Abstract
The colonization rates of understorey plants into forests growing on former agricultural land differ remarkably among species. Different dispersal and recruitment largely account for the contrasting colonization rates, but different effects of the soil legacies of former agricultural land use on plant performance may also play a role. Seven herbaceous forest species were sampled in paired post-agricultural and ancient forest stands to study whether land-use history has an effect on the aboveground nutrient concentrations (N, P and N:P ratios) and biomass of forest herbs and, if so, whether slow and fast colonizing species respond differently. Results showed that P concentrations were significantly affected by former land use with higher concentrations in the post-agricultural stands. N concentrations were unaffected and N:P ratios were significantly higher in the ancient stands. Nutrient concentrations varied considerably among species, but the variation was unrelated to their colonization capacity. Six out of the seven species had higher biomass in the post-agricultural stands relative to the ancient stands, and the degree to which the species increased biomass was positively related to their colonization capacity, i.e., the fast colonizing species showed the strongest increase. Such differential responses to past land use may contribute to the contrasting colonization capacity of forest plants. Land-use history thus affected both the nutrient concentrations and biomass of forest herbs, and only the biomass response was related to colonization capacity.
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Acknowledgments
This paper was written while LB and GV held a scholarship from the Institute for the Promotion of Innovation through Science and Technology in Flanders (IWT-Vlaanderen) and PDF held a scholarship from the Research Foundation—Flanders (FWO). KW was funded by the Special Research Fund (BOF) of Ghent University. Bert Schamp and Raphaël Cielen helped to prepare the samples and Greet De bruyn and Luc Willems performed the chemical analyses. The Agency for Nature and Forest is acknowledged for their permission to work in the forests. The authors thank two anonymous reviewers for their valuable comments on an earlier version of this paper.
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Baeten, L., Verstraeten, G., De Frenne, P. et al. Former land use affects the nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations and biomass of forest herbs. Plant Ecol 212, 901–909 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-010-9876-9
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-010-9876-9