Multifaceted diversity changes reveal community assembly mechanisms during early stages of post-logging forest succession

Plant succession is a fundamental process of vegetation recovery on disturbed sites. Elucidating its mechanisms remains a challenge as succession is influenced by stochastic and deterministic processes related to abiotic and biotic filters. Here, we use a multifaceted diversity approach to reveal mechanisms of successional changes in European oak-hornbeam forests during the first 10 years after selective logging. As the mechanisms controlling succession may depend upon initial abiotic conditions and colonization potential of the surrounding vegetation, we compare changes in taxonomic, functional, and phylogenetic diversity between clearings connected with open habitats and those isolated inside forests. Despite fewer dispersal barriers and higher biomass production in connected clearings, similar mechanisms initially governed succession in post-logging sites. Both clearings had low taxonomic and functional diversity in the first year of succession, as evidenced by significant trait convergence, caused by the legacy of interactions between overstory and understory vegetation in pre-disturbance closed-canopy forests. Colonization by short-lived and light-demanding species in the second and third years after logging has markedly increased the overall taxonomic and functional diversity, as evidenced by significant trait divergence. Connected clearings had higher functional but lower taxonomic and phylogenetic diversity than isolated clearings from the fourth to ten years of succession, probably due to intense competition in more productive habitats. All diversity facets markedly decreased in the last years due to increasing asymmetric competition from regenerating trees. The successional processes were largely deterministic, driven by species’ life-history strategies and biotic interactions (competition) rather than abiotic constraints and stochastic events.