Herbaceous Vegetation in Southwestern Pine Forests

Herbaceous forage in southwestern pine forests can be few and far between.  Especially in unnaturally-overgrown thickets, there is simply not enough light and too much acidic leaf needle litter to grow robust grasses and forbs.  The high carbon content and resistant nature of conifer bark and needles means that few nutrients are available to growing plants.  

Even when forest thinning restores natural stand densities, the recalcitrant accumulated biomass often seems to limit production.  There is simply too much carbon and it is clogging up microbial turnover of nutrients.  Sure, you'll find plenty of aboveground mushrooms and mycelial hypahe at work in the soil, but I have to wonder if there isn't a more productive alternate-stable state.

What is the limiting resource?  I've theorized that light may still be limiting when forests aren't thinned enough to create light gaps in the canopy.  But it also seems that the overabundance of carbon may be soaking up nitrogen.  In these nutrient-poor systems we typically find 'tolerator' species like sedges, that can eke out a frugal living in acidic conditions.

What about blueberries?  In some parts of the world, conifers and blueberries go together like apples and pie, but in many of the southwestern mountain ranges we have no native Vaccinium.  I'm still not sure why, except that they seem to prefer colder (moister?) climes than New Mexico can provide....

There are two species of Vaccinium in the southwest, with Vaccinium myrtillus much more common.  However, south of Santa Fe even this species only occurs at scattered locations in mixed conifer and subalpine forests.  These high-elevation forests are being rapidly lost to stand-replacing forest fires.  Even with current climate change, it is unlikely that extensive tracts of cooler forests will be able to regrow.

What about legumes?  Fabaceae are often able to supply their own nitrogen requirements and eventually supplement total ecosystem N.  But I'm surprised by how rarely I find good legumes in the forest.  Thermopsis is surprisingly rare, as are Lotus and I almost never find clovers growing in conifer needle duff.  

Robinia neomexicana seems to be one legume shrub that has found its way into a diversity of habitats, growing almost like a weedy in mountainous areas throughout the southwest.  

Seeding mixtures in forests typically use annual grasses, but I wonder if there isn't a Fabaceae that could dramatically enhance production to increase ground-cover, forage, pollinator, and wildlife habitat?  Should standard thin-and-chip treatments be supplemented with seeding efforts?

What about increasing disturbance to disrupt pine duff accumulation?  These thick, undecomposed layers and inhibit germination of many forbs...