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- Title
DEADWOOD AMOUNT AND QUALITY IN CENTRAL ITALY BEECH HIGH FORESTS LOCATED IN A NATURAL RESERVE.
- Authors
Lo Monaco, Angela; Fallucchi, Domenico; Venanzi, Rachele; Di Marzio, Nicolò; Picchio, Rodolfo
- Abstract
In the framework of sustainable forest management, deadwood plays an essential role within forest ecosystems. In recent years it has properly become a fundamental indicator of sustainability in the management of forest resources. In fact, deadwood plays many ecological and functional roles, for instance it provides a habitat for many living organisms (contributing to the conservation of biodiversity), acts as a long-term carbon stock, increases and maintains the overall productivity of the forest, contributes to the development of soil and nutrients cycles. The pan-European criteria recognize the value of forest deadwood as an indicator of sustainable management and the standards for forest management certification give to the evaluation of deadwood a primary role in the assessment process. Although the importance of deadwood to assess the sustainability of forest management, the information on this fundamental parameter of forest ecosystems is widely documented mainly for primary forests, while for managed forests it is much scarcer. Taking into account these considerations, this work aims to quantify and qualify the woody deadwood present within the managed beech forests of the Abruzzo, Lazio and Molise National Park. These beech forests have an important socio-economic function for local populations: they are actively managed, and residents are allowed to collect deadwood according to specific rules established by the Park Authority. Forest parcels of the local forest management plan were taken into consideration, within which sample areas were created to collect data concerning quantity and type of deadwood present in the stand. Samples were also collected to qualify the deadwood present according to widely recognized scientific protocols. It has been observed that silvicultural management and good accessibility to the forest affect the volume and type of deadwood present. Therefore, it has been emphasized that even within a protected area there are zones in which the removal of the on-ground timber affects the volume of the deadwood due to the civic use rights to collect downed logs or branches as domestic fuel by local populations. The results obtained made it possible to compare the volumes and types of deadwood, both laying and standing, present in these managed beech forests, with the data collected from other studies concerning managed and primary forests.
- Subjects
ABRUZZO (Italy); ITALY; FOREST biodiversity; SUSTAINABILITY; FOREST management; BIODIVERSITY conservation; FOREST productivity; BEECH; NUTRIENT cycles; SOIL formation
- Publication
ACTA Scientiarum Polonorum Silvarum Colendarum Ratio et Industria Lignaria, 2022, Vol 21, Issue 4, p358
- ISSN
1644-0722
- Publication type
Article