In recent decades, a paradigm shift in forest management and associated policies has led to greater emphasis on harvest practices that retain mature, overstory trees in forest stands that would otherwise be clear‐cut. While it is often assumed that the maintenance of compositional and structural complexity, such as that achieved through retention forestry approaches, will also mitigate negative impacts to functional diversity, empirical evidence of this relationship is sparse. We examined the effects of an aggregated retention system on taxonomic and functional diversity in a regenerating aspen‐dominated forest. Sampling was conducted along transects arranged to capture the transition from harvested (regenerating) forest to mature, unharvested forest (both intact forest stands and 0.1 ha retention aggregates). We then assessed the magnitude and distance of edge effects on multiple indices of taxonomic and functional diversity as well as functional identity. Twelve years after harvest, the distance and magnitude of edge effects on functional and taxonomic diversity did not differ between the two unharvested patch sizes (intact vs. aggregate); however, intact forest exhibited greater resistance to edge effects and greater depth of edge influence into harvested areas for some traits compared to aggregates. Analyses relying on functional traits were generally applicable across sites within a highly variable forest type, and our results demonstrate the promise of using functional traits to assess management impacts on plant diversity across a landscape. Aggregates maintained some functional attributes associated with interior forest and influenced adjacent regeneration. However, trends in some traits (i.e., shade tolerance and seed mass), particularly in the seedling layer, suggest aggregates of this size provide primarily edge habitat.

中文翻译：

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保留林业影响林下多样性和功能特征。

近几十年来，森林管理和相关政策发生了范式转变，导致人们更加重视采伐实践，这些采伐实践将在林分中保留了成熟的，过高的树木，否则这些树木将是清晰的。虽然通常认为保持组成和结构的复杂性（例如通过保留林业方法实现的复杂性）也将减轻对功能多样性的负面影响，但这种关系的经验证据很少。我们研究了聚集保留系统对再生白杨为主森林中生物分类和功能多样性的影响。沿样带进行采样，以捕捉从采伐（再生）森林到未砍伐的成熟森林（完整林分和0.1 ha保留集料）的过渡。然后，我们评估了对分类学和功能多样性以及功能同一性的多个指标的边缘效应的大小和距离。收获十二年后，两个未收获斑块的大小（完整与总聚）之间，边缘对功能和生物分类多样性影响的距离和大小没有变化；然而，与集料相比，完整林对某些性状表现出更大的抵抗边缘效应的能力，并且对进入采伐区的边缘影响的深度更大。依赖于功能性状的分析通常适用于高度变化的森林类型中的所有地点，我们的结果证明了使用功能性状评估景观对植物多样性的管理影响的希望。骨料保持了与内部森林相关的一些功能属性，并影响了邻近的更新。但是，某些性状（即耐荫性和种子质量）的趋势，特别是幼苗层的趋势表明，这种大小的聚集体主要提供边缘生境。