Riparian forests surrounding streams host high biodiversity values, but are threatened by clear-cut logging. Narrow buffer strips of about 15 m are commonly left between the stream and the clear-cut, but studies suggest that the buffer width should be at least 30 m to protect riparian plant communities. Moreover, selective logging is often allowed on the buffer strips in order to increase economic gain. We used an experiment of 43 riparian sites where buffer strip width and selective logging within the strip were manipulated and supplemented with unlogged control sites. We report the short-term changes in the community composition of vascular plants and mosses near the stream (0–15 m distance). 15-meter buffers are not enough to protect the vascular plant communities from changes caused by a clear-cut irrespective of the selective logging on the buffer strip. For moss communities 15-m buffers were not enough if they were selectively logged. Relative to the control sites, we observed no significant changes in community composition of vascular plants or mosses in the sites with 30-m buffer strips, whether selectively logged or not. We conclude that buffer strips of 15 m are not sufficient to protect streamside plant communities even in the short term, but that buffers of 30 m should be left on both sides of the stream. Selective logging appears not to have effects on buffers that are at least 30 m wide. Thus, it may be more reasonable to increase buffer width and to allow selective logging on the wider buffer in order to compensate for the economic losses than to leave all trees on a narrow and ecologically insufficient buffer.

中文翻译：

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缓冲带宽度和选择性伐木对河边植物群落的影响

溪流周围的河岸森林拥有很高的生物多样性价值，但遭到伐木的威胁。通常在溪流和明渠之间留有约15 m的窄缓冲带，但研究表明，缓冲带的宽度应至少为30 m，以保护河岸植物群落。此外，通常允许在缓冲带上进行选择性测井，以增加经济收益。我们使用了43个河岸站点的实验，对缓冲区的宽度和带内的选择性测井进行了操纵，并补充了未记录的控制站点。我们报告了溪流附近（0-15 m距离）维管植物和苔藓群落组成的短期变化。15米长的缓冲液不足以保护维管植物群落免受由明晰的变化引起的变化，而与缓冲带上的选择性采伐无关。对于苔藓社区，如果有选择地记录，则15米的缓冲区是不够的。相对于对照地点，我们观察到在有30 m缓冲带的地点，无论是否有选择地采伐，维管植物或苔藓的群落组成均无显着变化。我们得出的结论是，即使在短期内，15 m的缓冲带也不足以保护河边的植物群落，但是30 m的缓冲带应留在溪流的两侧。选择性记录似乎对至少30 m宽的缓冲区没有影响。因此，