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The influence of light and nutrient availability on herb layer species richness in oak-dominated forests in central Bohemia

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Abstract

In this study, we examined to what extent the internal site factors (light and soil conditions) are responsible for herb layer diversity in oak-dominated forest stands growing on different substrates in central Bohemia (Czech Republic). We collected data on herb layer diversity, light and nutrient availability at nine oak stands, representing the range of environmental variability for these types of forests in the region. We found that species richness increased with light availability, but only if the site occupied predominantly by fast-colonizing species was excluded from the analysis (P < 0.05). Species richness correlated positively with soil pH and negatively with nitrogen (N) concentration in humus (P < 0.05). The highest species richness was found at sites with not only low N soil concentration, but also simultaneously with high phosphorus (P) soil concentration. Despite this finding, however, herb layer diversity is evidently threatened much more in P-rich soils than in P-poor soils. It seems that the enhancement of N in an ecosystem due to litter accumulation and N deposition generally leads to only a minor increase in N availability at P-poor sites, but a considerable increase at P-rich sites. Therefore, species richness can be exceptionally high at P-rich sites, but only under conditions of strong N limitation.

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Acknowledgements

We thank A. Tenčík, T. Svoboda, P. Blahník, K. Hošková, M. Půlkrábková, A. Zajíčková, J. Procházka and other colleagues for field assistance and technical support. The laboratory of the Czech Geological Survey analyzed all samples of soil and plant biomass. Thank to D. Hardekopf for revision of English and M. Beran for comments of used statistics. This research was financially supported by a Ministry of Environment of the Czech Republic (grant project VaV 640/11/03).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Areál ČOV Hořovice, 268 01, Hořovice, Czech Republic

    Jeňýk Hofmeister & Jan Hošek

  2. Křižany 144, 463 53, Křižany, Czech Republic

    Martin Modrý

  3. Department of Botany and Zoology, Masaryk University, Kotlářská 2, 611 37, Brno, Czech Republic

    Jan Roleček

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  1. Jeňýk Hofmeister
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Correspondence to Jeňýk Hofmeister.

Appendices

Appendix 1

See Appendix Table 4.

Table 4 Classification of three groups of plant species (AFS ancient forest species, FCS fast-colonizing species and other species) at study sites according to list by Honnay et al. (2002) and Verheyen et al. (2003), respectively
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Appendix 2

See Appendix Table 5.

Table 5 Soil condition, weight of the aboveground herb layer biomass, nutrient concentration in the aboveground biomass of herb layer and oak leaves, and soil and light conditions at nine sites in three regions with different geological substrates in central Bohemia (mean ± SD)
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Hofmeister, J., Hošek, J., Modrý, M. et al. The influence of light and nutrient availability on herb layer species richness in oak-dominated forests in central Bohemia. Plant Ecol 205, 57–75 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-009-9598-z

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