Forest Ecology and Management最新文献

{"title":"Edge effects of linear disturbances on plant functional traits in boreal fens of northern Alberta, Canada","authors":"Brooklyn Bolstad ,&nbsp;Kellina L. Higgins ,&nbsp;Ellie Goud ,&nbsp;Maria Strack ,&nbsp;Anna Dabros","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123133","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123133","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Global resource development has resulted in numerous disturbances that have a myriad of consequences on peatlands. We examined edge effects from one such disturbance, seismic lines, on plant species percent cover and select functional traits in Alberta, Canada. We tested various hypotheses that seismic lines and their edge effects influence percent cover and functional traits for eight dominant fen plant species: <em>Larix laricina, Picea mariana, Betula glandulosa</em>, <em>Salix pedicellaris, Andromeda polifolia, Menyanthes trifoliata, Carex aquatilis</em>, and <em>Sphagnum warnstorfii</em>. We analyzed species percent cover, plant height, leaf dry matter content, and tissue nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), and carbon (C) content on the seismic lines and at various distances from the seismic line edge. Our findings suggest plant stress resilience to environmental variation through functional trait expression. This was most evident on species percent cover; <em>P. mariana, M. trifoliata, C. aquatilis,</em> and <em>S. warnstorfii</em> showed significant and unique responses across measured distances, with generally decreased plant cover on seismic lines. Plant height was significantly different across measured distances for <em>B. glandulosa</em> and <em>C. aquatilis</em>. Generally, tissue N, P, K, and C increased on the seismic line, consistent with a lasting release of nutrients during and following the disturbance. Connecting plant species abundance to functional traits provided insight into why recovery is lacking on seismic lines, even close to 30 years after the initial disturbance. We show that functional trait variation signals a pathway of plant stress resilience to disturbance that must be considered in ongoing forest management practices.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"597 ","pages":"Article 123133"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144997042","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Forest proximity and uniderstory complexity shape predation pressure on dummy caterpillars in rubber plantations","authors":"Soraya Carvalhedo Honorato ,&nbsp;Jaime Honorato Júnior ,&nbsp;Karla Vieira Morato ,&nbsp;Eduardo Mariano Neto ,&nbsp;Deborah Faria","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123134","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123134","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Agriculture is a cornerstone of Brazil’s economy, but it also places the country among the world’s top four pesticide consumers. Natural enemies of pests can help reduce reliance on agrochemicals, but their presence and effectiveness depend heavily on local habitat conditions and landscape structure. In southern Bahia, rubber tree plantations—a key regional crop—face persistent threats from insect pests, including <em>Erinnys ello,</em> one of the most damaging to rubber production. However, the role of landscape factors and management intensity in shaping natural pest control remains poorly understood. To address this gap, we conducted predation pressure experiments in one of Bahia’s major rubber-producing regions. We investigated whether different management practices in rubber plantations influence how forest cover and proximity affect predation pressure on dummy caterpillars by natural enemies. Our findings reveal that responses varied across predator groups. Predation pressure from arthropods was sensitive to understory management, likely because of the increased habitat complexity it provides. Mammalian and overall community predation were influenced by forest distance at different scales: community-wide predation increased at 2500 m, suggesting generalist predators may benefit from less forested areas, while mammalian predation decreased at 500 m, indicating that nearby forest remnants are crucial refuges for vertebrate predators. Interestingly, overall forest cover showed no effect, implying that habitat amount alone is insufficient to explain the observed responses. Therefore, maintaining a complex understory and preserving nearby forest areas are vital strategies for enhancing natural pest control in rubber plantations.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"597 ","pages":"Article 123134"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-09-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144926314","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Forest management in mountain mixed forests has moderate impact on breeding bird assemblages, but it substantially decreases the diversity of rare taxa","authors":"Peter Lešo ,&nbsp;Jakub Wyka ,&nbsp;Martin Korňan ,&nbsp;Jakub Horák ,&nbsp;Rudolf Kropil ,&nbsp;Andrea Lešová ,&nbsp;Bartłomiej Kusal ,&nbsp;Łukasz Kajtoch","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123123","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123123","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Assessing the impact of forestry on biodiversity has become a common tool for evaluating the sustainability of forestry. Birds are often used as indicators of biodiversity and sustainable management. We compared bird diversity and abundance between protected (natural) and managed forests representing temperate mixed forests of Central Europe dominated by beech, spruce, and fir. The bird census was performed in 2021 and 2022 using the point-count method at 173 census points (88 in strictly protected areas; 85 in managed forests) along with habitat surveys focused on potentially most important habitat variables that influence habitat selection of birds. Natural forests hosted higher bird species richness, diversity, and abundance than managed forests nearby. A positive influence of the forest conservation regime was that it exhibited a higher abundance of cavity nesters and threatened birds of the European Union that are listed in the Birds Directive (NATURA 2000 species). The mean volume of the total standing dead wood (SDW) was more than seven-fold higher in natural forests (32.59 m³·ha⁻¹) compared to managed ones (4.40 m³·ha⁻¹). Increased volume of the coarse SDW (diameter &gt;50 cm) had a positive effect on the diversity and abundance of birds. Increasing percentage of clearings had a significantly positive effect on overall bird diversity and abundance, with the exception of NATURA 2000 species. While the proportion of beech did not have a significant effect on overall species richness, diversity, or abundance, NATURA 2000 species and cavity nesters were positively influenced by its rising proportion in the stands dominated by conifers. The goal of modern forestry should include the cultivation of heterogeneous, structurally diverse forest stands, with high compositional diversity, and a considerable amount of dead wood. The impact of forestry should not be measured only on the basis of overall diversity and abundance, but also with the use of rare, sensitive, specialized forest-interior species reflective of high ecological and conservation value.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"597 ","pages":"Article 123123"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144922692","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Perspectives: State of national forest damage survey programmes in Europe and ways toward improved harmonization and data sharing","authors":"Tomáš Hlásny ,&nbsp;Michaela Perunová ,&nbsp;Roman Modlinger ,&nbsp;Max Blake ,&nbsp;Gediminas Brazaitis ,&nbsp;György Csóka ,&nbsp;Maarten de Groot ,&nbsp;Mihai-Leonard Duduman ,&nbsp;Massimo Faccoli ,&nbsp;Margarita Georgieva ,&nbsp;Georgi Georgiev ,&nbsp;Wojciech Grodzki ,&nbsp;Henrik Hartmann ,&nbsp;Anikó Hirka ,&nbsp;Gernot Hoch ,&nbsp;Hervé Jactel ,&nbsp;Mats Jonsell ,&nbsp;Marija Kolšek ,&nbsp;Paal Krokene ,&nbsp;Markus Melin ,&nbsp;Tiina Ylioja","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123111","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123111","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Recent increases in forest damage across Europe have challenged national forestry sectors and threatened progress toward Europe’s climate and bioeconomy goals. Although developments in remote sensing now allow large-scale wall-to-wall monitoring of forest conditions, reliable damage assessments still require robust terrestrial data. Yet, existing data often remain inconsistent and fragmentarily distributed across institutions and countries. Based on consultations with national experts, we here provide an evaluation of national forest damage survey programmes in 19 European countries, identify obstacles that hinder more effective use of data, and formulate recommendations to overcome these barriers. We examined five aspects of national forest damage surveys: (i) legal and institutional frameworks, (ii) data acquisition methods, (iii) damage attribution, (iv) data quality and consistency, and (v) data accessibility. We found that half of the examined programs have changed protocols since 2000 and only 53 % of countries currently have survey programs covering their entire forest area. In 26 % of countries, legal constraints hamper data accessibility to the broader international community, while in 89 % data are available only in the respective national languages. In 84 % of countries, the absence of adequate metadata hinders the usability of the data without inside knowledge. Some of Central European countries operate the most consistent and open systems, while western and northern countries generally exhibited lower levels of openness and consistency. The implementation of coordinated structural changes in national programs that would enable consistent monitoring of forest damage at European level is unrealistic in the foreseeable future. However, certain critical gaps in data coverage, completeness, and consistency can be addressed through extensive data post-processing and integration with remote sensing. Overcoming barriers, such as limited awareness of the importance of transnational assessments, requires improved communication efforts and targeted funding programs. Establishing a coordination unit by leveraging existing policy processes in Europe appears essential to advancing these efforts.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"597 ","pages":"Article 123111"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144922693","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Post-disturbance treatment effects on microclimate and vegetation recovery on Norway spruce calamity areas from in situ and UAV-based monitoring","authors":"Birgitta Putzenlechner ,&nbsp;Simon Grieger ,&nbsp;Christian Czech ,&nbsp;Philipp Koal","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123131","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123131","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Microclimate is crucial for forest regeneration, yet its variation under different post-disturbance management strategies remains insufficiently quantified. We investigated microclimate and vegetation recovery over three years, following drought and bark-beetle-related die-back of Norway spruce (<em>Picea abies</em>) in a disturbance hotspot in Central Europe. Using microclimatic and UAV-based monitoring, we evaluated four post-disturbance treatment variants: standing deadwood, high stumps, clearing and mulching. Vegetation cover increased from ∼30 % up to ∼70 % in plots of standing deadwood and mulch. Substantial microclimatic differences emerged among treatments. During the growing season, diurnal amplitudes were largest in cleared and mulched plots (∼23 K), while standing deadwood maintained significantly lower maximum temperatures (∼3 K cooler during heat events) and narrower amplitudes (∼19 K), indicating superior thermal buffering. Frost events were over three times more frequent in open areas than in vital stands and moderate in standing deadwood. Temperature patterns in high stumps (dead trees cut at 2 m height) were similar to cleared and mulched plots, though stem-associated microhabitats require further investigation. Soil moisture was highest in standing deadwood, even exceeding levels of vital stands, and slightly increased with mulching. An increasing wetting trend in the high stump plot could be associated with vegetation development. UAV imagery corroborated in-situ data and revealed considerable spatial heterogeneity in surface temperatures across treatments and surface cover types. These findings underscore the role of structural legacies in buffering microclimatic extremes and supporting regeneration. As heat and drought events intensify, microclimate-sensitive management offers a promising strategy for fostering climate-resilient forests.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"597 ","pages":"Article 123131"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-08-31","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144920291","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Impacts of invasive honeysuckle removal on forest-breeding birds in western Central Hardwoods forests","authors":"Katrina M. Fernald ,&nbsp;Miranda T. Curzon ,&nbsp;Tyler M. Harms","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123093","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123093","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Amur honeysuckle (<em>Lonicera maackii</em>), a non-native, invasive shrub, has established in woodlands across the eastern United States, altering understory dynamics and forest structure. Land managers have recently employed aerial treatment with glyphosate to remove honeysuckle, a technique that can be used to treat large areas at low cost with high effectiveness. Prior research has produced conflicting results on how invasive honeysuckle impacts forest birds, with most concluding that the effects depend on the foraging or nesting guild of the species. This study quantified the response of forest vegetation and the breeding bird community 4–5 years after the rapid removal of honeysuckle using aerial glyphosate treatments.</div><div>We sampled vegetation and the breeding bird community at 65 randomly distributed sampling points across three properties, totaling 216 ha in Central Hardwoods oak-hickory forest in Iowa, USA.</div><div>Unsprayed stands contained significantly more live honeysuckle (26,765 stems/ha) than sprayed stands (7714 stems/ha, F = 9.39, p = 0.003) and averaged 7.7 % less cover of understory plants (F = 5.62, p = 0.021). Density of ground-nesting and aerial-foraging birds was greater in unsprayed stands than in sprayed stands. Non-metric multi-dimensional scaling (NMDS) results suggested that densities of the shrub-foraging group, tree-foraging group, Indigo Bunting (<em>Passerina cyanea</em>), and Red-eyed Vireo (<em>Vireo olivaceus</em>) were all more closely associated with sprayed conditions.</div><div>Overall, these results suggest that while honeysuckle removal is clearly beneficial to the native plant community, it may decrease the abundance of some understory-associated bird species, at least in the short term. Therefore, we recommend pairing honeysuckle removal with native shrub restoration.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"597 ","pages":"Article 123093"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144917394","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Positive feedbacks among biotic and abiotic stressors mediate whitebark pine decline","authors":"Sara J. Germain ,&nbsp;Matthew F. Bekker ,&nbsp;Savannah A. Collins-Key ,&nbsp;Georg von Arx","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123109","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123109","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Interactions between biotic and abiotic stressors reduce forest health, particularly in high-elevation forests. Because trees are expected to resist biotic and abiotic stressors in unique ways, it remains unknown how specific processes, such as growth and defense, relate to tree survival in a compound disturbance environment. Comparing trees that either died or survived mountain pine beetle (MPB) provides a natural experiment to test how multiple stressors jointly mediate susceptibility to MPB. We cored whitebark pine in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem to measure growth, resin ducts, and xylem anatomy using standard quantitative wood anatomy techniques. Overall, anatomical measurements increased model accuracy by 7.1 % compared to ring widths alone. We found growth-defense tradeoffs for all trees; for resistant trees, however, resin duct density varied negatively with the pore space fraction (lumen) of tree rings – not the structural carbon fraction (tracheid walls). Despite showing less structural carbon and total growth at the time of the outbreak, susceptible trees displayed anatomical resistance in their early lives. Over time, susceptible trees had less positive growth responses during years of high snowpack, and more negative responses of lumen area and theoretical hydraulic conductivity during years of high temperatures and drought. Susceptible tree decline was catalyzed during the decade 1940, which coincides with first reports of the invasive white pine blister rust (WPBR) in the region. Together, our findings provide support that differential responses of whitebark to temperature and drought contributed to reduced structural carbon storage that, likely exacerbated by WPBR, predisposed trees to MPB mortality.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"597 ","pages":"Article 123109"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144912171","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Consideration of Abies cilicica for central European reforestation","authors":"Ulf Büntgen ,&nbsp;Alper Kaan Kadioglu ,&nbsp;Kasia Charcinska ,&nbsp;Edurne Martinez del Castillo ,&nbsp;Alexis Arizpe ,&nbsp;Tatiana Bebchuk ,&nbsp;Jan Esper ,&nbsp;Mirek Trnka ,&nbsp;Clive Oppenheimer ,&nbsp;Nesibe Köse ,&nbsp;Ünal Akkemik ,&nbsp;Hüseyin Tuncay Güner","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123120","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123120","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>A sequence of central European summer droughts since 2018 has intensified the quest for suitable reforestation species. The fact that newly planted trees will experience a warmer, drier and likely also more variable climate, however, challenge the forest sector. Here, we explore the drought resistance and resilience of Taurus fir (<em>Abies cilicica</em> (Ant. &amp; Kotschy) Carr.), and discuss its potential for ecosystem service, timber production and carbon storage under future climate change. We measured earlywood and latewood widths of 109 Taurus firs from two neighbouring sites in southern Türkiye. Average summer temperatures at the species’ biogeographic heartland are comparable to those of the exceptional central European heatwave in 2018, while precipitation at our sites is still much lower. Mean tree age is 89 years, and the average growth rate of 1.5 mm is dominated by 75 % earlywood. The various tree-ring chronologies correlate significantly with May to July precipitation (<em>r</em> &gt; 0.7; 1960–2022), and their tailed positive distributions are indicative of arid baseline conditions. We suggest <em>Abies cilicica</em> as a potential candidate for mixed-species reforestation on appropriate soils in central Europe. Acknowledging the long-term consequences of silvicultural decisions, stronger collaborations between stakeholders and researchers are needed to prepare the forestry sector for direct and indirect effects of anticipated climate change.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"597 ","pages":"Article 123120"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144912174","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Mortality and growth rates in two populations of ancient oaks over a century","authors":"Per Milberg ,&nbsp;Kurt Christensen ,&nbsp;Markus Franzén ,&nbsp;Victor Johansson","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123117","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123117","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Understanding the long-term performance of large trees is crucial for predicting forest responses to environmental change. We compared oak growth and mortality in two Scandinavian parks over two consecutive 50-year periods spanning nearly a century, with different temperatures and rainfall patterns. Tree diameter at breast height was measured, and survival status was recorded at three points in time. In Dyrehaven, a deer park with scattered and grouped trees, 641 oaks were followed, and annual mortality was 0.386 % per year (CI 0.333; 0.440). In Djurgården, a former deer park now partly covered by forest, 59 oaks were followed, and the annual mortality rate was 0.992 % (0.712; 1.374). Since 1930, growing seasons have lengthened by 9 days in Stockholm (Djurgården) and 15 days at Falsterbo (proxy for Dyrehaven), while precipitation variability has increased only in the latter. Mortality did not differ between time periods. Despite a longer growing period, annual basal area growth was greater in the first period than in the second. Our results show that despite mortality and slower individual growth rates over time, the standing biomass of large oaks in open parkland can continue to rise, underlining their importance as long-term carbon stores. Ensuring the long-term availability of large oaks in these parks will require increased recruitment efforts, forward-looking management, and adaptive conservation strategies.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"597 ","pages":"Article 123117"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144912173","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}

{"title":"Soil amendments alter understory vegetation composition and functional diversity in poorly regenerated logging sites in Quebec, Canada","authors":"Hiba Merzouki ,&nbsp;Vincent Poirier ,&nbsp;Alison Munson ,&nbsp;Annie DesRochers","doi":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123125","DOIUrl":"10.1016/j.foreco.2025.123125","url":null,"abstract":"<div><div>Soil amendments are increasingly used in boreal forest plantations to enhance seedling growth, but their effects on other compartments such as understory vegetation remain poorly understood. This study evaluates the impact of amendments [biochar (2.6 Mg ha⁻¹), wood ash (7 Mg ha⁻¹), and manure (105 Mg ha⁻¹)], applied alone or in combination, on understory vegetation after two growing seasons. We measured diversity indices and evaluated understory vegetation community composition. The effects of amendments on plant functional traits were assessed at the species level. We also examined functional diversity and calculated the community-weighted mean to assess the impact of amendments on the functional composition of the plant community. Our results highlight that manure significantly increased Shannon index of diversity from 1.87 to 2.13, with more grasses and non-native legumes with an acquisitive strategy and competitive ability. Functional diversity was the highest for manure treatments (=19.90) and the lowest for treatments without manure (=16.80). In contrast, biochar and wood ash did not significantly alter plant diversity. Community composition was similar between the biochar and control treatments, while wood ash amendment, despite overlapping in plant composition with biochar, resulted in additional species. Biochar and wood ash treatments contained more ruderal and forest herbs and woody species typical of forest disturbances, with wood ash significantly increasing leaf nitrogen concentration by 9 % compared to treatments without wood ash. Together, these findings suggest that soil amendments alter diversity of understory vegetation and act as functional filters on plant communities.</div></div>","PeriodicalId":12350,"journal":{"name":"Forest Ecology and Management","volume":"597 ","pages":"Article 123125"},"PeriodicalIF":3.7,"publicationDate":"2025-08-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"144917450","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}