Can mixed pine forests conserve understory richness by improving the establishment of understory species typical of native oak forests?

Table 1 Explanatory variables fitted as vectors onto the DCA ordination plot using the vegan “envfit” function. Significance of each vector adjusted by 9999 permutations and R² of each variable. N: density (trees ha⁻¹), G: total basal area (m² ha⁻¹), Ho: dominant height (m), dq: quadratic mean diameter (cm), age: normal age (years); %G PS: the percentage of basal area of Pinus sylvestris, %G PP: the percentage of basal area of P. pinaster; and the tree regeneration density (individuals m⁻²) of P. sylvestris, P. pinaster, Q. pyrenaica, and Q. faginea

	DCA1	DCA2	R²	p
Stand characteristics
%G PS	− 0.544	0.839	0.484	0.019	*
%G PP	0.544	− 0.839	0.484	0.019	*
N (trees ha⁻¹)	− 0.114	− 0.993	0.309	0.087
G (m² ha⁻¹)	− 0.751	− 0.665	0.237	0.160
Ho (m)	− 0.829	0.559	0.305	0.081
dq (cm)	− 0.524	0.851	0.162	0.298
Age (years)	− 0.744	0.668	0.360	0.090
Tree regeneration density (ind/m²)
P. sylvestris	0.284	0.959	0.365	0.015	*
P. pinaster	0.977	− 0.212	0.583	0.001	***
Q. pyrenaica	− 0.556	− 0.831	0.413	0.011	*
Q. faginea	0.985	0.171	0.602	0.004	**

ISSN: 1297-966X