A Study on the Assembly Mechanisms of Shrub Communities in Coniferous and Broadleaved Forests—A Case Study of Jiangxi, China

The ecological strategies of understory shrubs are critical for maintaining the structure and function of forest understory vegetation. Understanding the assembly mechanisms of these shrub communities is a central issue in modern ecology. To address this, our study was conducted in the typical red soil regions of Jiangxi, China, focusing on secondary forests (including both broadleaved and coniferous types) of similar stand age. We aimed to assess the effects of various environmental factors-such as soil pH, total nitrogen content, bulk density, and understory temperature-along with tree-layer characteristics-including canopy closure, tree species richness, and diameter at breast height (DBH)-on the species composition, functional traits, and phylogenetic structure of the shrub layer. Results showed: One-way ANOVA revealed significant differences in functional traits between the two forest types. Specifically, leaf thickness, specific leaf area, and chlorophyll content were significantly higher in the coniferous forest, whereas leaf dry matter content was significantly lower compared to the broadleaved forest (<i>p</i> < 0.05). These results suggest that understory shrubs in the coniferous forest primarily adopt a resource-conservative strategy, while those in the broadleaved forest exhibit a resource-acquisitive strategy. Phylogenetic analysis further revealed that the phylogenetic diversity (PD) of coniferous forests was significantly lower than that of broadleaved forests (<i>p</i> < 0.05). The phylogenetic structure in coniferous forests showed a more clustered pattern (NTI > 0, NRI > 0), suggesting stronger environmental filtering. Diversity index analysis showed that the Chao1 index indicated a richer potential species pool in broadleaved forests (<i>p</i> < 0.05), while species distribution was more even in coniferous forests (<i>p</i> < 0.05). Random Forest model analysis identified the diameter at breast height (DBH) of trees as the most critical negative driver, while soil pH was the primary positive driver. Redundancy Analysis (RDA) confirmed that the community structure in coniferous forests was mainly driven by biotic competition pressure represented by DBH, whereas the structure in broadleaved forests was more closely associated with abiotic factors like soil total nitrogen and pH (R² = 0.29, <i>p</i> < 0.05). These environmental drivers, through strong environmental filtering, collectively resulted in a phylogenetically clustered pattern of shrub communities in both forest types. This study demonstrates that the assembly of understory shrub communities is a complex, multi-level process co-regulated by multiple factors, shaped by both the biotic pressure from the overstory structure and abiotic filtering from the soil environment. This finding deepens our understanding of the rules governing community assembly in forest ecosystems.