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A significant loss of biodiversity resulting from human activity has caused biotic homogenisation to become the dominant process shaping forest communities. In this paper, we present a rare case of biotic differentiation in European temperate deciduous forest herb layer vegetation. The process is occurring in nutrient poor oak-hornbeam forests in mountain areas (Polish Eastern Carpathians, Central Europe) where non-timber use was converted into conventional forest management practice. This change contributed to increases in the nitrogen content and pH reaction of the soil that, contrary to predominant beliefs on the negative impact of habitat eutrophication on diversity, did not result in a decrease in the latter. We discuss possible reasons for this phenomenon that indicate the important role of tree stand composition (an increasing admixture of beechworsening the trophic properties of the soil). The second issue considered involves the effect of the changes in herb species composition of oak-hornbeam forest on its distinctiveness from the beech forest predominating in the Polish Eastern Carpathians. Unfortunately, despite the increase in the species compositional dissimilarity of oak-hornbeam forest, a reduction in their distinctiveness in relation to the herb species composition of beech forest was found. Such a phenomenon is an effect of the major fragmentation of oak-hornbeam forests, a spread of beech forest-type species, and forest management that gives preference to beech trees. Consequently, it can be expected that changes occurring in oak-hornbeam forest vegetation will contribute to a decrease in the forest vegetation variability at the regional scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The importance of deadwood in forest ecosystems is widely recognized today and it is used as indicator for the sustainable management of forests. The purpose of researches carried out in five natural reserves and managed Romanian forests was to determine and compare the amount, size, distribution and decay classes of their deadwood. The data obtained in the mixed beech coniferous and beech old growth forests can be used as reference values for the natural dynamic of deadwood and can contribute to set the rules for the restoration of deadwood in forest management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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