Larger fragments have more late-successional species of woody plants than smaller fragments after 50 years of secondary succession

1. Most fragmentation research focuses on the effects of carving up old-growth forests, but less is known about influences of habitat fragmentation on secondary succession in patches of regenerating forests. 2. Working with forest dynamics on islands in a vast lake created by a hydroelectric dam in China (the Thousand Island Lake), we sampled 29 islands that were cleared of forest during dam construction in 1959 and then underwent succession. Measurements taken in 2009-2010 and 2014-2015 evaluated community assembly during succession, based on species diversity, functional traits and structural properties. 3. Forests on small islands remained at relatively early stages of compositional succession: species richness was low, and communities were dominated by early-successional species, with few animal-dispersed and shade-tolerant plants. However, these islands had accumulated similar aboveground biomass density to that on larger islands, mostly in the stems of a fast-growing pine specie...1. 当前多数生境破碎化研究聚焦于原始老龄林被分割所产生的生态效应，但学界对生境破碎化如何影响恢复林斑块的次生演替过程仍所知有限。 2. 本研究以中国某水电大坝形成的大型湖泊——千岛湖（Thousand Island Lake）中的岛屿森林动态为研究对象，选取了1959年大坝建设期间被清伐森林、随后自然经历演替过程的29个岛屿作为样地。研究分别于2009-2010年与2014-2015年开展调查测量，基于物种多样性、功能性状与群落结构特征，评估演替进程中的群落构建模式。 3. 小型岛屿上的森林仍处于群落组成演替的相对早期阶段：物种丰富度较低，群落以演替早期物种为主，动物传播型与耐阴植物占比极少。但此类岛屿的地上生物量密度已与大型岛屿趋近一致，其生物量主要集中于某速生松树种的茎干之中……