"Disturbance, dynamics and resilience of understory plant communities in northern forests"

干扰是大多数植物群落组成和生物多样性的重要驱动因素。了解有助于植物群落在受到干扰时保持稳定(抵抗)或从干扰中恢复(复原)的能力的因素，对于受干扰生态系统的可持续管理和恢复以及生物多样性的保护非常重要。在这个人类对生态系统的干扰日益增加的时代，当气候变化等现象可能导致极端或不寻常的干扰事件(例如，山松甲虫的爆发或极端野火)时，情况尤其如此。植物物种在耐荫性、分散性和再生策略等特征上存在差异，这些特征将影响它们的抗性或弹性。当生态系统受到干扰时，一些物种会拥有让它们表现得比其他物种更好的特征。这些在干扰后留在现场的抗性物种会对植物群落在干扰后的发展产生非常重要的影响，从而对未来的生物多样性和生态系统功能产生重要影响。森林林下植物群落(灌木和非木本植物)是森林生物多样性的重要组成部分；它们为动物提供栖息地和食物，并推动水和养分循环等生态系统进程。近年来，我们学到了许多关于森林树冠如何影响这些群落的知识，以及关于它们如何受到树冠干扰的影响。然而，我们对它们在不同类型的干扰下的抵抗力和复原力的机制知之甚少。在这项研究中，我们将研究物种的特征如何影响它们对干扰的反应，以及这些抗性物种的特征如何影响干扰后的群落重建。其成果将应用于生物多样性保护、可持续森林管理以及受其他工业活动干扰的森林开垦。

Disturbance is an important driver of the composition and biodiversity of most plant communities. Understanding the factors that contribute to the ability of a plant community to remain stable in the face of disturbance (resistance) or to recover from disturbance (resilience) is important for sustainable management and restoration of disturbed ecosystems and for conservation of biodiversity. This is particularly true in this era of increasing human disturbance of ecosystems and when phenomena such as climate change may be leading to extreme or unusual disturbance events (e.g., outbreaks of the Mountain Pine Beetle or extreme wildfires). Plant species differ in traits such as shade tolerance, dispersal, and regeneration strategy that will influence their resistance or resilience. When an ecosystem is disturbed, some species will possess traits that allow them to perform better than others. These resistant species that remain on a site after disturbance can have a very important influence on the post-disturbance development of the plant community, and thus on the future biodiversity and ecosystem function. Forest understory plant communities (shrubs and non-woody plants) are an important component of forest biodiversity; they provide habitat and food for animals and drive ecosystem processes such as water and nutrient cycling. In recent years we have learned a lot about how the forest canopy influences these communities and something about how they are affected by disturbance to the canopy. However, we have a poor understanding of the mechanisms underlying their resistance and resilience following different types of disturbance. In this research, we will examine how species' traits affect their performance in response to a disturbance and then how the traits of those resistant species affect post-disturbance community redevelopment. The results will have applications to biodiversity conservation, sustainable forest management and to reclamation of forests disturbed by other industrial activities.