Patterns of Clonal Growth Modes Along a Chronosequence of Post-Coppice Forest Regeneration in Beech Forests of Central Italy

Forest coppicing leads to changes in composition of the herbaceous understory through soil disturbance and alteration of the light regime. While the role of seed dispersal traits at the start of succession after coppicing has been extensively studied, the role of persistence traits such as clonal gr...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Canullo, R., Campetella, G., Mucina, Ladislav, Chelli, S., Wellstein, C., Bartha, S.
Format: Journal Article
Published: Springer 2011
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/35222
_version_ 1848754438109396992
author Canullo, R.
Campetella, G.
Mucina, Ladislav
Chelli, S.
Wellstein, C.
Bartha, S.
author_facet Canullo, R.
Campetella, G.
Mucina, Ladislav
Chelli, S.
Wellstein, C.
Bartha, S.
author_sort Canullo, R.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description Forest coppicing leads to changes in composition of the herbaceous understory through soil disturbance and alteration of the light regime. While the role of seed dispersal traits at the start of succession after coppicing has been extensively studied, the role of persistence traits such as clonal growth and bud banks is not yet sufficiently understood. To gain better understanding of this role, we studied the patterns of clonal growth organs and related clonal traits of species in a series of coppiced beech forests of the Central Apennines (Marches region, Italy) in various stages of recovery after the last coppicing event. We conducted stratified random sampling and established a chronosequence of recovery stages based on stand age (reflecting the number of years since the last coppicing). The beech stands were classified into three age groups (Post-logged, Recovering, and Old-coppice stands) according to the characteristic stages of beech coppice dynamics. Clonal growth organs and the corresponding clonal traits of plants in the forest understory vegetation were assessed with the help of a CLO-PLA1 database. We found no significant change in the proportion of clonal species along the studied chronosequence. In contrast, most of the traits and about the half of the clonal growth organs showed correlation with stand age or preference for a certain habitat (i.e., stage of regeneration). Clonal and bud bank traits proved to play an important role in the persistence of species subjected to forest coppicing cycles in the studied area.
first_indexed 2025-11-14T08:40:24Z
format Journal Article
id curtin-20.500.11937-35222
institution Curtin University Malaysia
institution_category Local University
last_indexed 2025-11-14T08:40:24Z
publishDate 2011
publisher Springer
recordtype eprints
repository_type Digital Repository
spelling curtin-20.500.11937-352222019-05-21T07:03:12Z Patterns of Clonal Growth Modes Along a Chronosequence of Post-Coppice Forest Regeneration in Beech Forests of Central Italy Canullo, R. Campetella, G. Mucina, Ladislav Chelli, S. Wellstein, C. Bartha, S. Forest coppicing leads to changes in composition of the herbaceous understory through soil disturbance and alteration of the light regime. While the role of seed dispersal traits at the start of succession after coppicing has been extensively studied, the role of persistence traits such as clonal growth and bud banks is not yet sufficiently understood. To gain better understanding of this role, we studied the patterns of clonal growth organs and related clonal traits of species in a series of coppiced beech forests of the Central Apennines (Marches region, Italy) in various stages of recovery after the last coppicing event. We conducted stratified random sampling and established a chronosequence of recovery stages based on stand age (reflecting the number of years since the last coppicing). The beech stands were classified into three age groups (Post-logged, Recovering, and Old-coppice stands) according to the characteristic stages of beech coppice dynamics. Clonal growth organs and the corresponding clonal traits of plants in the forest understory vegetation were assessed with the help of a CLO-PLA1 database. We found no significant change in the proportion of clonal species along the studied chronosequence. In contrast, most of the traits and about the half of the clonal growth organs showed correlation with stand age or preference for a certain habitat (i.e., stage of regeneration). Clonal and bud bank traits proved to play an important role in the persistence of species subjected to forest coppicing cycles in the studied area. 2011 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/35222 10.1007/s12224-010-9087-0 Springer restricted
spellingShingle Canullo, R.
Campetella, G.
Mucina, Ladislav
Chelli, S.
Wellstein, C.
Bartha, S.
Patterns of Clonal Growth Modes Along a Chronosequence of Post-Coppice Forest Regeneration in Beech Forests of Central Italy
title Patterns of Clonal Growth Modes Along a Chronosequence of Post-Coppice Forest Regeneration in Beech Forests of Central Italy
title_full Patterns of Clonal Growth Modes Along a Chronosequence of Post-Coppice Forest Regeneration in Beech Forests of Central Italy
title_fullStr Patterns of Clonal Growth Modes Along a Chronosequence of Post-Coppice Forest Regeneration in Beech Forests of Central Italy
title_full_unstemmed Patterns of Clonal Growth Modes Along a Chronosequence of Post-Coppice Forest Regeneration in Beech Forests of Central Italy
title_short Patterns of Clonal Growth Modes Along a Chronosequence of Post-Coppice Forest Regeneration in Beech Forests of Central Italy
title_sort patterns of clonal growth modes along a chronosequence of post-coppice forest regeneration in beech forests of central italy
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/35222