Multiple environmental changes drive forest floor vegetation in a temperate mountain forest.

ABSTRACT: Human-induced changes of the environment and their possible impacts on temperate forest understory plant communities have been examined in many studies. However, the relative contribution of individual environmental factors to these changes in the herb layer is still unclear. In this study, we used vegetation survey data covering a time period of 21 years and collected from 143 permanent plots in the Northern Limestone Alps, Austria. Data on soil chemistry (49 plots), light condition (51 plots), soil temperature and moisture (four and six plots), disturbance (all plots), climate (one station in a clearing area), and airborne sulfur (S) and nitrogen (N) deposition (two forest stands) were available for analyses. We used these data together with plot mean Ellenberg indicator values in a path

SUBMITTER: Helm N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5383490 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature