Abstract:We evaluated the influence of long-auricled indocalamus (Indocalamus longiauritus Hand.-Mazz.) monodominant thickets in understory layers of tree regenerations during the reestablishment process of natural forests. A manipulative field experiment was performed in pure Chinese fir (Cunninghamia lanceolata (Lamb.) Hook) plantations in Huitong, Hunan Province, located in the subtropical part of China. Ten 1hm2 permanent plots with long-auricled indocalamus in understory (I) were selected as treatment and another ten 1hm2 permanent plots (C) were used as control plots in which there is no any bamboo. In 1996, all canopy Chinese fir individuals were removed to improve understory light condition and to promote the establishment of monodominant thickets in these plots. After 10 years, dense bamboo layers with about 95% cover were successfully established. In 2007, we measured the abundance, diversity and biomass of tree seedling, sapling and adult tree by height class in all treatment and control plots. The formation of long-auricled indocalamus monodominant thickets significantly impeded the tree survival and growth. The abundance and diversity of saplings in the 18-390 cm height classes were lower in the treatment plots. Although the dense bamboo layers did not significantly reduce the abundance and diversity of tree seedlings of less than 18 cm height and canopy trees, the biomass of seedlings, saplings and canopy trees decreased by 47.45%, 39.87% and 59.64% for the aboveground portion and by 5570%, 46.08% and 63.62% for the belowground portion, respectively. Non-metric multidimensional scaling (NMS) ordination showed different patterns in species compositions between treatment and control plots, which further indicated that tree regeneration in these two types of plots was not in the same succession phase. Our results support the hypothesis that the formation of dense bamboo thickets would slow the tree regeneration process. Our study suggests that the formation of monodominant understory layers during reestablishment of natural forest should be avoided.