10m sweeps were performed to capture larger trees
(>5cm DBH) in the area, which contribute to the
then current canopy as well as the canopy before
disturbance. Canopy openness and R. ponticum
presence were recorded to act as measurements
of ecological disturbance. The frequency of R.
ponticum, L. kaempferi stumps and canopy openness
were compared against one another to form a
statistically significant relationship between these
proxy measurements and ground flora data. and no larch were felled, in comparison to those of
Zone 2 (=0.517) and Zone 3 (=0.489) (see Fig.2) .
However, the difference between the biodiversity
indices of Zone 1 and Zones 2 and 3 (≤0.242) were
not significant from one another (F(2,24)=1.21, N=9,
P=0.317). An increased sample size of 45 separate
sample sites across the study area would be required
to ascertain an 80% chance of finding statistically
reliable results according to a power analysis of this
test.
During data processing, the Shannon diversity index
and species evenness for each sample site’s species
abundances was calculated using the following
formula: H=-i-1spi*ln(pi). pi stands for proportion of
vegetative coverage of a species within a quadrate,
and s represents species richness. Forest Regrowth
Statistics
Anderson-Darling tests were performed on all result
sets to verify their viability for reliable parametric
tests such as the T-test and ANOVA. Kruskal-
Wallis tests were used to find the differences
in the medians of non-parametric datasets and
Mood’s Median tests were only performed on
non-parametric datasets whose distributions were
not comparable with one another.
Discussion
Ground Flora
Results
Biodiversity
In terms of species richness, Zone 1 had the greatest
mean number of species per quadrat with 4.3, which
was at least 1 species more than Zones 2 and 3
(S=3.3, S=3.1 respectively). However, as no more
than 8 species were observed within a single sample
site, more sophisticated methods of measuring
biodiversity were required to discern whether these
differences were ecologically significant.
The mean Shannon Index of Biodiversity of ground
flora was highest in Zone 1 (=0.759) where high
densities of rhododendron bushes were removed,
72
When segregating the birch sapling frequency
found at each sample site into canopy openness
classes, a clear trend is seen (see Fig. 3). A clear
peak in median birch sapling frequency (29.0) is
visible in sites of 40-60% canopy openness with
much lower frequencies in sites above and below
this range (medians not surpassing 4.0). This
difference is significant (H=11.85, DF=4, N=27,
P=0.018), suggesting that areas of intermediate
canopy disturbance are faster regenerators of light-
demanding tree species, such as birch.
P. ramorum management appeared to have no
effect on woodland ground flora biodiversity despite
research showing that clear felling of trees can either
augment species richness (Kirby et al., 2017) or
severely diminish it (Jianwei & Chenqiu, 1999, Keith
et al., 2009). Instead, this study either finds support
in the theory of increased woodland homogeneity
as stated by Staley et al. (2013) or accepts the
unlikely possibility that management had little impact
on ground flora diversity in the case that Keele
Springpool Wood was ecologically homogenous
before 2015. As all larch-specific niches were
removed from the ecosystem, management almost
certainly had some effect on woodland biodiversity
suggesting that the theory of management-caused