Abstract
Historical human activities are increasingly recognized by ecologists as important drivers of modern vegetation patterns and ecosystem functioning, but the length of time these legacies persist is poorly known. We determined whether medieval artificial habitats have left a long-lasting imprint in the current forest vegetation. We compared soil chemical properties, canopy conditions, actual vegetation, and soil seed bank patterns between 19 former feudal mottes and 19 paired control sites located in the same forest patches. Soil from the mottes contained more stones, organic matter, carbon, nitrogen, and phosphorus, and their pH was higher than for controls. Species richness and diversity of either vegetation or seed bank did not differ between mottes and controls, but species composition did, with more calciphilous and eutrophic species on the mottes. Mottes also hosted more competitive and competitive-ruderal species and more epizoochores. Centuries after their reclamation, medieval artificial habitats still generate particular soil conditions that are reflected by an original floristic composition compared to the same-aged surrounding understories of the lowland forests in which they occur. These long-lasting after-effects are better explained by the locally increased soil fertility than by dispersal limitation of forest species.
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