Response of understory vegetation to exclosure in a heavily compacted forest recreational site

Abstract

Objectives of this study were to investigate effect of exclosure on understory vegetation recovery and determine the time required for understory vegetation recovery in a forest recreational site. Recovery of understory vegetation in an exclosure was monitored for three growing seasons and plant density and vegetation cover were determined for each plant species. Exclosure was compared with control plot for the Shannon index of diversity. Results showed that a total of 33 (18 woody, 15 herbaceous) plant taxa were established in the exclosure while 42 (16 woody, 26 herbaceous) were encountered in the forest plot. Quercus petraea (Mattuschka) Liebi. subsp. iberica (Steven ex Bieb.) Krassiln. had the highest density both in the exclosure (30.37 plants m(-2)) and forest plot (25.75 plants m(-2)) and followed by Hedera helix L. (28.44 plants m(-2) in the exclosure, 23.33 plants m-2 in the forest plot). Plant species recovered in the exclosure did not survive very long as growing season progressed, top soil dried, and canopy closure increased. H. helix L. was the major dominant plant species for vegetation cover in both exclosure (45.23 %) and forest plot (45.08 %). There was a significant difference between plots for species diversity and forest plot had diversity index of 1.01 while exclosure had a diversity index of 0.741.