The effects of afforestation on upland plant communities: an application of the British National Vegetation Classification.

The British National Vegetation Classification (NVC) was used to describe the vegetation of a 49 000 ha upland conifer plantation in north-east England. The survey covered unplanted land, including roads, rides, rivers and larger unplanted areas, together with first-rotation conifer crops and restocked areas. Eighteen NVC communities and sub-communities were recognized, of which nine accounted for most of the unplanted land. In conifer plantation, 17% of stands had no vegetation, while in a further 40% the vegetation cover and species diversity was too low to allow fitting to recognizable NVC communities. Only five communities were recognized within planted stands. Variation in the floristic composition of vegetation assigned to a single community reflected both natural variability, related to altitude and soils, and forestry operations, including changes in land management, ploughing and planting. Species characteristic of low intensity agricultural management were frequent and often dominated the vegetation. Plant communities associated with more extreme environmental conditions, high altitudes and deep peats, were most sensitive to afforestation. In contrast, widely distributed communities composed mainly of cosmopolitan species were relatively resilient to the effects of plantations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]