Recovering ability of deciduous Oak Forest after different stages of tree cutting in Central Italy

• Published in: Atti della Accademia nazionale dei Lincei. Rendiconti Lincei. Scienze fisiche e naturali Vol. 28; no. 1; pp. 53 - 64
• Main Authors: De Nicola, Cristina, Fanelli, Giuliano, Testi, Anna, Costa, Corrado, D’Angeli, Diego, Pignatti, Sandro
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 01.03.2017; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Biomedicine; Composition; Coppicing; Cutting; Cutting management; Deciduous forests; Deciduous trees; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Ecological succession; Environment; Forest biomass; Forest management; History of Science; Indicator species; Indicators; Life Sciences; Multidimensional scaling; Quercus cerris; Quercus frainetto; Scaling; Species composition; Temporal variations; Woodlands; Italy; Mediterranean Area; Forest layers; Age of tree cutting; Deciduous managed oak forest; Phytosociological approach; Indicator species analysis
• ISSN: 2037-4631; 1720-0776
• DOI: 10.1007/s12210-016-0572-0

This study, performed in the frame of the European PROmotion of FORest BIOmass in the MEDitterranean project, addressed the spatio-temporal variations among stands with different ages of tree cutting using data on species composition and vertical structure collected by phytosociological survey. In the Mediterranean region coppicing and tree cutting are the most widespread management regime affecting the forest composition, structure and recovery. All woodlands investigated in central Italy belong to sub-mediterranean deciduous oak forest dominated by Quercus cerris and Q. frainetto . An integrated phytosociological and ecological approach was utilized to determine the forest changes after tree cutting. A multivariate ordination (nonmetric Multidimensional Scaling, NMDS) was applied to the floristic and environmental dataset. NMDS distinguished, along the first axis, two groups of relevés related to different age of tree cutting: Young—Y-stands (period: after 2000, cutting from 13 years ago), were well separated from Old—O-stands (period: 1950 and 1970, cutting from 43–63 years ago) and Middle (M) stands (period: 1970 and 2000, cutting from 13–43 years ago). On the same ordination the environmental variables related to climate, topography and vertical structure were projected. The Indicator species of Young and Old/Middle groups, respectively, were detected via the indicator species analysis : thermoxerophilous woody species of the Mediterranean woodlands together with deciduous thermophilous species were indicators of Young stands; whereas sciaphilous and mesophilous herbaceous species were indicators of Old/Middle stands. Significant differences in species composition and vertical structure distinguished the three groups of stands and the Young stands, with a turnover of 13 years, were particularly affected. Coverage of species and layers vary greatly in relationship with the years of cutting following the stages of vegetation succession. Finally, the climate strongly interacts with the forest management.