Epixylic vegetation abundance, diversity, and composition vary with coarse woody debris decay class and substrate species in boreal forest

Author:

Kumar Praveen1,Chen Han Y.H.1,Thomas Sean C.2,Shahi Chander1

Affiliation:

1. Faculty of Natural Resources Management, Lakehead University, 955 Oliver Road, Thunder Bay, ON P7B 5E1, Canada.

2. Faculty of Forestry, University of Toronto, 33 Willcocks St., Toronto, ON M5S 3B3, Canada.

Abstract

Although the importance of coarse woody debris (CWD) to understory species diversity has been recognized, the combined effects of CWD decay and substrate species on abundance and species diversity of epixylic vegetation have received little attention. We sampled a wide range of CWD substrate species and decay classes, as well as forest floors in fire-origin boreal forest stands. Percent cover, species richness, and evenness of epixylic vegetation differed significantly with both CWD decay class and substrate species. Trends in cover, species richness, and evenness differed significantly between nonvascular and vascular taxa. Cover, species richness, and species evenness of nonvascular species were higher on CWD, whereas those of vascular plants were higher on the forest floor. Epixylic species composition also varied significantly with stand ages, overstory compositions, decay classes, substrate species, and their interactions. Our findings highlight strong interactive influences of decay class and substrate species on epixylic plant communities and suggest that conservation of epixylic diversity would require forest managers to maintain a diverse range of CWD decay classes and substrate species. Because stand development and overstory compositions influence CWD decay classes and substrate species, as well as colonization time and environmental conditions in the understory, our results indicate that managed boreal landscapes should consist of a mosaic of different successional stages and a broad suite of overstory types to support diverse understory plant communities.

Publisher

Canadian Science Publishing

Subject

Ecology,Forestry,Global and Planetary Change

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