Abstract
Research Highlights: Using a long-term dataset on temperate forests in South Korea, we established the interrelationships between tree species and structural diversity and forest productivity and stability, and identified a strong, positive effect of structural diversity, rather than tree species diversity, on productivity and stability. Background and Objectives: Globally, species diversity is positively related with forest productivity. However, temperate forests often show a negative or neutral relationship. In those forests, structural diversity, instead of tree species diversity, could control the forest function. Materials and Methods: This study tested the effects of tree species and structural diversity on temperate forest productivity. The basal area increment and relative changes in stand density were used as proxies for forest productivity and stability, respectively. Results: Here we show that structural diversity, but not species diversity, had a significant, positive effect on productivity, whereas species diversity had a negative effect, despite a positive effect on diversity. Structural diversity also promoted fewer changes in stand density between two periods, whereas species diversity showed no such relation. Structurally diverse forests might use resources efficiently through increased canopy complexity due to canopy plasticity. Conclusions: These results indicate reported species diversity effects could be related to structural diversity. They also highlight the importance of managing structurally diverse forests to improve productivity and stability in stand density, which may promote sustainability of forests.
Highlights
The relationships between productivity and species diversity are one of the oldest questions in ecological studies
Forest productivity was was mostly affected by stand basalbasal area,area, and and the diversity–productivity
Forest productivity mostly affected by stand the diversity–productivity relationship differed by index
Summary
The relationships between productivity and species diversity are one of the oldest questions in ecological studies. For the last two decades, this relationship has been intensively investigated [1,2,3]. Considerable variations and controversy in this relationship still remain, and the mechanisms underlying this relationship are not yet fully understood. The complementarity hypothesis links species diversity and productivity. It assumes that productivity increases with species number through positive interactions such as competition reduction or facilitation among species. Facilitation occurs when a species improves the growing conditions for another species through processes such as nitrogen fixation [4] and hydraulic
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