ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. For. Glob. Change
Sec. Forest Management
Soil scarification has does not affect the medium-term species longmedium-term effect on forest floor species richness composition in of Norway spruce stands
Provisionally accepted
Thomas Medicus1,2,3*
Alexander Tischer2,4,5
Beate Michalzik2,4
Kim Wagner4
Markus Bernhardt-Römermann1,2,3- 1Institute of Biodiversity, Ecology and Evolution, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany
- 2Deutsches Zentrum fur Integrative Biodiversitatsforschung (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany
- 3Senckenberg Institute for Plant Form and Function Jena (SIP), Jena, Germany
- 4Institute of Geography, Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Jena, Germany
- 5ThüringenForst, Forestry Research and Competence Centre, Gotha, Germany
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Soil scarification, which involves the disruption of the top layer of soil, is a common method utilized to promote the regeneration of tree species on clear-cut and calamity areas. In the context of adapting forests to become climate-resilient mixed species forests, this method could also be used to promote tree regeneration under intact canopies, either exclusively or in combination with direct seeding. However, evidence on the impact of this method on the composition of forest floor vegetation, including bryophytes, is lacking and needs to be investigated. This is of importance because the forest floor vegetation significantly contributes to species richness in temperate forests. To address how and to what extent soil scarification affects the forest floor species composition, we conducted a space-for-time-substitution study, creating a chronosequence spanning a 13-year period, to investigate the effect of soil scarification on forest floor vegetation in Norway spruce (Picea abies) stands in a lower montane forest in central Germany. Our results showed that soil scarifications were quickly recolonized by bryophyte species, whereas herbaceous species cover took around a decade to reach a similar level of establishment as the undisturbed forest floor. Species composition initially shifted in favor of early successional species. In the long term, however, the species composition converged back to the undisturbed state. Tree regeneration diversity especially benefited from scarification, making it a viable method for intact forest stands, particularly given that it does not appear to exert any adverse effect on forest floor vegetation.
Keywords: direct seeding1, forest conversion2, canopy cover3, biodiversity4, bryophytes5, herbaceous vegetation6, tree regeneration7
Received: 19 Sep 2025; Accepted: 20 Nov 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Medicus, Tischer, Michalzik, Wagner and Bernhardt-Römermann. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Thomas Medicus, thomas.medicus@uni-jena.de
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