Natural regeneration and environmental factors within small-scaled gaps in urban afforestation

Abstract

In this study, we hypothesized that small-scaled gaps would facilitate the emergence of late successional species and that an abundance of understory vegetation would influence the gap responses of the forest floor vegetation, focusing on the regeneration dynamic within canopy gaps in planted, warm temperate forests. Two different sizes of canopy gaps were formed in two plantations with different understory abundances and the dynamics of the microenvironments and the forest floor vegetation were studied for 4 years pre- and post-gap. Based on our results, the first hypothesis was not supported, and the second hypothesis was supported.