Plant diversity and seasonal dynamics in forest gaps of varying sizes in Pinus massoniana plantations

Background Soil and understory vegetation are vital components of forest ecosystems. Identifying the interaction of plantation management to vegetation and soil is crucial for developing sustainable plantation ecosystem management strategies. As one of the main measures of close-to-nature management of forest plantation, few studies have paid attention to the effect of crop tree management on the soil properties and understory vegetation. Methods A 36-year-old Pinus massoniana plantation in Huaying city, Sichuan Province was taken as the research object to analyse the changes in undergrowth plant diversity and soil physicochemical properties under three different crop tree densities (100, 150, and 200 N/ha). Results Our results showed that the contents of available phosphorus, organic matter and hydrolysable nitrogen in the topsoil increased significantly after crop tree management, while content of available potassium decreased. The composition of shrub and herb layer was richer, and the dominant species were obviously replaced after crop tree management. The Shannon–Wiener index and Richness index of shrub layer, and the diversity of herb layer increased significantly after crop tree management. Herb layer diversity indexes and Richness index of shrub layer were closely related to soil organic matter, available phosphorus, hydrolysable nitrogen, available potassium, soil moisture and bulk density. As the main limiting factors for plant growth, nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium were closely related to plant diversity and to the distribution of the dominant species. At the initial stage of crop tree management, each treatment significantly improved the soil physicochemical properties and plant diversity of Pinus massoniana plantation, and the comprehensive evaluation was 200 N/ha >100 N/ha >150 N/ha >CK. Compared with other treatments, 200 N/ha had the best effect on improving the undergrowth environment of the Pinus massoniana plantation in the initial stage of crop tree management.

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Soil Available Phosphorus Loss Caused by Periodical Understory Management Reduce Understory Plant Diversity in a Northern Subtropical Pinus massoniana Plantation Chronosequence

Forests ◽

10.3390/f11020231 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 11 (2) ◽

pp. 231

Author(s):

Dong Dai ◽

Ashfaq Ali ◽

Xin Huang ◽

Mingjun Teng ◽

Changguang Wu ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Soil Properties ◽

Plant Diversity ◽

Soil Layer ◽

Pinus Massoniana ◽

Stand Age ◽

Available Phosphorus ◽

Soil Available Phosphorus ◽

Understory Plants ◽

Understory Diversity ◽

Understory Plant

Clearing of understory plants is a common management method in plantation forests, but its long-term impact on soil properties and understory plant diversity is still poorly understood. In order to uncover the potential relationship between understory diversity and soil properties, we categorized understory plants into herbs and shrubs, and took soil depth into consideration. We measured the soil variables and investigated the understory plant diversity in four stand age-classes (9-year-old for young, 18-year-old for intermediate, 28-year-old for near-mature, and 48-year-old for mature) in a Pinus massoniana plantation. We aimed to examine how the diversity of herbs and shrubs changed with stand succession and to determine which of the three soil depths (0–10 cm, 10–20 cm, 20–40 cm) had the strongest explanation for the understory plant diversity. Furthermore, structural equation modeling (SEM) was performed to assess the direct and indirect effect of understory clearing and stand age on understory diversity. We found that understory clearing influenced the trend of diversity of herbs and shrubs with stand age, and understory diversity showed a strong correlation with soil physical properties in all three soil layers. The soil properties in the 10–20 cm soil layer related with the diversity of herbs and shrubs most, while the 20–40 cm soil layer properties related with them the least. Understory clearing reduced soil available phosphorus (AP). Understory clearing and stand age were found to benefit understory plant diversity directly and decreased the understory diversity indirectly via AP. Consequently, to improve our understanding of the impact of understory clearing and stand age on biodiversity, we should take into account its direct and indirect effects.

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Study on the Features and Plant Diversity of the Forest Gaps on the Loess Plateau

Arid Zone Research ◽

10.3724/sp.j.1148.2009.00377 ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 26 (3) ◽

pp. 377-383

Author(s):

Feng LI ◽

Xiao-an WANG ◽

Hua GUO ◽

Li-ping LEI

Keyword(s):

Loess Plateau ◽

Plant Diversity ◽

The Loess Plateau ◽

Forest Gaps

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Effects of stand density on understory plant diversity and biomass in a Pinus massoniana plantation in Wenfeng Mountain, Xinjin County

Acta Ecologica Sinica ◽

10.5846/stxb201808151747 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 39 (15) ◽

Author(s):

张柳桦 ZHANG Liuhua ◽

齐锦秋 QI Jinqiu ◽

李婷婷 LI Tingting ◽

鱼舜尧 YU Shunyao ◽

张潇月 ZHANG Xiaoyue ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Plant Diversity ◽

Stand Density ◽

Pinus Massoniana ◽

Understory Plant

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Seasonal Dynamics of Plant Diversity on lnselbergs in the Ivory Coast (West Africa)

Botanica Acta ◽

10.1111/j.1438-8677.1997.tb00664.x ◽

1997 ◽

Vol 110 (6) ◽

pp. 466-472 ◽

Cited By ~ 13

Author(s):

S. Porembski ◽

W. Barthlott

Keyword(s):

West Africa ◽

Plant Diversity ◽

Seasonal Dynamics ◽

Ivory Coast

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Seasonal dynamics of dissolved organic carbon, nitrogen and other nutrients in soil of Pinus massoniana stands after pine wilt disease disturbance

Journal of soil science and plant nutrition ◽

10.4067/s0718-95162014005000006 ◽

2014 ◽

pp. 0-0 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

P Ge ◽

L.J Da ◽

W.B Wang ◽

X.N Xu

Keyword(s):

Organic Carbon ◽

Dissolved Organic Carbon ◽

Seasonal Dynamics ◽

Pine Wilt Disease ◽

Pinus Massoniana ◽

Wilt Disease ◽

Pine Wilt

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Response of plant diversity and soil physicochemical properties to different gap sizes in a Pinus massoniana plantation

PeerJ ◽

10.7717/peerj.12222 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 9 ◽

pp. e12222

Author(s):

Qian Lyu ◽

Jiangli Liu ◽

Junjie Liu ◽

Yan Luo ◽

Luman Chen ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Organic Matter ◽

Soil Moisture ◽

Soil Organic Matter ◽

Plant Diversity ◽

Soil Bulk Density ◽

Soil Physicochemical Properties ◽

Forest Gap ◽

Herb Layer ◽

Soil Layers ◽

Forest Gaps

As one means of close-to-nature management, forest gaps have an important impact on the ecological service function of plantations. To improve the current situation of P. massoniana plantations, three different sizes of forest gaps (large gaps, medium gaps and small gaps) were established to observe whether gap setting can improve the soil fertility and plant diversity of forest plantations. The results showed that compared with the control, the soil organic matter content of different soil layers increased significantly in the medium forest gap and large forest gap. The content of soil organic matter in the surface layer of the middle gap had the largest increase (80.64%). Compared with the control, the content of soil-available potassium between different soil layers decreased significantly by 15.93% to 25.80%. The soil hydrolysable nitrogen reached its maximum under the medium gap. Soil moisture showed significant changes among different gap treatments, different soil layers and their interaction, decreasing significantly in large gaps and small gaps but increasing significantly in medium gaps. The soil bulk density decreased significantly compared with the control, and the surface soil reached the minimum in the medium gap. There were different plant species in forest gaps of different sizes, and shrub layer plants were more sensitive to gap size differences than herb layer plants. The plant diversity indices of the shrub layer increased significantly and showed a maximum under the medium gap. The plant diversity of the herb layer showed the opposite trend, and the Shannon-Wiener index, Simpson index and Pielou index were significantly lower than those of the control. RDA showed that different gap treatments had significant effects on the distribution of plants under the forest. Soil available potassium, soil moisture and soil bulk density affected the distribution and diversity of plants under the forest, serving as the limiting factors of plant growth. In forest management, if we strictly consider the improvement of plant diversity and soil physicochemical properties, these results suggest that a medium gap should be established in a plantation for natural restoration.

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