Sustainable forest management aims to produce wood while preserving habitats for biodiversity, which is particularly challenging for vertebrates with local and landscape scale requirements, such as birds or bats. Managers need additional scientific evidence to help them balance conservative and integrative management methods. In this study, the relative influence of management abandonment, stand structure and landscape features on bird and bat communities in 14 managed and unmanaged forests in France is evaluated. Total birds and bats richness, richness for forest and threatened birds and edge-specialized bats significantly increased with total deadwood quantities. Richness of generalist, omnivorous and cavity-nesting birds was higher in unmanaged stands and richness of gleaner bats was positively influenced by the density of standing deadwood. By contrast, landscape variables had little influence on the different ecological groups but did have effects on individual species. Though the effects showed relatively limited magnitude, this study supports the value of deadwood and the importance of management abandonment for forest vertebrates. This study confirms that for integrated conservation strategies to be fully efficient they must be complemented by designating strict forest reserves because some target species groups depend on structural features found only at sufficient levels in those areas.

Functional trait differences among species are increasingly used to infer the effects of biotic and abiotic processes on species coexistence. Commonly, the trait diversity observed within communities is compared to patterns simulated in randomly generated communities based on sampling within a region. The resulting patterns of trait convergence and divergence are assumed to reveal abiotic and biotic processes, respectively. However, biotic processes such as competition can produce both trait divergence and convergence, through either excluding similar species (niche differences, divergence) or excluding dissimilar species (weaker competitor exclusion, convergence). Hence, separating biotic and abiotic processes that can produce identical patterns of trait diversity, or even patterns that neutralize each other, is not feasible with previous methods. We propose an operational framework in which the functional trait dissimilarity within communities (FDcomm) is compared to the corresponding trait dissimilarity expected from the species pool (i.e., functional species pool diversity, FDpool). FDpool includes the set of potential species for a site delimited by the operating environmental and dispersal limitation filters. By applying these filters, the resulting pattern of trait diversity is consistent with biotic processes, i.e., trait divergence (FDcomm > FDpool) indicates niche differentiation, while trait convergence (FDcomm < FDpool) indicates weaker competitor exclusion. To illustrate this framework, with its potential application and constraints, we analyzed both simulated and field data. The functional species pool framework more consistently detected the simulated trait diversity patterns than previous approaches. In the field, using data from plant communities of typical Northern European habitats in Estonia, we found that both niche-based and weaker competitor exclusion influenced community assembly, depending on the traits and community considered. In both simulated and field data, we demonstrated that only by estimating the species pool of a site is it possible to differentiate the patterns of trait dissimilarity produced by operating biotic processes. The framework, which can be applied with both functional and phylogenetic diversity, enables a reinterpretation of community assembly processes. Solving the challenge of defining an appropriate reference species pool for a site can provide a better understanding of community assembly.

Understanding how communities assemble is a central and fundamental question inecology, which is critical for explaining species coexistence and maintenance of species diversity, and for improving biodiversity conservation practice and policy. Compared with species diversity (species richness and other species diversity indices), functional and phylogenetic diversity consider the differences of species in traits and evolutionary history that closely correlated with ecosystem services and functioning, providing insights into the mechanisms driving community clustering or overdispersion. We used line transects to collect data on bird species richness andabundance in five urban habitat patches in Macao, China (Ecological Zone I: STQ；Lu&rsquo;niaolin: LNL; tidal flat wetland nearby Saimachang: SMC; tidal flat wetland nearby port: GZ; mangrove forest under Lianhuaqiao: LHQ) from May 2014 to January 2017. Surveys were conducted during the breeding season in 2014, 2015, and 2016, and during the wintering season in 2014, 2015, 2017, and were repeated for 14 times. Species diversity was estimated as species richness and abundance, while functional and phylogenetic diversity were estimated using functional richness (FRic) and Faith&rsquo;s PD, respectively. Abundance weighted mean pairwise functional distance (MFD) and mean pairwise phylogenetic distance (MPD) were calculated to evaluate changes in the functional and phylogenetic structure of bird community, respectively. The results were as follows: (1) A total of 98 bird species were recorded, belonging to 14 orders and 32 families. Passerines and Ardeidae had the highest species richness (15 and 11 species, respectively). In addition,<em>Egretta garzetta</em> was the most abundant species (849 individuals). (2) Bird species richness (PD and MPD) was the highest in STQ (species richness was 68), whereas abundance was the highest in LHQ (2940 individuals), FRic and MFD was the highest in SMC. (3) Patch area was important factor in explaining the richness, abundance, FRic and PD of birds, whereas vegetation area and tidal flat area had important effects on MFD and MPD, respectively. (4) SES.MFD were significantly clustered in GZ and LHQ, and SES.MPD were significantly clustered in LNL and LHQ, indicating that functional clustering occurred in GZ and LHQ might be a result of environmental filtering. Taken together, our findings suggest that the differences in habitat characters lead to changes in community assembly mechanisms, which is difficult to provide by just considering species diversity. Our results highlight that the necessity of integrating multiple dimension of biodiversity.

了解群落构建过程是生态学的核心和基本问题，这对于解释物种共存和物种多样性的维持，完善生物多样性保护政策至关重要。与传统的物种多样性相比，功能和谱系多样性能够提供更多的信息，特别是在群落构建过程方面提供深刻见解。2014年5月&mdash;2017年1月，采用样线法对澳门地区5个城市栖息地斑块中（生态一区、鹭鸟林、赛马场滩涂、关闸口岸滩涂和莲花桥侧红树林）的鸟类进行繁殖季和越冬季的调查，共调查14次。利用鸟类丰富度和多度来表征群落的物种多样性，其中多度以最大值保留法计；功能和谱系多样性分别采用功能丰富度（functional richness: FRic）和Faith&rsquo;PD。同时，利用基于多度加权的平均成对功能距离（mean pairwise functional distance, MFD）和平均成对谱系距离（mean pairwise phylogenetic distance, MPD）来表征群落的功能和谱系结构。结果表明：共记录98种鸟类，隶属于14目32科，目、科、种中数量最多的依次为，雀形目鸟类最多为47种，鹭科物种数为11种，白鹭多度为849只；鸟类物种丰富度（68种）和PD在生态一区最高，多度在莲花桥侧红树林最高为2940只，MFD和FRic在赛马场滩涂最高，MPD在生态一区最高；斑块面积在鸟类丰富度、多度、FRic和PD中具有普遍重要性，植被面积和滩涂面积则分别强烈影响着MFD和MPD；关闸口岸滩涂和莲花桥侧红树林的鸟类群落SES.MFD显著低于随机值（P&lt;0.05），鹭鸟林和赛马场滩涂的鸟类群落SES.MPD显著低于随机值（P&lt;0.05）,表明关闸口岸滩涂和莲花桥侧红树林鸟类群落功能聚集（functional clustering），可能与生境过滤驱动群落构建有关。栖息地斑块的特征差异导致了鸟类群落构建机制的不同，这是仅仅考虑物种多样性难以提供的信息，说明了研究群落构建机制时考虑多维度多样性的必要性。

Disturbance is an important factor influencing diversity patterns. Ecological theory predicts that diversity peaks at intermediate levels of disturbance, but this pattern is not present in a majority of empirical tests and can be influenced by the level of ecosystem productivity. We experimentally tested the effects of disturbance on diversity and show that species' autecological traits and community relations predicted species loss. We found that - alone or in concert - increasing disturbance intensity or frequency, or decreasing productivity, reduced diversity. Our species did not exhibit a clear competition-colonization trade-off, and intrinsic growth rate was a more important predictor of response to disturbance and productivity than measures of competitive ability. Furthermore, competitive ability was more important in predicting responses when, in addition to killing individuals, disturbance returned nutrients to the ecosystem. Our results demonstrate that species' traits can help resolve conflicting patterns in the response of diversity to disturbance and productivity.

Mountain systems are exceptionally species rich, yet the associated elevational gradients in functional and phylogenetic diversity and their consistency across latitude remain little understood. Here, we document how avian functional and phylogenetic diversity and structure vary along all major elevational gradients worldwide and uncover strong latitudinal differences. Assemblages in warm tropical lowlands and cold temperate highlands are marked by high functional overdispersion and distinctiveness, whereas tropical highlands and temperate lowlands appear strongly functionally clustered and redundant. We additionally find strong geographic variation in the interplay of phylogenetic and functional structure, with strongest deviations between the two in temperate highlands. This latitudinal and elevational variation in assemblage functional structure is underpinned by nuanced shifts in the position, shape and composition of multivariate trait space. We find that, independent of latitude, high-elevation assemblages emerge as exceptionally susceptible to functional change.© 2020 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

Many ecosystem services are delivered by organisms that depend on habitats that are segregated spatially or temporally from the location where services are provided. Management of mobile organisms contributing to ecosystem services requires consideration not only of the local scale where services are delivered, but also the distribution of resources at the landscape scale, and the foraging ranges and dispersal movements of the mobile agents. We develop a conceptual model for exploring how one such mobile-agent-based ecosystem service (MABES), pollination, is affected by land-use change, and then generalize the model to other MABES. The model includes interactions and feedbacks among policies affecting land use, market forces and the biology of the organisms involved. Animal-mediated pollination contributes to the production of goods of value to humans such as crops; it also bolsters reproduction of wild plants on which other services or service-providing organisms depend. About one-third of crop production depends on animal pollinators, while 60-90% of plant species require an animal pollinator. The sensitivity of mobile organisms to ecological factors that operate across spatial scales makes the services provided by a given community of mobile agents highly contextual. Services vary, depending on the spatial and temporal distribution of resources surrounding the site, and on biotic interactions occurring locally, such as competition among pollinators for resources, and among plants for pollinators. The value of the resulting goods or services may feed back via market-based forces to influence land-use policies, which in turn influence land management practices that alter local habitat conditions and landscape structure. Developing conceptual models for MABES aids in identifying knowledge gaps, determining research priorities, and targeting interventions that can be applied in an adaptive management context.

A new framework for measuring functional diversity (FD) from multiple traits has recently been proposed. This framework was mostly limited to quantitative traits without missing values and to situations in which there are more species than traits, although the authors had suggested a way to extend their framework to other trait types. The main purpose of this note is to further develop this suggestion. We describe a highly flexible distance-based framework to measure different facets of FD in multidimensional trait space from any distance or dissimilarity measure, any number of traits, and from different trait types (i.e., quantitative, semi-quantitative, and qualitative). This new approach allows for missing trait values and the weighting of individual traits. We also present a new multidimensional FD index, called functional dispersion (FDis), which is closely related to Rao's quadratic entropy. FDis is the multivariate analogue of the weighted mean absolute deviation (MAD), in which the weights are species relative abundances. For unweighted presence-absence data, FDis can be used for a formal statistical test of differences in FD. We provide the "FD" R language package to easily implement our distance-based FD framework.

Edge effects are major drivers of change in many fragmented landscapes, but are often highly variable in space and time. Here we assess variability in edge effects altering Amazon forest dynamics, plant community composition, invading species, and carbon storage, in the world's largest and longest-running experimental study of habitat fragmentation. Despite detailed knowledge of local landscape conditions, spatial variability in edge effects was only partially foreseeable: relatively predictable effects were caused by the differing proximity of plots to forest edge and varying matrix vegetation, but windstorms generated much random variability. Temporal variability in edge phenomena was also only partially predictable: forest dynamics varied somewhat with fragment age, but also fluctuated markedly over time, evidently because of sporadic droughts and windstorms. Given the acute sensitivity of habitat fragments to local landscape and weather dynamics, we predict that fragments within the same landscape will tend to converge in species composition, whereas those in different landscapes will diverge in composition. This 'landscape-divergence hypothesis', if generally valid, will have key implications for biodiversity-conservation strategies and for understanding the dynamics of fragmented ecosystems.

1. The environmental filtering hypothesis predicts that the abiotic environment selects species with similar trait values within communities. Testing this hypothesis along multiple - and interacting - gradients of climate and soil variables constitutes a great opportunity to better understand and predict the responses of plant communities to ongoing environmental changes. 2. Based on two key plant traits, maximum plant height and specific leaf area (SLA), we assessed the filtering effects of climate (mean annual temperature and precipitation, precipitation seasonality), soil characteristics (soil pH, sand content and total phosphorus) and all potential interactions on the functional structure and diversity of 124 dryland communities spread over the globe. The functional structure and diversity of dryland communities were quantified using the mean, variance, skewness and kurtosis of plant trait distributions. 3. The models accurately explained the observed variations in functional trait diversity across the 124 communities studied. All models included interactions among factors, i.e. climate - climate (9% of explanatory power), climate - soil (24% of explanatory power) and soil - soil interactions (5% of explanatory power). Precipitation seasonality was the main driver of maximum plant height, and interacted with mean annual temperature and precipitation. Soil pH mediated the filtering effects of climate and sand content on SLA. Our results also revealed that communities characterized by a low variance can also exhibit low kurtosis values, indicating that functionally contrasting species can co-occur even in communities with narrow ranges of trait values. 4. We identified the particular set of conditions under which the environmental filtering hypothesis operates in drylands worldwide. Our findings also indicate that species with functionally contrasting strategies can still co-occur locally, even under prevailing environmental filtering. Interactions between sources of environmental stress should be therefore included in global trait-based studies, as this will help to further anticipate where the effects of environmental filtering will impact plant trait diversity under climate change.

<p id="p00010"><strong>Aims:</strong> Due to the increasing demand for agricultural land, biodiversity in China has faced increased losses. Our goal in this study is to evaluate how agriculturalization influences bird communities.</p> <p id="p00015"><strong>Methods</strong> We conducted field surveys from October 2020 to October 2021 in three different habitats: (1) forest, (2) agricultural land close to the forest (0‒3 km), and (3) agricultural land far from the forest (6‒9 km). In total, we surveyed bird communities in 180 plots and then repeated the survey for each plot in each season (spring, summer, autumn and winter). All plots were one of three different national nature reserves in Guangxi: Dayaoshan, Damingshan, and Shiwandashan.</p> <p id="p00020"><strong>Results:</strong> (1) The species accumulation curve of each habitat increased at a decreasing rate. The ratio of each habitat&#x02019;s recorded species richness to the estimated species richness was larger than 60%, indicating that sufficient sampling was conducted; (2) We recorded a total of 196 species belonging to 14 genera and 54 families; passerine birds accounted for the highest proportion of recorded species (71.4%). The total number of species in each habitat type from highest to lowest were: forest (103), agricultural land close to the forest (101), and agricultural land far from the forest (94); (3) Similarity analysis implied that species composition was more similar between the two agricultural habitats, and both were different from forests; (4) Agricultural plots far from the forest had on average the highest Shannon-Wiener diversity index, while forest plots had the lowest in different seasons; (5) The results of the generalized linear mixed model indicated that the bird diversity in each plot per survey in both agricultural land far and close was significantly higher than in forest habitat, but there was no difference between the two agricultural habitats.</p> <p id="p00025"><strong>Conclusion:</strong> Our results suggest that although forests have the lowest species diversity, some species in the forest have very strict habitat requirements. Therefore, protecting forest species and their habitat is vital. Although many species have strong preferences for agricultural habitat, human disturbance in agricultural areas is often extensive and detrimental, so clear protection measures for birds in those areas are necessary as well.</p>

随着农业用地需求增加, 生物多样性受到严重威胁并急剧下降。为探讨农业化对鸟类多样性的影响, 本文在2020年10月至2021年10月期间, 对广西大瑶山、大明山、十万大山3个国家级自然保护区以及周边农田区域内鸟类进行了调查。研究选取森林、近地农田(距离森林较近的农田)、远地农田(距离森林较远的农田) 3种生境, 布设样点共计180个, 并在不同季节(春、夏、秋、冬)对鸟类多样性进行了调查。结果如下: (1) 3种生境物种累积曲线呈先快速上升, 后变为渐近线或增速放缓趋势, 各生境实际调查鸟类物种数与预测值比例均大于60%, 表明鸟类调查充分; (2)共记录到鸟类196种, 隶属于14目54科, 其中雀形目鸟类占比最高(71.4%)。不同生境记录到鸟类种数从多到少依次为: 森林(103)、近地(101)、远地(94); (3)相似性分析结果表明, 森林与近地农田和远地农田间鸟类相似性差异都较大, 近地与远地间鸟类群落更为相似; (4) 3种生境鸟类群落Shannon-Wiener多样性指数在不同季节里均表现为: 远地 &gt; 近地 &gt; 森林; (5)广义线性混合模型结果显示, 两种农田生境鸟类多样性显著高于森林, 而近地和远地农田生境间鸟类多样性无显著差异。研究结果表明, 虽然森林鸟类多样性较低, 但对其特有种具有较高的保护作用; 尽管鸟类对农田生境表现出更高的喜好, 但农田内人为干扰较为频繁, 缺乏相关的保护措施, 应加强对农田鸟类的保护。

By retaining patches of trees in cut blocks, managers expect to retain some forest birds and create bird communities more similar to those found after fires. We surveyed birds from a range of patch sizes (1 to &gt;3000 live residual trees), at four ages (2, 15, 30, 60 years), following two disturbance types (harvest, fire) in mixedwood boreal forest. Bird communities varied among patch sizes, forest ages, and disturbance types. Immediately post-disturbance, bird communities from large patches (&gt;100 residual trees) were more similar to those from old forest than were communities from small patches ([Formula: see text]10 residual trees). Birds that nest or forage in open or riparian habitats had highest densities in small patches 2 years post-harvest, whereas birds that nest in large snags had highest densities in small patches 2 years post-fire. Throughout the chronosequence following both disturbance types, birds from small patches became more similar to those from old forest. Birds that nest and forage in small trees and shrubs were common 15 and 30 years post-disturbance, and generalist forest birds were common 60 years post-disturbance. Birds associated with old forest were present in all patch sizes 15, 30, and 60 years post-disturbance, although larger patches had higher densities of these species.

Within boreal forests of western North America, the dominant large-scale natural disturbance is wildfire. Thus, harvesting that is as similar as possible to fire is expected to best maintain natural bird communities. We reviewed studies of birds (mainly grouse, woodpeckers, and songbirds) from boreal forests of western North America and conducted meta-analyses to compare the similarity of bird communities occurring postfire versus postharvest. We compared the bird communities at five seral stages and also summarized the effects of retaining large live trees at harvest. Bird communities immediately postharvest differed greatly from those postfire. Differences between disturbance types disappeared as the forest regenerated, and both disturbance types became dominated by relatively few bird species in 31- to 75-year-old forests. During the period 76\u0096125 years postdisturbance, old-forest birds became present and bird species richness increased. However, the trajectory of forest succession during this period influenced bird communities; old aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.), old mixedwood, and old white spruce (Picea glauca Moench (Voss)) forests all had different bird communities. Retention of large live trees in cutblocks resulted in their use by many old-forest birds, but results were not consistent among studies. Although most bird species had clear peaks in abundance in a specific forest type, no species with more than five detections was limited to a single forest type.

Animal species diversity is often associated with time since disturbance, but the effects of disturbances such as fire on functional diversity are unknown. Functional diversity measures the range, abundance, and distribution of trait values in a community, and links changes in species composition with the consequences for ecosystem function. Improved understanding of the relationship between time since fire (TSF) and functional diversity is critical given that the frequency of both prescribed fire and wildfire is expected to increase. To address this knowledge gap, we examined responses of avian functional diversity to TSF and two direct measures of environmental heterogeneity, plant diversity, and structural heterogeneity. We surveyed birds across a 70-year chronosequence spanning four vegetation types in southeast Australia. Six bird functional traits were used to derive four functional diversity indices (richness, evenness, divergence, and dispersion) and the effects of TSF, plant diversity and structural heterogeneity on species richness and the functional diversity indices were examined using mixed models. We used a regression tree method to identify traits associated with species more common in young vegetation. Functional richness and dispersion were negatively associated with TSF in all vegetation types, suggesting that recent prescribed fire generates heterogeneous vegetation and provides greater opportunities for resource partitioning. Species richness was not significantly associated with TSF, and is probably an unreliable surrogate for functional diversity in fire-prone systems. A positive, relationship between functional evenness and structural heterogeneity was comnon to all vegetation types, suggesting that fine-scale (tens of meters) structural variation can enhance ecosystem function. Species more common in young vegetation were primarily linked by their specialist diets, indicating that ecosystem services such as seed dispersal and insect control are enhanced in more recently burnt vegetation. We suggest that patchy prescribed fire sustains functional diversity, and that controlled use of patchy fire to break up large expanses of mature vegetation will enhance ecosystem function.

Functional diversity is increasingly identified as an important driver of ecosystem functioning. Various indices have been proposed to measure the functional diversity of a community, but there is still no consensus on which are most suitable. Indeed, none of the existing indices meets all the criteria required for general use. The main criteria are that they must be designed to deal with several traits, take into account abundances, and measure all the facets of functional diversity. Here we propose three indices to quantify each facet of functional diversity for a community with species distributed in a multidimensional functional space: functional richness (volume of the functional space occupied by the community), functional evenness (regularity of the distribution of abundance in this volume), and functional divergence (divergence in the distribution of abundance in this volume). Functional richness is estimated using the existing convex hull volume index. The new functional evenness index is based on the minimum spanning tree which links all the species in the multidimensional functional space. Then this new index quantifies the regularity with which species abundances are distributed along the spanning tree. Functional divergence is measured using a novel index which quantifies how species diverge in their distances (weighted by their abundance) from the center of gravity in the functional space. We show that none of the indices meets all the criteria required for a functional diversity index, but instead we show that the set of three complementary indices meets these criteria. Through simulations of artificial data sets, we demonstrate that functional divergence and functional evenness are independent of species richness and that the three functional diversity indices are independent of each other. Overall, our study suggests that decomposition of functional diversity into its three primary components provides a meaningful framework for its quantification and for the classification of existing functional diversity indices. This decomposition has the potential to shed light on the role of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning and on the influence of biotic and abiotic filters on the structure of species communities. Finally, we propose a general framework for applying these three functional diversity indices.

中国现有1,445种鸟类, 是世界上鸟类物种数最多的国家之一。物种特征反应了生物有机体的功能和适合度, 在生态学、进化生物学和保护生物学研究中具有重要作用。但是, 目前还没有关于我国鸟类生活史、生态学和地理分布等物种特征的完整数据库。通过系统查阅文献和各种数据资料, 本文共收集整理出了中国1,445种鸟类17个功能特征数据: 体重、体长、嘴峰长、翅长、尾长、跗蹠长、食性、窝卵数、卵大小、卵体积、巢址、巢的类型、集群状况、迁徙状况、是否特有种、地理分布范围和分布省份等。在这些特征中, 除迁徙状况、是否特有种、地理分布范围和分布省份外, 其余特征数据均存在不同程度的缺失, 数据的完整度为60.83%‒100%。本数据库是目前关于中国鸟类最新和最全的物种特征数据库, 期望能为我国鸟类生态学、进化生物学、生物地理学、保护生物学等研究提供支持。 数据库(集)基本信息简介 数据库(集)名称 中国鸟类的生活史和生态学特征数据集 作者 王彦平, 宋云枫, 钟雨茜, 陈传武, 赵郁豪, 曾頔, 吴亦如, 丁平 通讯作者 王彦平(wangyanping@njnu.edu.cn) 时间范围 截止到2021年5月 地理区域 地理区域为全中国, 包括香港、台湾和澳门等地区 文件大小 1.0 MB 数据格式 *.xlsx 数据链接 http://dataopen.info/home/datafile/index/id/222 http://doi.org/10.24899/do.202109003 https://www.biodiversity-science.net/fileup/1005-0094/DATA/2021201.zip 数据库(集)组成 数据集共包括1个数据文件, 包括中国1,445种鸟类的17个物种特征

Understory vegetation in boreal forests is the most diverse and least understood component of boreal plant com- munities. In addition, the aboveground net primary productivity of understory vegetation is almost comparable to that of the trees, and the biomass turns over more rapidly than does that of the trees. Fire disturbance is an important landscape process, driving understory structure and function in boreal forests. We review recent research about how fire, interacting with topography and overstory canopy, affects environmental resources (e.g., light and soil nutrients) and understory vegetation. Recent studies have demonstrated that understory vegetation in boreal forests can also influence post-fire tree seedling regeneration, rate of recovery and successional pathways. It can also affect the quantity and heterogeneity of environmental resources by influencing biogeochemical processes such as decomposition and nutrient flow. Understanding understory vegetation dynamics after fire, especially during early succession, is very important for biodiversity conservation and management of boreal forest.

林下植被在北方针叶林植被群落中的物种多样性最高, 且具有较高的生物量周转率和地上部分净初级生产力, 对北方针叶林生态系统功能起着重要作用。火干扰是决定北方针叶林林下植被结构与功能的一个重要景观过程。该文综述了火干扰是如何通过与地形、火前林冠组成的交互作用而影响环境资源和林下植被的。最近的研究表明: 林下植被能够影响火后树木更新苗的定植、重建速率及森林演替轨迹; 林下植被还会通过影响元素的生物地球化学过程(凋落物降解和养分循环)影响林下环境资源的数量与异质性。因此, 研究火后初期北方针叶林林下植被的动态变化, 对于物种多样性保护和森林管理具有重要意义。