Journal Title
Title of Journal: Plant Ecol
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Abbravation: Plant Ecology
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Publisher
Springer Netherlands
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Authors: Sebastian Dittrich Mascha Jacob Claudia Bade Christoph Leuschner Markus Hauck
Publish Date: 2014/07/20
Volume: 215, Issue: 10, Pages: 1123-1137
Abstract
Modern silviculture has led to a reduction in deadwood especially that of large diameter and thus the loss of an important habitat niche in most European forests We analyzed the significance of deadwood for the total species diversity in three plant groups bryophytes lichens and vascular plants in one of Central Europe’s few remnants of unmanaged oldgrowth forest The site is a montane forest of Picea abies on Mt Brocken Harz Mountains Germany which has not been managed for at least several centuries undergoes natural forest dynamics and thus harbors large amounts of standing and downed deadwood Epiphyte vegetation of live trees and the ground vegetation were studied for comparison We did not find any obligate deadwood species Nevertheless 84 70 species of the total species were found on standing or downed deadwood Onethird of these species or 28 of the total species in the forest were only sampled on deadwood whereas the remaining species were also found on live trees and/or the ground Bryophytes were the largest group of species on deadwood 47 of the deadwoodinhabiting species followed by lichens 37 and vascular plants 16 Largediameter deadwood in an advanced stage of decay harbored more species than smaller fragments in the early stages of decay Despite the lack of obligate deadwood colonizers deadwood apparently plays a key role for forest plant diversity mainly by providing an environment with low competition and thus facilitating the establishment of speciesThis study was funded by a grant of the Stemmler Foundation a member of the Stifterverband für die Deutsche Wissenschaft to M Hauck and Ch Leuschner The grant was approved in the framework of the Stifterverband program Biodiversity and Ecology in National Parks BEN We are thankful to Dr HU Kison and A Rommerskirchen Harz National Park for permitting our field studies and manifold support of our work Laura Sutcliffe Göttingen is thanked for revising the English language and some comments on the text
Keywords:
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