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Dynamics of herbaceous vegetation during four years of experimental coppice introduction

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Abstract

Understanding the effects of coppicing on forest ecosystems is important for progress towards sustainable forest management. A newly established coppicing experiment in a secondary temperate deciduous forest in the SE Czech Republic provides a rather unique insight into succession driven by canopy thinning in a forest still lacking species typical for forests established a long time ago. Herbaceous layer vegetation was monitored for four subsequent years in 2012–2015. We focused on the influence of canopy thinning intensity in two different forest types defined by dominant tree species (oak and lime). Our results showed that the opening of the canopy had immediate effects on herbaceous vegetation. Coverage, species richness and compositional patterns followed the coppicing intensity gradient. The dominant tree species had contrasting effects. Under oak, the reaction to coppicing was weak. Under lime, strong reaction both related to coppicing intensity and temporal development was observed. Herbs with short life cycle had the greatest contribution, but perennial grasses also began to increase their coverage after coppicing. Several invasive species, mostly short-lived herbs, emerged but are supposed to retreat as the succession will proceed. We conclude that coppice introduction into a secondary forest led to contrasting patterns related to dominant tree species. The marked difference was probably due to the slow succession towards a future forest community saturated by species. This process may now be further diversified by coppicing management.

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Acknowledgements

The results published in this paper were obtained with financial support from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, grant CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0267 ‘Coppice forests as the production and biological alternative for the future’. Additional support to the authors came from the European Research Council (FP7/2007-2013) grant 278065 ‘Long-term woodland dynamics in Central Europe: from estimations to a realistic model’ and as a long-term research development project RVO 67985939 from the Czech Academy of Sciences. M.C. was supported from the project MUNI/A /1048/2015.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Vegetation Ecology, Institute of Botany, The Czech Academy of Sciences, Lidická 25/27, 602 00, Brno, Czech Republic

    Radim Hédl, Jan Šipoš & Markéta Chudomelová

  2. Department of Botany, Faculty of Science Palacký University, Šlechtitelů 27, 783 71, Olomouc, Czech Republic

    Radim Hédl

  3. Department of Biology and Ecology, Faculty of Science University of Ostrava, Chittussiho 10, 710 00, Ostrava, Czech Republic

    Jan Šipoš

  4. Institute of Botany and Zoology, Faculty of Science, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37, Brno, Czech Republic

    Markéta Chudomelová

  5. Ministry of the Environment of the Czech Republic, Vršovická 1442/65, 100 10, 10, Praha, Czech Republic

    Dušan Utinek

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  1. Radim Hédl
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  2. Jan Šipoš
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  3. Markéta Chudomelová
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  4. Dušan Utinek
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Correspondence to Radim Hédl.

Appendices

Appendix 1

ᅟ Summary of the Monte Carlo significance test for the CCA model restricted by the interaction between forest management intensity, tree species and year.
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Appendix 2

ᅟ Summary of the Monte Carlo significance test for the CCA model restricted by the interaction between forest management intensity and tree species.
Full size table

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Hédl, R., Šipoš, J., Chudomelová, M. et al. Dynamics of herbaceous vegetation during four years of experimental coppice introduction. Folia Geobot 52, 83–99 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12224-016-9281-9

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