Observational data
To assess the combined influence of past land use and global change on trajectories of change in understorey communities, we revisited 190 plots scattered across 19 regions (selected along a nitrogen deposition and climate gradient in Northwest Europe) and assessed the change in understorey community composition and gathered detailed data on stand characteristics, understorey resource availability and growing conditions. In each region, around 10 plots were selected, including both recent and ancient forests. Ancient forest plots were defined as plots that have been forested continuously since 1850 or earlier. Recent forest plots, with similar stand ages as ancient forest plots, were defined as plots located on former agricultural land. Each plot consisted of two nested square-shaped subplots, one 10 by 10m plot and one 20 by 20m plot. Both subplots were used for characterising the shrub layer (shrubs and trees with a height between 1 and 7 m) and the overstorey (trees with a height above 7 m). The 10 by 10 plot was used for the characterisation of the understorey, light availability, nutrient availability and other soil characteristics. All plots were visited during the late spring of 2015 and 2016. As all our plots have been monitored in the past as well, we complemented our own data with past understorey composition data. For more information on this dataset, see our related publication listed below.
Related publications
Maes et al. (2019). Litter quality, land-use history, and nitrogen deposition effects on topsoil conditions across European temperate deciduous forests. Forest Ecology and Management 433, p405-418. Read
Landuyt et al. (In Press). Drivers of above-ground understorey biomass in temperate forests. Journal of Ecology. Read Dataset
Depauw et al. (In Press). Light availability and land-use history drive biodiversity and functional changes in forest herb layer communities. Journal of Ecology. Read Dataset
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Tree ring data
To assess the combined influence of past land use and global change on tree growth, 190 forest plots were visited scattered across 19 regions (selected along a nitrogen deposition and climate gradient in Northwest Europe). In each region, around 10 400 m² plots were selected, including both recent and ancient forests. Ancient forest plots were defined as plots that have been forested continuously since 1850 or earlier. Recent forest plots, with similar stand ages as ancient forest plots, were defined as plots located on former agricultural land. In each 400m² plot, two dominant trees were cored, taking two perpendicular cores at breast height. More details on this dataset can be found in the publications listed below.
Related publications
Maes et al. (2019). Environmental drivers interactively affect individual tree growth across temperate European forests. Global Change Biology 25(1), p201-2017. Read
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Experimental data
To disentangle the effects of past land use, climate change, atmospheric deposition and light availability on trajectories of change in the herb layer of temperate forests, an experiment has been set up in 2016. Within this experiment, communities are exposed to two-level treatments of the global-change drivers listed above. Measurements conducted in the experiment include trait measurements, species cover estimates, measurements of nitrogen uptake rates and measurements of the environmental conditions experienced by each community. More details on this experiment can be found in the publications listed below.
Related publications