The large-scale conversion of forest to agricultural land and subsequent
abandonment and afforestation represents a major disturbance across
western European and eastern North-American landscapes during the past
centuries. Following the afforestion of agricultural land, herb species
need to establish again through colonization. However, it is thoroughly
documented that forest herbs have low abilities to colonize
post-agricultural
forest (20-100m per century). Previous studies mainly focussed on the
limited dispersal capacities of forest herbs to explain these patterns and
few studies have evaluated the relative importance of recruitment. Yet,
because former agricultural land use persistently changed habitat quality
(e.g. high phosphorus availability), it is not unlikely that recruitment
is a secondary bottle-neck hampering colonization. This project
therefore aims
to study recruitment and performance of forest herbs in
post-agricultural forest through: (1) a pot experiment; (2) introduction
experiments;
(3) observations on allocation and performance and (4) assessment of 25
years of vegetation development in post-agricultural forests