Newly planted woodlands improve connectivity for woodland fauna, flora and fungi

This is the authors' abstract. We don't add key points for this paper.

Context Young planted woodlands may only support a small proportion of the biodiversity found in mature woodlands but may play an important role in promoting species movements and enhancing biodiversity due to their emerging structural similarities. Objectives We assessed whether recently planted woodlands increase connectivity between mature woodland patches relative to agricultural fields, and whether responses vary across active (small mammals, ground invertebrates) and passive (plants, fungi) dispersers. Methods We used a multi-taxa natural experiment across paired sites where mature woodlands were either connected by planted woodland or separated by farmland. Movement was quantified using PIT-tagging of small mammals and beetles, pitfall trapping, vegetation surveys, airborne spore traps and soil eDNA metabarcoding. A Bayesian beta-binomial model estimated taxon-specific habitat preferences for dispersal. Results Although we did not detect inter-patch movements, we detected higher movement of wood mice, ground active invertebrates, plants, and fungi into new woodlands relative to agricultural fields, whereas, field voles exhibited minimal movement, and some airborne fungal groups showed reduced movement within planted woodlands. Young woodlands generally supported higher woodland specialist richness, abundance or occurrence than fields but did not support the full complement of species associated with mature woodlands. Conclusions Newly planted woodlands can enhance functional connectivity for multiple woodland associated taxa, but the benefits are taxon specific and shaped by differences in mobility, dispersal mode and establishment requirements. Strategic placement of planted woodland adjacent to existing woodland can improve landscape scale connectivity, further improved by additional habitat development to support more specialised species.