Understory biomass tended to be lower in agricultural land than
most forest types, but both P. massoniana and R. regia had very low
understory biomass. Like some forest types in Japan (Gomi et al.,
2008; Hiraoka and Onda, 2012), these two forest types both had a
relatively dense canopy that limits solar radiation and the growth of
understory vegetation. R. regia also had relatively little understory
biomass and also very low litter biomass, and this may be due to the
fact that this was a relatively young stand. In contrast, the native forest
(E. dubius) had the highest canopy cover, but still had a moderate
amount of understory biomass and a high litter mass and ground cover.
Percent ground cover showed the expected positive relationships
Table 4
Correlation table for the physical and chemical characteris
with understory biomass and litter and decreases with increasing