Journal
ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION
Volume 159, Issue 10, Pages 2228-2235Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.envpol.2010.10.037
Keywords
Nitrogen deposition; Biodiversity; Tropical reforestation; Land-use history; Light limitation
Categories
Funding
- National Natural Science Foundation of China [30970521, 30900202]
- National Key Basic Research 973 Program [2010CB833502]
- Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province, China [83510650050 00001]
- South China Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences [200806]
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Responses of understory plant diversity to nitrogen (N) additions were investigated in reforested forests of contrasting disturbance regimes in southern China from 2003 to 2008: disturbed forest (with harvesting of understory vegetation and litter) and rehabilitated forest (without harvesting). Experimental additions of N were administered as the following treatments: Control, 50 kg N ha(-1) yr(-1), and 100 kg N ha(-1) yr(-1). Nitrogen additions did not significantly affect understory plant richness, density, and cover in the disturbed forest. Similarly, no significant response was found for canopy closure in this forest. In the rehabilitated forest, species richness and density showed no significant response to N additions; however, understory cover decreased significantly in the N-treated plots, largely a function of a significant increase in canopy closure. Our results suggest that responses of plant diversity to N deposition may vary with different land-use history, and rehabilitated forests may be more sensitive to N deposition. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
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