Abstract
Abandonment of coppicing is one of the main reasons of diversity decline in European temperate forests. To reverse this trend, coppicing has been reintroduced in several forests, especially in areas of high conservation value. However, empirical information on the effects of coppicing on plant diversity and composition is still scarce. By comparing vegetation data from active coppices and beech-dominated high forests in the Banat region in Romania, we tested the hypothesis that coppices have a higher plant diversity and different plant species composition than high forests. Data were collected in 60 randomly placed phytosociological relevés and were analysed using linear models and multivariate methods. As expected, we found differences in understorey plant composition. Herb species with various environmental demands–sciophytes-(hemi)-heliophytes and grassland species–were more frequent in coppices whereas high forests had more vernal species and sciophytes. Coppices also had slightly greater plant diversity but did not differ in herb species richness. Our results demonstrate that coppicing has a small positive effect on plant diversity but a large effect on species composition. Coppice restoration may be especially beneficial for populations of thermophilous and non-forest species.
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Acknowledgements
We thank Péter Szabó and Jan W. Jongepier for language revisions and two anonymous reviewers for valuable comments on a previous version of the manuscript. This study was funded by project OPVK CZ.1.07/2.3.00/20.0004 of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports and by the project ‘Involvement of the Czech Republic in the research of the European Forest Institute (EFI)’ and by the project IGA LDF_VT_2016014, Comparison of the stand structure and plant diversity of the active coppices Eastern and Western Europe.
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Šebesta, J., Maděra, P., Řepka, R. et al. Comparison of vascular plant diversity and species composition of coppice and high beech forest in the Banat region, Romania. Folia Geobot 52, 33–43 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12224-016-9279-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12224-016-9279-3