DOI: 10.5061/dryad.mg54p
title: Data from: Functional response of plant communities to clearcutting: management impacts differ between forest vegetation zones

description: 1. Understanding of the ecological impacts of logging practices on
 biodiversity and associated ecosystem processes is essential for
 developing sustainable forest management approaches. We documented the
 impacts of clearcutting on the functional structure of tree and herbaceous
 communities in hemiboreal, cool-temperate, warm-temperate and subtropical
 forests in the Japanese archipelago and identified forest vegetation that
 is vulnerable to deterioration of important ecosystem functions. 2. We
 combined species data for leaf, stem, flower and fruit traits related to
 productivity, nutrient cycling and habitat quality for wildlife with
 phytosociological vegetation data from unmanaged and previously-clearcut
 forests, then calculated functional structure indices (community mean of
 trait values, functional richness and functional divergence) of plant
 communities. 3 .For tree species, functional structure indices of specific
 leaf area (SLA), leaf carbon and nitrogen concentrations, maximum height,
 wood density and flower size differed between unmanaged and clearcut
 forests, while for herb species, only maximum height differed between the
 two forest types. 4. Functional structure indices showed divergent
 patterns across forest vegetation zones. In hemiboreal, cool-temperate and
 warm-temperate forests, the community means of SLA and leaf nitrogen
 concentration were greater and that of leaf carbon concentration was
 smaller in clearcut than in unmanaged forests. Although clearcut forests
 had greater species richness than unmanaged forests, functional richness
 and/or functional divergence of maximum height were smaller in clearcut
 forests. In hemiboreal and cool-temperate forests, functional richness and
 functional divergence of SLA were also smaller in clearcut forests. In
 contrast, subtropical forests showed no differences in species richness
 and functional structures between unmanaged and clearcut forests. 5.
 Synthesis and applications. Functional redundancy of plant communities
 differs among traits and among forest vegetation zones. After intensive
 logging, hemiboreal, cool-temperate and warm-temperate forests were more
 vulnerable to the loss of ecosystem functions related to leaf and stem
 traits of tree species than were subtropical forests, which appeared
 relatively resilient. Locally adaptive management to maintain multiple
 ecosystem functions should be developed based on the degree of functional
 complementarity among plant species in forest communities.
description: Data_kusumoto_et_al_JPEThe information of 5,149 vegetation plots across Japanese archipelago, including geographic locations, plot area, elevation, slope inclination, forest types (unmanaged forest = UF; previously clearcut forest = CF), forest zones, species richness, forest age relative to the age of unmanaged forest in the each vegetation zone, and standardized effect size (SES) of functional structure indices for each functional trait. For tree species, community mean (CM), functional richness (FRic), functional divergence (FDiv) were calculated for specific leaf area (SLA), leaf carbon content (LC), leaf nitrogen content (LN), wood density (WD), maximum height (Hmax), flower size (FLsize) and fruit size (FRsize). For herbaceous species, the three indices were calculated for leaf area (LA), Hmax, FLsize and FRsize. These indices were calculated only for the plots containing two or more species.