Abstract
BackgroundHigh-density conditions are global issues that threaten the sustainable management of plantations throughout the world. Monocultures and untimely management practices have identically resulted in the simplex of community structures, decreases in biodiversity, and long-term productivity losses in plantations China. The most popular measure which is commonly used to address these issues is thinning, which potentially results in increases in the development of understory plants in plantations. However, there is limited information currently available regarding the community composition of understory vegetation and the associated environmental factors, which has limited the sustainable management of China’s fir plantation ecosystems.MethodIn the present study, a thinning experiment was implemented which included a control check (CK: no thinning), as well as low intensity thinning (LIT: 20%), moderate intensity thinning (MIT: 33%), and high intensity thinning (HIT: 50%) in Chinese fir plantations located in the Southeastern China. During the investigation process, the understory vegetation examined three years after thinning measures were completed, in order to analyze the impacts of different thinning intensities on the growth and community composition of the understory plants. At the same time, the associated environmental factors in the fir plantations were also investigated.ResultsThe species richness, total coverage, and biomass of the understory vegetation were observed to be apparently increased with increasing thinning intensity. In addition, it was found that the thinning measures had prominently influenced the soil nutrients. The community compositions of the understory vegetation were significantly different among the four thinning intensity levels, especially between the CK and the HIT. Furthermore, the development of the understory vegetation was found to be significantly correlated with the soil nutrient contents, and the community compositions of the understory vegetation were prominently driven by the tree densities, slope positions, and soil nutrient contents.
Highlights
Over the past few decades, the Chinese government has extensively cultivated fast-growing trees in order to satisfy the increasing requirements for wood production (Zhou et al, 2016)
It was observed that the different thinning intensities had significantly influenced the soil organic carbon (SOC), available phosphorus (AP), and AK contents, with the highest content detected in the high intensity thinning (HIT) of the tested soil samples, respectively (Table 2)
The soil moisture content (SMC), pH, total nitrogen (TN), total phosphorus (TP), available nitrogen (AN), Mg, Mn, microbial biomass nitrogen (MBN), and microbial biomass carbon (MBC) were found to be comparable among the four thinning intensities, without observable variations
Summary
Over the past few decades, the Chinese government has extensively cultivated fast-growing trees in order to satisfy the increasing requirements for wood production (Zhou et al, 2016). The majority of the plantations were initially planted with high densities and have not been efficiently managed (Lindgren & Sullivan, 2013; Raunikar et al, 2010; Zhou et al, 2016), which has resulted in the poor development of understory vegetation, delays in litter decomposition, and losses in essential soil nutrients (Ma et al, 2007; Sheng, 2001a; Tian et al, 2011) These issues have in turn brought lower long-term productivity and timber yields, and have seriously affected the sustainable management of the plantations (Ares, Neill & Puettmann, 2010; Sheng, 2001b; Wen, Cheng & Liu, 2008). The development of the understory vegetation was found to be significantly correlated with the soil nutrient contents, and the community compositions of the understory vegetation were prominently driven by the tree densities, slope positions, and soil nutrient contents
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