Tree cutting and prescribed fire had similar overall influence on total understory cover and richness. If burns are sufficiently severe to reduce tree density, prescribed fire and cutting may not be that dissimilar in their influence on ecosystem properties affecting understory vegetation (Ma et al., 2010, Fulé et al., 2012 and North NSC 683864 ic50 et al., 2012). Both can expose mineral soil, via burning O horizons or during cutting operations (Cram et al., 2007 and Laughlin and

Fulé, 2008). Both also usually at least temporarily decrease total ecosystem nutrient pools (e.g., Clayton and Kennedy, 1985), but plant-available nutrients can increase (Gundale et al., 2006). Species composition

may represent the greatest potential for influences of cutting and prescribed fire to diverge, such as through germination cues. CAL101 Some understory species of mixed conifer forests, including Ceanothus integerrimus (deerbrush) that is stimulated by heat ( Kauffman and Martin, 1991) and Penstemon spp. stimulated by smoke ( Abella et al., 2007), may be favored by fire. Six studies reported groups of native species abundant after prescribed fire or cutting + fire that are apparently fire-dependent, because the species were infrequent or absent in unburned forest, including after tree cutting alone ( Lyon, 1966, Huisinga et al., 2005, Stark et al., 2006, Dodson et al., 2007, Knapp et al., 2007 and Dodson and Peterson, 2010). These fire-stimulated groups were mainly forbs and included species such as: perennial forbs C. angustifolium (fireweed), Claytonia perfoliata (miner’s lettuce), Epilobium glaberrimum (glaucus willowherb), Pseudognaphalium canescens (Wright’s cudweed), and Lotus crassifolius

(big deervetch); and the http://www.selleck.co.jp/products/Vorinostat-saha.html annual forbs Epilobium brachycarpum (tall annual willowherb), Gayophytum diffusum (spreading groundsmoke), and Cryptantha simulans (pinewoods cryptantha). It is possible that these species were once more common (at least ephemerally) in fire-prone historical forests. Applying both cutting and prescribed fire resulted in the greatest invasion of non-native plants, but even in this treatment, non-native cover was low (Dodson and Fiedler, 2006, Collins et al., 2007 and Dodson et al., 2008). Fiedler et al. (2013) hypothesized potential pathways of post-treatment non-native plant dynamics, including scenarios such as slight increases after treatment then declines through time, versus increases and persistence in the treated forest. Non-native dynamics may partly depend on identity of the invader, where perseverance of some species appears low (e.g.