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Vegetation composition, structure and soil properties across coastal forest–barren ecotones

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Abstract

Coastal barrens support rare plant species but may be threatened by forest encroachment. We determined whether trees spread into coastal barren habitat from forest patches and assessed plant species composition and soil properties across the forest–barren ecotone. We quantified tree age and height, soil properties, and vascular plant, bryophyte and lichen species composition along transects perpendicular to the edges of tree patches within the forest–barren ecotone in coastal Nova Scotia. Randomization tests assessed whether the vegetation and environmental characteristics were significantly different in the transition zone compared to one or both adjoining ecosystems. We used ordination to examine trends in species composition across the ecotone and the relationship to environmental variables. Tree age and height decreased continuously from the forest towards the edge of the forest patches. There were also trends in vegetation composition and structure from the forest into the open barrens. Many species were most abundant within the transition zone, although not always significantly. Soil properties were relatively uniform across the ecotone. The structure and vegetation of the forest–barren ecotone suggests that forest patches act as nuclei for forest expansion on barrens with a typical successional pathway where coastal barren vegetation is gradually replaced by forest species. This encroachment may pose a threat to rare barrens communities. While landscape factors such as salt spray and wind exposure may determine the general locations where forest can establish, biotic processes of growth and dispersal appear to govern the fine-scale expansion of tree patches.

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Acknowledgements

Tyler Smith provided invaluable help with the statistical components. We thank Kat Dillon, Crystal Hillier, Molly Simons, Sarah Robinson and Jenn Lau for assistance with field work. Sean Basquill and Philip Giles provided critical comments on an earlier version of the paper. Financial support for this project is from NSERC (CGS to S. Burley, Discovery Grant to J. Lundholm) and Saint Mary’s University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biology Department, Saint Mary’s University, 923 Robie St., Halifax, NS, Canada

    Scott T. Burley & Jeremy T. Lundholm

  2. School for Resource and Environmental Studies, Dalhousie University, 6100 University Ave., Halifax, NS, Canada

    Karen A. Harper

  3. Environmental Studies Program, Saint Mary’s University, 923 Robie St., Halifax, NS, Canada

    Jeremy T. Lundholm

Authors
  1. Scott T. Burley
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  2. Karen A. Harper
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  3. Jeremy T. Lundholm
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jeremy T. Lundholm.

Appendix

Appendix

See Tables 3 and 4.

Table 3 Species, family, S-rank, frequency (# plots) and mean # intersection points (out of 25) in 1 × 1 m plots within each distance, ±1 SE for 61 vascular species, 19 lichen species and 27 moss and liverwort species sampled from 18 transects across the transition area between coastal barren and forest patches
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Table 4 Species scores for the DCA and CCA ordinations for species listed in Table 3 (Appendix) that were included in the ordination
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Burley, S.T., Harper, K.A. & Lundholm, J.T. Vegetation composition, structure and soil properties across coastal forest–barren ecotones. Plant Ecol 211, 279–296 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-010-9789-7

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