Forest management guidelines to promote the conservation of Apennine brown bear in Italy Forests provide a wide range of important ecosystem services and, among these benefits, biodiversity and wildlife habitat. Forest management (including no active control) deeply affects wildlife management, since it can alter habitat structure and productivity, speed-up evolution of ecosystems, and impact on wildlife ability to survive and reproduce. Unfortunately still very often, practitioners, forest planners and policy-makers fail to understand this opportunity. Forest management can maintain and enhance quality, quantity and availability of natural resources for wildlife, and therefore it is a valuable management tool long recognized in the wildlife practice. This is particularly true for species associated to forest ecosystems which are threatened or endangered, such as the Apennine brown bear (Ursus arctos marsicanus). Based on an extensive literature review on forest management-bear interactions, we report recommended management actions and associated working techniques, hereby illustrated and discussed in order to define a set of forest management guidelines meant to promote and encourage the adoption of adequate silviculture practices in Apennine forests, as well as to facilitate and support the range expansion of Apennine brown bear beyond its current core distribution. Our aim is also to present these guidelines to a wider scientific audience and decision-makers to foster their implementation into management practices, especially within protected areas. Finally, our ultimate goal is to fill the gap between disciplines such as silviculture and animal ecology, with the aim of stimulating the multidisciplinary approach requested not only for the conservation of the Apennine brown bear but for the integrated and enhanced management of wildlife in general.
This paper represents the first syntaxonomic study on the Pinus nigra subsp. nigra artificial stands in the Apennines. It refers exclusively to the mature Pinus nigra forest plantations in the central Apennines that were planted before the 1950s, and then not managed. The mature Pinus nigra forest plantations in the central Apennines are distributed within four National Parks, on limestone substrata, mainly with southern aspects and rugged slopes, and at elevations ranging from 655 m to 1670 m a.s.l.. Two new phytosociological associations are described here and classified in the alliance Junipero communis–Pinion nigrae: Orthilio secundae–Pinetum nigrae and Digitalidi micranthae–Pinetum nigrae. The association Orthilio secundae–Pinetum nigrae comprises the relative mesophilous mature pine forests of the supratemperate thermotype in the plant landscape context of the alliance Aremonio agrimonioidis–Fagion sylvaticae potential vegetation belt. The Digitalidi micranthae–Pinetum nigrae comprises the thermophilous pine forests occurring on rocky stands within mesotemperate and lower supratemperate thermotypes in the potential belt of alliance Carpinion orientalis woods. The comparison of these two new associations and the phytosociological literature concerning the natural communities of Pinus nigra in the Apennines highlights their floristic and coenological autonomy.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.