The influence of canopy-layer composition on understory plant diversity in southern temperate forests

Background： Understory plants represents the largest component of biodiversity in most forest ecosystems and plays a key role in forest functioning.Despite their importance, the influence of overstory-layer composition on understory plant diversity is relatively poorly understood within deciduous-evergreen broadleaved mixed forests.The aim of this work was to evaluate how tree overstory-layer composition influences on understory-layer diversity in three forest types（monospecific deciduous Nothofagus pumilio（Np）, monospecific evergreen Nothofagus betuloides（Nb）, and mixed N.pumilio-N.betuloides（M） forests）, comparing also between two geographical locations（coast and mountain） to estimate differences at landscape level.Results： We recorded 46 plant species： 4 ferns, 12 monocots, and 30 dicots.Canopy-layer composition influences the herb-layer structure and diversity in two different ways： while mixed forests have greater similarity to evergreen forests in the understory structural features, deciduous and mixed were similar in terms of the specific composition of plant assemblage.Deciduous pure stands were the most diverse, meanwhile evergreen stands were least diverse.Lack of exclusive species of mixed forest could represent a transition where evergreen and deciduous communities meet and integrate.Moreover, landscape has a major influence on the structure, diversity and richness of understory vegetation of pure and mixed forests likely associated to the magnitude and frequency of natural disturbances, where mountain forest not only had highest herb-layer diversity but also more exclusive species.Conclusions： Our study suggests that mixed Nothofagus forest supports coexistence of both pure deciduous and pure evergreen understory plant species and different assemblages in coastal and mountain sites.Maintaining the mixture of canopy patch types within mixed stands will be important for conserving the natural patterns of understory plant composition in southern beech mixed forests.

Differences of Landscape Architecture between Residential Communities in North and South China

This paper reviewed basic definitions of residential community landscape,analyzed the differences between residential community landscapes in north and south China,and also the causes of landscape differences from the perspectives of climate,soil,vegetation species,water resources,historical and cultural background. Moreover,landscape design strategies suitable for actual conditions of China were put forward in terms of overall style,plant configuration,waterscape design,and construction details.

Understanding future changes to fires in southern Europe and their impacts on the wildland-urban interface

Southern Europe is a highly fire-prone region where extreme fires have often disastrous consequences on both structures and people.Human activities and fire weather conditions favouring ignitions and propagation have always been the drivers of such fires but anthropogenic climate change alongside the extension of wildland-urban interface(WUI)that concentrates both assets and fire ignitions have the compounding effect of exacerbating fire risk.WUI are currently not adequately prepared to sustain events whose frequency and intensity are foreseen to increase in the future as shown during the extreme fires that occurred recently in Euro-Mediterranean countries.This work presents the context of WUI fires in the Euro-Mediterranean region,their driving forces and their impacts on society,with insights from three recent catastrophic fires that drew much attention.In this context,we propose a conceptual framework for understanding the WUI issue assessing the implications for fire risk and providing some guidance to mitigate this risk,updated management strategies as well as comments about gaps in our current knowledge and how we might address this problem in the future.A successful approach to reduce fire risk in the future will require building resilient landscapes and communities better prepared to face these extreme fire events in which WUI population,forest managers,land planners,civil protection,and policy-makers need to work together to improve the safety and resilience of these fire-prone areas.