Concerns about potential negative impacts of human activity on macrofungal diversity are spreading globally, yet research on this topic remains scarce. This study focuses on forest grazing (silvopasture), a popular economic practice whose impacts on macrofungal diversity are underexplored. Through investigation and comparison of macrofungal diversity and selected environmental factors in three types of subtropical forests (secondary mixed forests, dense-tree plantations and sparse-tree plantations) before and after two years of grazing at an intensity of 10 goats per hectare in South China, three key findings emerged: (1) Macrofungal alpha-diversity increased significantly after grazing, associated with an increase in large plant remains and a decrease in litterfall thickness; (2) dominance was monopolized by few taxa before grazing but became more balanced among a number of taxa after grazing; and (3) dominance of endemic taxa decreased in two of the three types of forests after grazing. Such findings suggest that grazing may create additional niches through foraging, trampling and excretion by livestock and thus recruit diverse macrofungi but may also lead to homogenization of fungal florae across regions and thus result in recessive beta-diversity loss. As this study heavily relies on taxonomy, allied updates for ambiguous taxa recognized in analyses are additionally proposed.

Understory vegetation diversity is the key indicator of ecological outcomes in the close-to-nature transformation of plantations, with its composition revealing successional dynamics and ecosystem functionality. In response to China’s “Green and Beautiful Guangdong” Initiative, enhancing the ecological quality of plantations has been established as a critical objective for sustainable forest management. This study assessed the understory vegetation in four representative transformed plantations in Guangdong Province, China, using Multi-Response Permutation Procedure (MRPP), Indicator Species Analysis (ISA), Detrended Correspondence Analysis (DCA), and Redundancy Analysis (RDA). The results showed that: (1) Species richness was highest in the Eucalyptus L’Hér plantation (102 species), followed by Pinus massoniana Lamb (94), Acacia mangium Willd (92), and Litchi chinensis Soon plantations (85). (2) MRPP analysis revealed significant differences in species composition among plantation types (A = 0.149, p < 0.001). ISA identified 5, 7, 3, and 5 indicator species for each type, respectively, predominantly light-demanding pioneers such as Dicranopteris dichotoma (Thunb.) Bernh and Microstegium vagans (Nees ex Steud.) A. Camus. (3) DCA ordination showed clear compositional segregation among the understory communities of Eucalyptus, Pinus massoniana, and Acacia mangium plantations, whereas the Litchi chinensis plantation exhibited substantial overlap with others. RDA further demonstrated a significant negative correlation between mean diameter at breast height (DBH) and understory diversity (p < 0.01) across all plantations except Litchi chinensis. These findings offer a quantitative basis for tailored management strategies. We recommend structural adjustments through target-tree thinning to optimize light availability by regulating DBH, combined with interplanting native understory species. This integrated approach can enhance structural heterogeneity and promote more effective and sustainable plantation restoration.