The Ecological Significance of the Herbaceous Layer in Temperate Forest Ecosystems
2007/11/01 by Frank S. Gilliam · 48 citations
Environmental Science · Agricultural and Biological Sciences · #Ecology and Vegetation Dynamics Studies #Plant and animal studies #Fire effects on ecosystems
paper · pdf · doi:10.1641/b571007
Abstract
Despite a growing awareness that the herbaceous layer serves a special role in maintaining the structure and function of forests, this stratum remains an underappreciated aspect of forest ecosystems. In this article I review and synthesize information concerning the herb layer's structure, composition, and dynamics to emphasize its role as an integral component of forest ecosystems. Because species diversity is highest in the herb layer among all forest strata, forest biodiversity is largely a function of the herb-layer community. Competitive interactions within the herb layer can determine the initial success of plants occupying higher strata, including the regeneration of dominant overstory tree species. Furthermore, the herb layer and the overstory can become linked through parallel responses to similar environmental gradients. These relationships between strata vary both spatially and temporally. Because the herb layer responds sensitively to disturbance across broad spatial and temporal scales, its dynamics can provide important information regarding the site characteristics of forests, including patterns of past land-use practices. Thus, the herb layer has a significance that belies its diminutive stature.
Citations
Cited by
- Camouflage via leaf mottling among North American <i>Erythronium</i> species increases with forest cover and deer abundance
- A review of the effects of forest management intensity on ecosystem services for northern European temperate forests with a focus on the UK
- Multiple disturbances, multiple legacies: Fire, canopy gaps and deer jointly change the forest seed bank
- The affinity of vascular plants and bryophytes to forest microclimate buffering
- Sparse subalpine forest recovery pathways, plant communities, and carbon stocks 34 years after stand‐replacing fire
- Contrasting effects of protected areas on understory plant diversity in broadleaved deciduous forests
- Pawpaws prevent predictability: A locally dominant tree alters understory beta‐diversity and community assembly
- Evaluating the definition and distribution of spring ephemeral wildflowers in eastern North America
- Ancient experiments: forest biodiversity and soil nutrients enhanced by Native American middens
- Local adaptation and phenotypic plasticity in two forest understorey herbs in response to forest management intensity
- Contrasting thermophilization among forests, grasslands and alpine summits
- Workshop: Stories of the Understory
- Phenological mismatch between trees and wildflowers: Reconciling divergent findings in two recent analyses
- Phenological mismatch between trees and wildflowers: Reconciling divergent findings in two recent analyses
- Functional responses of understory plants to natural disturbance‐based management in eastern and western Canada
- Local neighborhood communities in the understory play a critical role by affecting regeneration niches and subsequent community assembly in a montane cloud forest
- Effects of productivity on biodiversity in forest ecosystems across the United States and China
- Effects of nitrogen deposition and empirical nitrogen critical loads for ecoregions of the United States
- Global impacts of fire regimes on wildland bird diversity
- Functional trait diversity in overstorey and understorey increases microbial carbon use efficiency in a forest plantation soil
- Warmer temperatures are linked to widespread phenological mismatch among native and non‐native forest plants
- Multiple Disturbances, Multiple Legacies: Fire, Canopy Gaps, and Deer Jointly Change the Forest Seed Bank
- Eco-hydrological functioning of multi-aged dryland afforestation systems
- Trophic cascades, invasive species and body-size hierarchies interactively modulate climate change responses of ecotonal temperate-boreal forest. [europepmc]
- Diversity of Medicinal Plants among Different Forest-use Types of the Pakistani Himalaya. [europepmc]
- Regional-scale land-cover change during the 20th century and its consequences for biodiversity. [europepmc]
- Similarity and difference in vegetation structure of three desert shrub communities under the same temperate climate but with different microhabitats. [europepmc]
- Coppice abandonment and its implications for species diversity in forest vegetation. [europepmc]
- Altered leaf functional traits by nitrogen addition in a nutrient-poor pine plantation: A consequence of decreased phosphorus availability. [europepmc]
- DNA barcoding herbaceous and woody plant species at a subalpine forest dynamics plot in Southwest China. [europepmc]
- Fire rather than nitrogen addition affects understory plant communities in the short term in a coniferous-broadleaf mixed forest. [europepmc]
- Forest floor temperature and greenness link significantly to canopy attributes in South Africa's fragmented coastal forests. [europepmc]
- Novel insights into how the mean and heterogeneity of abiotic conditions together shape forb species richness patterns in the Allegheny plateau ecoregion. [europepmc]
- Comparison of diversity and composition of macrofungal species between intensive mushroom harvesting and non-harvesting areas in Oaxaca, Mexico. [europepmc]
- Short-term effects of thinning on the development and communities of understory vegetation of Chinese fir plantations in Southeastern China. [europepmc]
- The impact of tree canopy structure on understory variation in a boreal forest. [europepmc]
- An annotated checklist of the vascular plants of Aberdare Ranges Forest, a part of Eastern Afromontane Biodiversity Hotspot. [europepmc]
- Importance of overstorey attributes for understorey litter production and nutrient cycling in European forests. [europepmc]
- A Decade of Close-to-Nature Transformation Alters Species Composition and Increases Plant Community Diversity in Two Coniferous Plantations. [europepmc]
- Plant functional traits are correlated with species persistence in the herb layer of old-growth beech forests. [europepmc]
- Herbaceous perennial plants with short generation time have stronger responses to climate anomalies than those with longer generation time. [europepmc]
- Are we missing the forest for the trees? Conspecific negative density dependence in a temperate deciduous forest. [europepmc]
- Effects of high Ca and Mg stress on plants water use efficiency in a Karst ecosystem. [europepmc]
- Contribution of microbial activity and vegetation cover to the spatial distribution of soil respiration in mountains. [europepmc]
- Vegetation-environment interactions: plant species distribution and community assembly in mixed coniferous forests of Northwestern Himalayas. [europepmc]
- Soil properties constrain forest understory plant distributions along an elevation gradient. [europepmc]
- Forest understory vegetation study: current status and future trends. [europepmc]
- Ecological analysis of plant community structure and soil effects in subtropical forest ecosystem. [europepmc]
Related