Question: How does vegetation develop during the initial period following severe wildfire in managed forests? Location: Southwestern Oregon, USA. Methods: In severely burned plantations, dynamics of (1) shrub, herbaceous, and cryptogam richness; (2) cover; (3) topographic, overstory, and site influences were characterized on two contrasting aspects 2 to 4 years following fire. Analysis of varia...

Negative density dependence (NDD) and niche partitioning have been perceived as important mechanisms for the maintenance of species diversity. However, little is known about their relative contributions to seedling survival. We examined the effects of biotic and abiotic neighborhoods and the variations of biotic neighborhoods among species using survival data for 7503 seedlings belonging to 22 ...

Knowledge and understanding of bat habitat associations and the responses of bats to forest management are critical for effective bat conservation and management. Few studies have been conducted on bat habitat use in the southeast, despite the high number of endangered and sensitive species in the region. Our objective was to identify important local, stand, and landscape factors influencing ba...

Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) account for a substantial portion of primary production in dryland ecosystems. They successionally mature to deliver a suite of ecosystem services, such as carbon sequestration, water retention and nutrient cycling, and climate regulation. Biocrust assemblages are extremely well adapted to survive desiccation and to rapidly take advantage of the periodic preci...

Mycorrhizal fungi play a central role in plant nutrition and nutrient cycling, yet our understanding on their effects free-living microbes, soil carbon (C) decomposition CO2 fluxes remains limited. Here we used trenches lined with mesh screens of varying sizes to isolate mycorrhizal hyphal C dynamics subtropical successional forests. We found that the presence hyphae suppressed by 17% early-suc...

Biofilms are a ubiquitous formation of microbial communities found on surfaces in aqueous environments. These structures have been investigated as biomonitoring indicators for stream heath, and here were used for the potential use in forensic sciences. Biofilm successional development has been proposed as a method to determine the postmortem submersion interval (PMSI) of remains because there a...

The relative importance of plant facilitation and competition during primary succession depends on the development of ecosystem nutrient pools, yet the interaction of these processes remains poorly understood. To explore how these mechanisms interact to drive successional dynamics, we devised a stoichiometric ecosystem-level model that considers the role of nitrogen and phosphorus limitation in...

Closed canopy vegetation often prevents the colonization of plant species. Therefore the majority of plant species are expected to appear at the initial phase of post-agricultural succession in mesic forest environment with moderate levels of resources. This hypothesis was tested with data from the BuellSmall Successional Study, NJ, USA, one of the longest continuous fine-scale studies of old-f...

In restored peatlands, recovery of carbon assimilation by peat-forming plants is a prerequisite for the recovery of ecosystem functioning. Restoration by rewetting may affect moss photosynthesis and respiration directly and/or through species successional turnover. To quantify the importance of the direct effects and the effects mediated by species change in boreal spruce swamp forests, we used...