Effect of forest roadside on vegetation characteristics in the Hyrcanian temperate forest

This study aimed to evaluate the effect of forest roadside on plant diversity and composition in the Hyrcanian temperate forest of northern Iran. To collect vegetation data, 116 rectangular sampling plots were established at two microhabitats (i.e., cut and fill slopes) of forest roads. For both microhabitats, the highest life form belonged to hemicryptophytes. Among the 85 identified species, 58 were native, 12 invasive, 9 potentially invasive, 5 pioneer, and 1 exotic. On the roadside microhabitats, the ground cover of the Rosaceae family, with 11 species, was the highest among plant families. The highest frequency of Grime's life history strategies was the competitive strategy. Shannon-Wiener diversity and species richness indices of cut slopes were significantly higher than those of fill slopes. Partial canonical correspondence analysis indicated that species composition on roadsides was primarily influenced by microhabitats, elevation, gradient, canopy cover, story layer, occurrence of bare soil, and clay content. Our study contributes to understanding how roadside microhabitats affect environmental conditions, which might be helpful to forest road managers when implementing best management practices.