During the summer of 2024, I plan to carry out a dominant species removal experiment to understand the effects of Bracken fern, the dominant species, on the understory plant community. In three different forests, I plan to choose sites that have estimated bracken fern cover ranging from 100% to 0% (100%, 75%, 50%...) and setup up two 2m2 plots, one that is a bracken removal (-B) plot and one is a bracken control (+B) plot, per cover percentage (figure 1; n = 40). In each plot, I will collect weekly data on PAR using a MQ-200X full spectrum quantum PAR sensor to evaluate how bracken light availability varies in the presence and absence of bracken fern; for control plots, I will take PAR above and below the canopy of the bracken fern to evaluate how much light can penetrate the canopy. In each plot, I will employ TMS-4 data loggers to measure soil moisture, soil surface temperature, and temperature (Wild et al., 2019). The two plots at 0% will be the natural, no bracken cover plots to assess community composition, by collecting count and estimated cover, in the absence of bracken fern. For the removal plots, I plan to dry and weigh the biomass collected after choosing a subsample (~5 stems) of bracken fern to measure frond area and plant height. In the control and removal plots, I will transplant red maple (Acer rubrum) seedlings to use as a proxy for understory communities, and evaluate their success in the presence and absence of bracken fern. I will measure seedling height and leaf area prior to the transplant and after the experiment has concluded. I also plan to track seedling survival over the course of the experiment.