Table 1. Mean relative (%) cover of ground cover species and tree seedlings in the experimental Scots pine stand, where all woody biomass and top soil layer was removed (WTH), neighbouring conventionally managed young (11 years) and mature (119 years) stands and in the eutrophicated zone where the woody biomass from the WTH stand was transferred. WTH = whole tree harvesting, N = number of sampling plots.
  Abbreviations WTH
(N = 34)
Mature
(N = 34)
Young
(N = 34)
Eutrophicated
(N = 17)
Early successional species 
Cladina stellaris (Opiz) Pouzar  Cladstel 3.0 0.3 2.8 1.7
Cladonia chlorophea Spreng. Cladchlo 0.0 0.0 1.9 0.0
Cladonia cornuta (L.) Hoffm. Cladcorn 0.0 0.0 3.2 0.0
Cladonia fimbriata (L.) Fr. Cladfimb 0.0 0.0 1.9 0.0
Cladonia gracilis (L.) Willd. Cladgrac 0.0 0.0 0.3 0.0
Cladonia rangiferina (L.) Weber  Cladrang 3.5 5.1 6.7 3.4
Deschampsia caespitosa (L.) P.Beauv. Desccaes 0.6 0.0 0.5 0.6
Deschampsia flexuosa (L.) P. Beauv. Descflex 0.3 0.1 0.0 0.0
Hieracium pilosella L. Hierpilo 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0
Pohlia nutans (Hedw.) Lindb. Pohlnuta 0.0 0.0 0.2 0.0
Late successional species 
Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (L.) Spreng Arctuvau 0.2 0.0 0.0 0.0
Aulacomnium palustre (Hedw.) Schwägr. Aulapalu 0.3 0.1 0.0 0.0
Calluna vulgaris (L.) Hull. Callvulg 7.9 1.8 16.0 17.4
Carex ericetorum Pollich. Careeric 0.6 0.0 2.6 0.0
Cetraria islandica (L.) Ach. Cetrisla 0.0 0.4 0.4 0.0
Dicranum polysetum Sw. Dicrpoly 4.8 3.1 16.4 2.8
Dicranum scoparium Hedw. Dicrscop 1.6 0.0 1.8 0.8
Goodyera repens (L.) R.Br. Goodrepe 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0
Hylocomium splendens (Hedw.) Schimp. Hylosple 6.6 43.3 0.0 15.9
Lycopodium clavatum L. Lycoclav 6.8 0.0 0.0 0.0
Melampyrum pratense L. Melaprat 0.5 2.5 0.0 0.1
Pleurozium schreberi (Brid.) Mitt. Pleuschr 52.4 28.8 5.7 12.3
Polytrichum juniperum Hedw. Polyjuni 0.3 0.1 2.9 0.0
Polytrichum piliferum Hedw. Polypili 0.0 0.0 2.4 0.0
Ptilium crista-castrensis (Hedw.) De Not. Ptilcris 0.1 3.1 0.0 0.0
Trientalis europaea L. Trieeuro 0.1 0.0 0.0 0.0
Vaccinium myrtillus L. Vaccmyrt 1.5 2.2 0.0 11.9
Vaccinium vitis-idaea L. Vaccviti 4.3 8.7 8.3 13.4
Seedlings 
Picea abies (L.) H.Karst. Piceabie 0.2 0.1 0.0 0.2
Pinus sylvestris L. Pinusylv 0.5 0.2 0.9 1.8
Bare soil 3.9 0.0 25.1 17.8
Table 2. Shannon and Simpson diversity indices calculated for the ground cover vegetation in the experimental Scots pine stand, where all woody biomass and top soil layer was removed (WTH), neighbouring conventionally managed young (11 years) and mature (119 years) stands and in the eutrophicated zone where the woody biomass from the WTH stand was transferred. WTH = whole tree harvesting. N = number of sampling plots.
Index WTH
(N = 34)
Mature stand
(N = 34)
Young stand
(N = 34)
Eutrophicated zone
(N = 17)
Shannon 1.77 1.63 2.36 2.03
Simpson 0.68 0.72 0.87 0.84

Fig. 1. The detrended correspondence analysis ordination of the ground cover vegetation in the studied experimental and neighbouring stands of Scots pine. Species abbreviations are explained in Table 1. The ellipses show the standard deviations of the ordination scores of each group (directions of the principal axes are defined by weighted correlations).

Table 3. Dissimilarity indices (R) of ground cover vegetation between the studied experimental Scots pine stand, where all woody biomass and top soil layer was removed (WTH), neighbouring conventionally managed young (11 years) and mature (119 years) stands and in the eutrophicated zone where the woody biomass from the WTH stand was transferred. The pairwise comparisons were made by the ANOSIM (Analysis of Similarity) method. All indices were significant (p-value < 0.001). WTH = whole tree harvesting, N = number of sampling plots.
  Eutrophicated zone
(N = 17)
Young stand
(N = 34)
Mature stand
(N = 34)
WTH (N = 34) 0.56 0.68 0.40
Eutrophicated zone (N = 17)   0.46 0.36
Young stand (N = 34)     0.80