At which spatial scale are plant species composition and diversity affected in beech forests?

Table 5 Comparison of diversity measures in the different types of beech forests investigated in this study

	Single-layered	Multi-layered	P	Acid	Calcareous	P
S total	17.46 ± 1.42	26.44 ± 2.32	0.008*	14.43 ± 1.59	23.04 ± 1.72	0.001**
H′ total	1.72 ± 0.14	2.91 ± 0.20	0.000**	1.49 ± 0.18	2.31 ± 0.16	0.002*
J′ total	0.42 ± 0.02	0.62 ± 0.03	0.001**	0.38 ± 0.04	0.51 ± 0.03	0.006*
S tree	2.44 ± 0.25	4.22 ± 0.55	0.004*	2.26 ± 0.33	3.19 ± 0.34	–***
H′ tree	0.24 ± 0.06	0.68 ± 0.15	0.002*	0.17 ± 0.07	0.45 ± 0.08	0.010****
J′ tree	0.12 ± 0.02	0.31 ± 0.06	0.003*	0.09 ± 0.03	0.22 ± 0.03	0.016****
S shrub	4.22 ± 0.46	8.44 ± 0.53	0.000**	4.57 ± 0.63	5.33 ± 0.64	–***
H′ shrub	1.16 ± 0.14	2.26 ± 0.15	0.000**	1.24 ± 0.19	1.46 ± 0.19	–***
J′ shrub	0.49 ± 0.05	0.74 ± 0.03	0.002*	0.52 ± 0.07	0.55 ± 0.06	–***
S herb	9.51 ± 0.99	12.67 ± 1.69	–***	6.30 ± 0.75	13.3 ± 1.19	0.000**
H′ herb	2.02 ± 0.16	2.40 ± 0.24	–***	1.51 ± 0.17	2.58 ± 0.17	0.000**
J′ herb	0.64 ± 0.04	0.67 ± 0.04	–***	0.58 ± 0.05	0.71 ± 0.03	0.041****
S fern	1.29 ± 0.23	1.11 ± 0.20	–***	1.30 ± 0.27	1.22 ± 0.28	–***
H′ fern	0.35 ± 0.10	0.13 ± 0.11	–***	0.41 ± 0.14	0.23 ± 0.11	–***
J′ fern	0.21 ± 0.06	0.13 ± 0.11	–***	0.28 ± 0.09	0.12 ± 0.06	–***

Richness (S), Shannon diversity (H′), and evenness indices (J′; mean ± SE) values for both total species and different life forms (tree, shrub, herb, and fern), and P values of t tests are shown
*P ≤ 0.01; **P ≤ 0.001; ***P > 0.05; ****P ≤ 0.05

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