Abstract
Four seventy-year-old broadleaved recent woods adjacent to three ancient woodland fragments, which all together covered an area of 27.5 ha, were investigated. Two of the recent woods were established naturally and two were planted. The ancient woodlands, including oak-hornbeam and oak-pine woods, were the only near source of diaspores of woodland species. The recent woods differed in area, location, soil richness and light conditions. On the basis of the data from 236 systematically located plots the similarities and differences in ground vegetation between the ancient and recent woods were studied by detrended correspondence analysis (DCA). Even after 70 yr of forest vegetation recovery in the recent woodlands differences were found in the vegetation of the woods examined. The direction of secondary succession was strongly determined by soil conditions. Mature woodlands showed higher beta-diversity. The causes of convergence and divergence in the composition of the communities were analyzed and discussed. The greatest similarity was found between recent and adjacent ancient woods growing on rich brown soils. The greatest divergence was observed in the recent woods growing on poor soils and more open to light, where the very great density of Carex brizoides inhibited the rate of succession. The results obtained indicate that with no isolation and only small distances from ancient woods the community composition in recent woods is to a greater degree dependent upon soil conditions, light and the influence of dominants than on the modes of species dispersal. The regeneration of ground vegetation of woodland communities is possible to a high degree, close to ancient woodlands, on rich brown soils.
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Dzwonko, Z., Gawroński, S. The role of woodland fragments, soil types, and dominant species in secondary succession on the western Carpathian foothills. Vegetatio 111, 149–160 (1994). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00040334
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00040334