Changes in the dominant assembly mechanism drive species loss caused by declining resources.

The species-energy hypothesis predicts that more productive areas support higher species richness. Conversely, when resources are reduced, species richness is reduced. Empirical tests of whether extinctions are predominantly caused by environmental constraints or competitive exclusion are lacking. We experimentally reduced dead wood to c. 15% of the initial amount after a major windstorm and examined changes in assembly mechanisms by combining trait-based and evolutionary species dissimilarities of eight taxonomic groups, differing in their dependence on dead wood (saproxylic/non-saproxylic). Species richness and assembly mechanisms of non-saproxylic taxa remained largely unaffected by removal of dead wood. By contrast, extinctions of saproxylic species were caused by reversing the predominant assembly mechanisms (e.g. increasing importance of competitive exclusion for communities assembled through environmental filtering or vice versa). We found no evidence for an intensification of the predominant assembly mechanism (e.g. competitive exclusion becoming stronger in a competitively structured community).

Rare species, functional groups, and evolutionary lineages drive successional trajectories in disturbed forests.

Following natural disturbances, additional anthropogenic disturbance may alter community recovery by affecting the occurrences of species, functional groups, and evolutionary lineages. However, our understanding of whether rare, common, or dominant species, functional groups, or evolutionary lineages are most strongly affected by an additional disturbance, particularly across multiple taxa, is limited. Here, we used a generalized diversity concept based on Hill numbers to quantify the community differences of vascular plants, bryophytes, lichens, wood-inhabiting fungi, saproxylic beetles, and birds in a storm-disturbed, experimentally salvage logged forest. Communities of all investigated species groups showed dissimilarities between logged and unlogged plots. Most species groups showed no significant changes in dissimilarities between logged and unlogged plots over the first seven years of succession, indicating a lack of community recovery. In general, the dissimilarities of communities were mainly driven by rare species. Convergence of dissimilarities occurred more often than divergence during the early stages of succession for rare species, indicating a major role in driving decreasing taxonomic dissimilarities between logged and unlogged plots over time. Trends in species dissimilarities only partially match the trends in dissimilarities of functional groups and evolutionary lineages, with little significant changes in successional trajectories. Nevertheless, common and dominant species contributed to a convergence of dissimilarities over time in the case of the functional dissimilarities of wood-inhabiting fungi. Our study shows that salvage logging following disturbances can alter successional trajectories in early stages of forest succession following natural disturbances. However, community changes over time may differ remarkably in different taxonomic groups and are best detected based on taxonomic, rather than functional or phylogenetic dissimilarities.