Understory succession in post-agricultural oak forests: Habitat fragmentation affects forest specialists and generalists differently

For successful recovery of a rich understory, we suggest that post-arable plantations should be established on loamy soils of intermediate to high pH proximate to older forest with source populations, and that a continuous overstory canopy cover of 70-80% is maintained by regular light thinnings and promotion of a shrub layer. (C) 2011 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.