Effects of past logging and grazing on understory plant communities in a montane Colorado forest

被引:14
作者
Fornwalt, Paula J. [1 ]
Kaufmann, Merrill R. [1 ]
Huckaby, Laurie S. [1 ]
Stohlgren, Thomas J. [2 ,3 ]
机构
[1] US Forest Serv, Rocky Mt Res Stn, Ft Collins, CO 80526 USA
[2] US Geol Survey, Ft Collins Sci Ctr, Ft Collins, CO 80526 USA
[3] Colorado State Univ, Nat Resource Ecol Lab, Ft Collins, CO 80523 USA
关键词
Community composition; Pinus ponderosa C. Lawson; Multivariate analyses; Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirbel) Franco; Riparian areas; Species richness; PONDEROSA PINE FOREST; FIR FORESTS;
D O I
10.1007/s11258-008-9513-z
中图分类号
Q94 [植物学];
学科分类号
071001 ;
摘要
Throughout Pinus ponderosa-Pseudotsuga menziesii forests of the southern Colorado Front Range, USA, intense logging and domestic grazing began at the time of Euro-American settlement in the late 1800s and continued until the early 1900s. We investigated the long-term impacts of these settlement-era activities on understory plant communities by comparing understory composition at a historically logged and grazed site to that of an environmentally similar site which was protected from past use. We found that species richness and cover within functional groups rarely differed between sites in either upland or riparian areas. Multivariate analyses revealed little difference in species composition between sites on uplands, though compositional differences were apparent in riparian zones. Our findings suggest that settlement-era logging and grazing have had only minor long-term impacts on understories of upland Front Range P. ponderosa-P. menziesii forests, though they have had a greater long-term influence on riparian understories, where these activities were likely the most intense.
引用
收藏
页码:99 / 109
页数:11
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