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Hybrid poplar plantations are suitable habitat for reintroduced forest herbs with conservation status

Plantations of fast-growing tree species may be of use in conservation by accelerating the restoration of forest habitat on abandoned farmland and increasing connectivity in fragmented landscapes. The objective of this study was to determine if hybrid poplar plantations can be suitable habitats for...

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Autores principales: Boothroyd-Roberts, Kathleen, Gagnon, Daniel, Truax, Benoit
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Springer International Publishing 2013
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3797915/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24156089
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/2193-1801-2-507
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author Boothroyd-Roberts, Kathleen
Gagnon, Daniel
Truax, Benoit
author_facet Boothroyd-Roberts, Kathleen
Gagnon, Daniel
Truax, Benoit
author_sort Boothroyd-Roberts, Kathleen
collection PubMed
description Plantations of fast-growing tree species may be of use in conservation by accelerating the restoration of forest habitat on abandoned farmland and increasing connectivity in fragmented landscapes. The objective of this study was to determine if hybrid poplar plantations can be suitable habitats for the reintroduction of native forest plant species and, if so, which abiotic factors predict successful reintroduction. Four species of forest herb species (Trillium grandiflorum, Sanguinaria canadensis, Maianthemum racemosum, Asarum canadense), of which three have legal conservation status, were transplanted into experimental plantations of two hybrid poplar clones and nearby second-growth woodlots at six sites in southern Quebec, Canada. The transplanted individuals were protected from deer browsing with exclusion cages. After two years, the plant responses of all four species were stable or increased over two years in both types of hybrid poplar plantations. Sanguinaria showed a better response in the plantations than in the woodlots, preferring the rich post-agricultural soils of the plantations with low C:N ratios. Asarum and Maianthemum showed no significant difference between stand types, while Trillium grew better in the woodlots than in the plantations. Much of the variability in the response of the latter three species was unexplained by the measured environmental variables. These results suggest that certain forest herb species can be reintroduced as juvenile plants into plantations, knowing that their spontaneous recolonization is often limited by dispersal and/or seedling establishment. Plantations could also contribute to the conservation of biodiversity by providing an environment for the cultivation of forest herb species as an alternative to their destructive harvest from natural populations.
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spelling pubmed-37979152013-10-23 Hybrid poplar plantations are suitable habitat for reintroduced forest herbs with conservation status Boothroyd-Roberts, Kathleen Gagnon, Daniel Truax, Benoit Springerplus Research Plantations of fast-growing tree species may be of use in conservation by accelerating the restoration of forest habitat on abandoned farmland and increasing connectivity in fragmented landscapes. The objective of this study was to determine if hybrid poplar plantations can be suitable habitats for the reintroduction of native forest plant species and, if so, which abiotic factors predict successful reintroduction. Four species of forest herb species (Trillium grandiflorum, Sanguinaria canadensis, Maianthemum racemosum, Asarum canadense), of which three have legal conservation status, were transplanted into experimental plantations of two hybrid poplar clones and nearby second-growth woodlots at six sites in southern Quebec, Canada. The transplanted individuals were protected from deer browsing with exclusion cages. After two years, the plant responses of all four species were stable or increased over two years in both types of hybrid poplar plantations. Sanguinaria showed a better response in the plantations than in the woodlots, preferring the rich post-agricultural soils of the plantations with low C:N ratios. Asarum and Maianthemum showed no significant difference between stand types, while Trillium grew better in the woodlots than in the plantations. Much of the variability in the response of the latter three species was unexplained by the measured environmental variables. These results suggest that certain forest herb species can be reintroduced as juvenile plants into plantations, knowing that their spontaneous recolonization is often limited by dispersal and/or seedling establishment. Plantations could also contribute to the conservation of biodiversity by providing an environment for the cultivation of forest herb species as an alternative to their destructive harvest from natural populations. Springer International Publishing 2013-10-04 /pmc/articles/PMC3797915/ /pubmed/24156089 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/2193-1801-2-507 Text en © Boothroyd-Roberts et al.; licensee Springer. 2013 This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Research
Boothroyd-Roberts, Kathleen
Gagnon, Daniel
Truax, Benoit
Hybrid poplar plantations are suitable habitat for reintroduced forest herbs with conservation status
title Hybrid poplar plantations are suitable habitat for reintroduced forest herbs with conservation status
title_full Hybrid poplar plantations are suitable habitat for reintroduced forest herbs with conservation status
title_fullStr Hybrid poplar plantations are suitable habitat for reintroduced forest herbs with conservation status
title_full_unstemmed Hybrid poplar plantations are suitable habitat for reintroduced forest herbs with conservation status
title_short Hybrid poplar plantations are suitable habitat for reintroduced forest herbs with conservation status
title_sort hybrid poplar plantations are suitable habitat for reintroduced forest herbs with conservation status
topic Research
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3797915/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24156089
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/2193-1801-2-507
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