Small understorey gaps created by subsistence harvesters do not adversely affect the maintenance of tree diversity in a sub-tropical forest

Understorey gaps are common in subtropical forests where pole-size trees are harvested for building materials. The creation of artificial understorey gaps has the potential to affect tree regeneration and the maintenance of forest tree diversity by locally increasing resource availability (light, nutrients, moisture). Understorey tree gaps had significantly lower foliage density in the 3-10-m stratum and higher soil moisture. However, fine root biomass and nutrient availability (N, P, K, Corg) were not different to controls in the intact understorey. Light intensity at the forest floor was a function of the age of the understorey gap, being greater in recent gaps but was not different between older gaps and the controls in intact understorey. The early regeneration community in gaps was different in composition from under intact understorey. Understorey gaps appeared to promote the regeneration of understorey species (density and species richness) by increasing community-wide seedling establishment of understorey species. However, understorey gaps had no effect on the early regeneration of canopy species. We argue that under low harvesting intensity (11.6% of the available pole-size stems), understorey gaps have a neutral role in the long-term maintenance of understorey species diversity and no apparent role in the long-term maintenance of canopy tree species diversity. These results suggest that low levels of subsistence harvesting of understorey species will not detrimentally affect the overall species composition of scarp forest.