Contrasting multi-taxa diversity patterns between abandoned and non-intensively managed forests in the southern Dolomites

Abstract

The abandonment of silvicultural activities can lead to changes in species richness and composition of biological communities, when compared to those found in managed forests. The aim of this study was to compare the multi-taxonomical diversity of two mature silver fir-beech-spruce forests in the southern Dolomites (Italy), corresponding to the European Union habitat type 9130. The two sites share similar ecological and structural characteristics, but differ in their recent management histories. In the last 50 years, one site underwent non-intensive management, while the other was left unmanaged and was included in a forest reserve. The species richness and composition of eight taxa were surveyed in the two sites between 2009 and 2011. The difference in mean species richness between the two forest management types was tested through permutation tests, while differences in species composition were tested by principal coordinates analysis and the permutational multivariate analysis of variance. Mean species richness of soil macrofungi, deadwood lichens, bark beetles, and longhorn beetles were significantly higher in the abandoned than in the non-intensively managed forests. Deadwood fungi and epiphytic lichens did not differ in mean species richness between the two study sites, while mean species richness of ground beetles and birds were higher in the non-intensively managed than in the abandoned forest. Significant differences in species composition between the two sites were found for all the taxa, except for longhorn beetles. These results indicate that improving forest landscape heterogeneity through the creation of a mosaic of abandoned and extensively managed forests should better fulfill the requirements of ecologically different taxa.

Functional plasticity of carabids can presume better the changes in community composition than taxon‐based descriptors

“…This is congruent with the low functional diversity in control plots (i.e., closed forests), suggesting that the available functional space, in terms of the ecological niche concept, are already held mainly by carnivorous forest specialist carabids with low dispersal capacity (Nolte et al 2017). The relatively homogeneous forest stand with closed canopy can prevent the establishment of more opportunistic carabids and ensure the persistence of forest specialists, which provides the functional stability of forest ecosystems (Sitzia et al 2017).…”

Similarities and Differences among Soil Fungal Assemblages in Managed Forests and Formerly Managed Forest Reserves

“…In our study, formerly managed forest reserves (established around 50 years ago) and forests under standard forest management appeared to be similar in terms of total and mean species richness of all fungal OTUs, as well as OTUs assigned to different functional trophic groups (Figures 1 and 2). Thus, our results support our first hypothesis and corroborate the limited number of studies based on surveys of sporocarps or soil DNA analyses that revealed high similarity in fungal richness in formerly managed forest reserves compared to nonintensively managed forests [29,[68][69][70]. However, the Jackknife extrapolated fungal OTU richness yielded slightly more fungal OTUs in forest reserves (643) than in corresponding managed forests (617).…”

Conservation of the Mediterranean coastal pine woodlands: How can management support biodiversity?

“…Direct comparisons of different taxa sampled in the same sets of plots are often used to obtain deeper insight into the effects of various factors and processes on communities (e.g. Lososová et al, 2011;Chytrý et al, 2012;Sitzia et al, 2017;Burrascano et al, 2018). In this study, we found a common responseto fencing at the community level for vascular plants and oribatids in Mediterranean coastal pine forests.…”