| Autor: |
Werger, M. J. A., Heil, Gerrit W., Muys, Bart, Hansen, Karin, Elemans, M., Heil, G. W. |
| Zdroj: |
Environmental Effects of Afforestation in North-Western Europe; 2007, p129-148, 20p |
| Abstrakt: |
In many European countries agricultural areas are currently being converted to forest. Both spatial arrangement of new forests and habitat quality play a role in the development of the field layer in newly planted forests on former agricultural land. One important goal of afforestation is the development of a natural ecosystem with a valuable field layer. In the course of succession, open-canopy species are replaced by climax species with a denser canopy, and the light availability on the forest floor is expected to decrease. The differences in the environmental conditions between ancient forests and afforested arable land have not been studied in a successional context. Differences between ancient forests and recent forests on former arable land can be caused by many different factors. Several studies have addressed the vegetational change in the field layer under the influence of nitrogen (N) deposition. The plant ecological approach followed in this study focused on the characteristics of individual species that determine their ecological behavior in relation to light and N availability. A greenhouse experiment was carried out in order to study the interactive effect of light and N on the performance of species of ancient and recent forests. In addition, an field layer model has been developed of which the main growth processes are based on two compartments: a shoot compartment responsible for the acquisition of carbon (C) through photosynthesis and a root compartment involved in the uptake of N. The relative growth rate of the shoot compared to the growth rate of the root depends on the ratio between the N and C concentration in the pool. This study showed the importance of the interactive effect of light and N on plant performance. Reduction of the light availability in the young forests will reduce the growth of fast-growing and competitive species while the growth of forest species, given that they already occur in the forest, will hardly be affected. This result stresses the importance of design (e.g. choice of tree species and density of the trees) and management of the tree layer, in controlling the development of the field layer vegetation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
| Databáze: |
Supplemental Index |
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