Correlations among biodiversity, biomass and other plant community parameters using the phytosociological approach: A case study from the south-eastern Alps

Poldini, Livio; Sburlino, Giovanni; Buffa, Gabriella; Vidali, M.

doi:10.1080/11263504.2010.547673

Cited by 19 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 24 publications

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“…To overcome such a shortcoming, the present paper exploits species coverage data from phytosociological relevés as an information to be coupled with the dendrometric data for assessing shrub biomass at the community level. Because of their increasing availability, the use of phytosociological data to assess plant community attributes is becoming more frequent (Diekmann et al 2008;Ewald 2008;Poldini et al 2011). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the biomass of shrubs typical of Mediterranean pre-forest communities

Corona

Pasta

Giardina

et al. 2012

Plant Biosystems - An International Journal Dealing with all As

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One of the most outstanding issues of current environmental research is the need of reliable assessments of carbon stock (i.e. above-ground (a.g.) and below-ground biomass, deadwood, litter, and organic soil matter) within forest ecosystems. Although shrub vegetation plays an important role in accumulating carbon in many Mediterranean environments, there is still very little knowledge on the carbon they store. In this article, we analyze the a.g. carbon stock of several Mediterranean shrubby communities in Sicily (Italy), dominated by Pistacia lentiscus, Chamaerops humilis, Euphorbia dendroides and Spartium junceum. Plant samples for each species were selected, and morphometric attributes (height, crown diameter, diameter at breast height, etc.) were measured to establish models for estimating a.g. biomass. Dendrometric data were also used to support the assessment of shrub biomass at community level by coupling them with the coverage of the considered woody species estimated from several hundreds of phytosociological relevés carried out on pre-forest Sicilian communities. Although the results of such an approach have to be considered as rough assessments, the trial proves interesting, given the lack of information on stand biomass of pre-forest vegetation within the Mediterraean region.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessing the biomass of shrubs typical of Mediterranean pre-forest communities

Corona

Pasta

Giardina

et al. 2012

Plant Biosystems - An International Journal Dealing with all As

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“…Again the use of detailed vegetation maps could effectively be the starting point to define associations between some ecosystem parameters, such as biomass, and specific forest types, as it was already proposed for grasslands (Poldini et al 2011), while today classifications based solely on the dominant species are used (Marchetti et al 2012). The use of vegetation maps based on forest types with detailed information on composition instead of maps based on dominant tree species will also contribute to the assessment of the indicator "tree species composition" (4.1 in Tab.…”

Section: Growing Stockmentioning

confidence: 99%

The role of plant sociology in the study and management of European forest ecosystems

Blasi¹,

Burrascano²

2013

iForest

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Forest composition is a faithful indicator of the stressors and disturbances that influence forest ecosystems, and it should be accounted for in Sustainable Forest Management policies. Indeed, the classification of forest ecosystems in forest types is considered as a key tool to improve the assessment and monitoring of forest biological diversity, and for the definition of management guidelines. Accordingly, the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe has recognized the need of developing a pan-European forest classification in forest types, and has identified indicators of Sustainable Forest Management that should be applied by forest types. The classification of vegetation has always been among the main aims of the plant sociology. The quantitative and qualitative analysis of plant species composition, performed through the plant sociological approach, condenses compositional and structural information within a hierarchical system, and expresses all historical, sociological and habitat factors that influence the actual and potential vegetation. In a modern perspective the integration of plant sociology and ecological analysis represents a key to a hierarchical land classification and to the understanding of vegetation dynamics; furthermore the long history of plant sociology determined the availability of large datasets of vegetation data throughout Europe. Starting from these considerations, in this paper we briefly describe how plant sociology could represent a tool for the assessment of the indicators of SFM that should be applied by forest types, giving insights on how this discipline could contribute to the assessment of each of these indicators

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“…Zhu 2001;Yang 2001;Messing et al 2003) and from the perspective of the re-vegetation program, this initially supplements the low precipitation in the area and has encouraged wide-spread afforestation. However, when the soil water stores are used up, forest vegetation is unable to acquire additional water from deep soil layers and, instead, must rely on water derived from precipitation in the current year (Poldini et al 2011;Ruhl et al 2011). This situation leads to vegetation growth variations according to the amount of precipitation.…”

Section: Validation Of Modeled Water Budgetsmentioning

confidence: 99%