%0 Research article
%T Forest stand modelling as a tool to predict performance of the understory herb Cornus suecica
%A Meen, Eivind
%A Nielsen, Anders
%A Ohlson, Mikael
%D 2012
%J Silva Fennica
%V 46
%N 4
%R doi:10.14214/sf.906
%U https://silvafennica.fi/article/906
%X Forest simulation models have been widely used to predict future stand  structure. Generally these models do not include the understory  vegetation and its response on stand structure change or other  environmental factors. Previous simulation studies have shown that stand  structure related variables, e.g. basal area, can explain diversity of  the forest floor vegetation in boreal forests. We hypothesise that such  variables also can be used to explain the performance of understory  species and we conceptualise how plant ecology and forest modelling can  be combined to predict the performance of understory plants in Norwegian  boreal forests. We predict the performance of an understory plant  species (Cornus suecica) over time using simulated values of forest  variables as input to models expressing the relationship between forest  environment variables and plant performance variables (viz. plant  height, plant dry weight, number of flowers, number of branches and  number of leaves). We also present relationships between plant  performance and explanatory variables commonly used in basic ecological  research, variables that currently not are readily compatible with  forest simulators (e.g. soil chemical variables).We found basal area of  canopy trees being the most important explanatory variable explaining C.  suecica performance. The performance variable dry weight was predicted  by one single model whereas the other performance variables were best  predicted by model averaging. Forest simulations for 150 years showed  values of plant performance of C. suecica to be reduced during forest  succession.