FENCE ROW HABITATS FOR PLANTS MOVING BETWEEN FARMLAND FORESTS

For fencerows to be effective corridors for plants moving between farm land forest patches, the habitat quality must support the growth of ar riving species. In a transplant experiment, we tested whether habitats in fencerows were the same as those in forest edges for a set of grou nd-layer plant species. Carex brunnescens, Geum aleppicum and Sanguina ria canadensis transplants responded differently to the two habitats. In the first growing season, healthy shoots of the woodland transplant species, Carex and Sanguinaria, were more frequent in forest edges th an in fencerows. No species showed differences between edge types in n umbers of plants regenerating after winter. Flower production and biom ass of Carex were greater in forest edges, whereas Geum biomass was gr eater in fencerows. Multivariate responses (morphometry and biomass) t o edge type showed fencerow habitat quality to be inappropriate to inv oke fencerows as effective corridors for movement of woodland plants t hrough fragmented landscapes.