Effects of past logging and grazing on understory plant communities in a montane Colorado forest |
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Authors: | Paula J Fornwalt Merrill R Kaufmann Laurie S Huckaby Thomas J Stohlgren |
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Institution: | (1) Rocky Mountain Research Station, USDA Forest Service, 240 West Prospect Road, Fort Collins, CO 80526, USA;(2) Fort Collins Science Center, US Geological Survey, 2050 Centre Street, Building C, Fort Collins, CO 80526, USA;(3) Natural Resource Ecology Laboratory, Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO 80523, USA |
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Abstract: | Throughout Pinus ponderosa–Pseudotsuga menziesii forests of the southern Colorado Front Range, USA, intense logging and domestic grazing began at the time of Euro-American
settlement in the late 1800s and continued until the early 1900s. We investigated the long-term impacts of these settlement-era
activities on understory plant communities by comparing understory composition at a historically logged and grazed site to
that of an environmentally similar site which was protected from past use. We found that species richness and cover within
functional groups rarely differed between sites in either upland or riparian areas. Multivariate analyses revealed little
difference in species composition between sites on uplands, though compositional differences were apparent in riparian zones.
Our findings suggest that settlement-era logging and grazing have had only minor long-term impacts on understories of upland
Front Range P. ponderosa–P. menziesii forests, though they have had a greater long-term influence on riparian understories, where these activities were likely
the most intense.
This article was written and prepared by US Government employees on official time, and therefore it is in the public domain
and not subject to copyright. |
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Keywords: | Community composition Pinus ponderosa C Lawson Multivariate analyses Pseudotsuga menziesii (Mirbel) Franco Riparian areas Species richness |
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