneration trees.Results: During the restoration stage, the niche breadth of understory plants with similar habits varied across stands and layers, regeneration tree species with heliophile and semishade occupied a larger niche in BKF and LF, while that in LF reversed. Niche overlap among heliophiles regeneration trees increased both in BKF and BF, not in LF. The interspecific association among main species revealed that the distribution of each species was independent and the interspecific association was loose and it varied in different forests and different light-demanding species with regeneration trees. The stability of shrub communities in BF and LF improved whereas that of BKF declined, while that of the herb communities of corresponding forests showed the opposite state. Discussion: Our study demonstrated that the effectiveness of understory removal depends on species' ecological habits, which enhances the renew and resource utilization capacity of regeneration tree species in temperate forests and shrub community stability in BF and LF.

    Keywords: understory vegetation restoration, Interspecific association, Species co-existence, understory removal management, Community stability

    Received: 13 Feb 2024; Accepted: 26 Jul 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Zhang, Yuan, Deng, Zhou, Yu and Zhou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Yanyan Zhang, Key Laboratory of Forest Ecology and Management, Institute of Applied Ecology (CAS), Shenyang, China

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.