![]() One example for recent land use changes is the establishment of short rotation coppice plantations on former agricultural fields as a result of an increasing demand for woody biomass. It is influenced by the type of land use system and strongly affected by land use changes ( Sala et al., 2005). ![]() Due to increasing urbanization and the extension of intensive land use systems, biodiversity has increasingly moved into the focus of research ( European Academies Science Advisory Council, 2009). Therefore, it plays an important role in landscape conservation. ![]() The selection of clones for SRC can influence ground vegetation some floristic changes for example caused by different treatments may be visible only when monitored over a longer period of time.īiodiversity provides many ecosystem services for example nutrient cycling, water cycling, and pollination. Our results confirm the conclusion of previous studies which indicate that plant community succession takes place in ground vegetation of SRC and imply that species composition is age-dependent. Perennial species were dominating over all years, as well as light-demanding species, but their proportion decreased steadily. However, there was no significant difference between the three treatments compared within each year. Especially for the two clones there was an opposed trend: grass layer had a high cover on Monviso plots, but low cover on Max4 plots herb layer the very reverse. Total vegetation cover decreased during the 4 years of study. Results showed that total number of species increased in first 2 years and declined after harvest of the SRC-trees. All vascular plant species of the ground vegetation were recorded in 72 permanent sampling plots of 25 m 2 each during vegetation periods using the Braun-Blanquet scale. The investigated plantation was divided into two core areas, one planted with poplar clone Max4, the other with Monviso each core area was divided into two blocks with alternating treatments: (i) irrigation and fertilization (ii) irrigation and (iii) no treatment. To allow for information on successional changes in phytodiversity over time and space, as well as information on differences between clones and treatments, phytodiversity was monitored on a poplar short rotation coppice plantation in Oberschwaben, Southwest Germany, in four consecutive years.
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