A meta-analysis of fauna and flora species richness and abundance in plantations and pasture lands

Abstract

A meta-analysis of fauna and flora species richness and abundance in plantations and pasture lands. Biological conservation. Volume: 143Number: 3, pp 545-554. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon. 2009.11.030 Access to the published version may require journal subscription.Published with permission from: ELSEVIER We conducted a systematic global review of differences between timber plantations and pasture lands in terms of animal and plant species richness and abundance, and assessed the results using meta-analysis techniques. Our principal aim was to test the hypothesis that plantations contain higher species richness or abundance than pasture. Of the 1967 studies of potential relevance, 66 provided biological monitoring information and 36 met the requirements for meta-analyses. Sufficient data were available for meta-analyses to be conducted comparing the species richness and abundance of plantations and pasture lands for five taxonomic groups: plants, invertebrates, reptiles/amphibians, mammals, and birds. Within each taxon there was considerable variation in the difference between species richness and abundance between plantations and pasture lands. Birds and reptile/amphibians exhibited significantly higher species richness, and mammals exhibited significantly higher abundance, in plantations than in pasture lands which lacked remnant vegetation. Reptile/amphibian species richness was significantly higher in plantations in general. No significant differences in species richness were found for mammals, plants, or invertebrates, and no significant differences in abundance were found for birds, reptiles/amphibians, invertebrates, or plants. It is only within the presence of taxonomic caveats (ie. reptiles/amphibians), or specific landscape features (ie. absence of remnant vegetation within pasture), that it can be concluded that plantations support higher species richness or abundance than pasture land. We emphasize that caution is warranted when making general statements about the inherent biodiversity value of diverse and broadly-defined land-uses. 3Plantations and biodiversity 1

Understory Structure and Vascular Plant Diversity in Naturally Regenerated Deciduous Forests and Spruce Plantations on Similar Clear-Cuts: Implications for Forest Regeneration Strategy Selection

“…Therefore, because of human-made activities on clear-cuts, the spruce reforestation severely restricted the shrub community development and obviously increased invasions by pioneer annuals and ruderals. Meanwhile, however, it was harmful to those remnant species populations sensitive to habitat alteration [3,12]. Thus we suggestthat to reduce the initial planting density of target trees during reforestation design was also a fundamental measure to decrease damage to initial ground vegetation and to allow the combination of reforestation and natural regeneration.…”

“…(2) How do the vascular plant groups (tree seedlings, shrubs, ferns, forbs, and graminoids) differ in species composition, richness, and community structure between the understory of the two forests? (3) What are the differences in structures of the overstory and understory and their relationships between the two forests? We hypothesized that: (H1) The naturally regenerated forests would host higher species diversity compared to the planted spruce forests, with woody plant diversity being the key driver of the diversity difference; and (H2) the tree canopy structure of the two forests disparately influences the structure and species diversity of the understory.…”

“…The understory can provide habitat and food for faunal communities [3], and act as a driver of nutrient cycling [4], stand productivity [4,5], and forest regeneration and succession [6][7][8]. Thus, the understory community and biodiversity are focal objectives for sustainable forest management, effective forest biodiversity conservation, and successful forest restoration [4,6,9].…”

Review of Plant Species Diversity in Managed Forests in Japan

“…Since the function of plantations has changed from being single purpose (i.e., timber production) to multipurpose (e.g., habitats for wild animals and plants), studies of plant species diversity [15,16] as well as ecosystem services and goods [17] provided by plantations have increased markedly (Table 1). In a meta-analysis of plant species richness in plantations compared to other land cover types (e.g., primary and secondary forest), Bremer and Farley [15] showed that plantations were more likely to contribute to biodiversity when established in degraded lands than when they replaced natural forest, grassland, and shrubland ecosystems.…”

Managing tree plantations as novel socioecological systems: Australian and North American perspectives

“…Informed (and sometimes novel) management will be required to ensure that these areas play a useful conservation and ecosystem service roles. Furthermore, conservation outside reserves, including in plantations, is increasingly recognized as having a critical complementary role to traditional reserve-based conservation efforts (Lindenmayer and Franklin 2002;Felton et al 2010;Quine and Humphrey 2010).…”