Changes in Species and Functional Diversity of the Herb Layer of Riparian Forest despite Six Decades of Strict Protection

The herb layer of temperate forests contributes to long-term forest ecosystem functioning and provisioning services. Therefore, a thorough understanding its dynamics in the face environmental changes is essential. This paper focuses on species functional diversity riparian verify how these two community components changed over time under strict protection. understory vegetation was surveyed 42 semi-permanent plots three periods between 1960 2020. overall pattern that related richness diversity, structure, habitat conditions analyzed using ordination permutation techniques. We found significant composition structure herbaceous last six decades. Forests were enriched with nutrient-demanding alien species. A increase proportion high SLA canopy height also observed, whereas insignificant. observed trends indicate protection communities within small isolated reserves does not fully protect their composition. Forest should be surrounded by unmanaged spatially connected allow mobility.