Vegetation and soil differences in ancient opposed to new forests

This study compared the vegetation and soils of forest stands with different land-use histories in a major forest complex with new forest stands isolated from ancient forests. Vegetation did not vary significantly in relation to former land-use within the major forest complex, but was significantly different between the major forest complex and the isolated new forests. Plant available phosphate, pH and organic content were not significantly different between stands with different former land-use. There was a negative correlation between the abundance of some forest plant species and distance to ancient forest, even within the small scale of the major forest complex. These results emphasise the slow migration rates of some forest species, even into new forests planted on unimproved soils adjacent to ancient forest. However, this study gives no support to suggestions in the literature that migration rates are slow because of differences in the soils of ancient and new forests. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.