The Dinaric Alps harbor the best remains of European Fagus-Abies-Picea old-growth forests. Understanding structure and dynamics of these forests is crucial to understand their disturbance regime and to develop close-to-nature management of this forest type in central-southern Europe. We investigated structure, dynamics and range of variability of these mixed forests in three well preserved old-growth forests in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro. Structure and dynamics were studied at three different scales: stand (1 ha), forest (30-50 ha) and landscape (300-1000 ha) scale. The forests are characterized by high volume of living trees (average 700-1000 with some plots with >1400 m3ha-1) and coarse woody debris (average 300-400m3ha-1). There are big (up to 160 cm dbh) and very old trees (>400 year for the three species). During the last three centuries the disturbance patterns, detected from tree ring patterns, have been characterized by very small-scale processes ranging from single-tree to small group mortality. Larger disturbances (> 0,5 ha) are rare and there are no evidences (both at the stand level using biological archives or ancillary data and at the forest-landscape levels using remote sensing) of large stand replacing disturbances. Knowledge on the range of variability of montane south-European forests is hampered by limited data on natural disturbance regime and by the small size of old-growth, but accumulation of evidence from the site network and the multidisciplinary and multi-scale approach shows that, at least in the last centuries, these forest have been affected by very small scale disturbances Even if there are evidences, at the regional scale, of silver fir decline and of beech increase, in the studied sites the structure and the composition of the forests seem relatively stable with little variation.

Montane mixed old-growth forests from south-eastern European mountains: structure, dynamics and range of variability

MOTTA, Renzo;BORGOGNO MONDINO, Enrico Corrado;MELONI, Fabio;SIBONA, Emanuele Marco;VACCHIANO, GIORGIO;
2015-01-01

Abstract

The Dinaric Alps harbor the best remains of European Fagus-Abies-Picea old-growth forests. Understanding structure and dynamics of these forests is crucial to understand their disturbance regime and to develop close-to-nature management of this forest type in central-southern Europe. We investigated structure, dynamics and range of variability of these mixed forests in three well preserved old-growth forests in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Montenegro. Structure and dynamics were studied at three different scales: stand (1 ha), forest (30-50 ha) and landscape (300-1000 ha) scale. The forests are characterized by high volume of living trees (average 700-1000 with some plots with >1400 m3ha-1) and coarse woody debris (average 300-400m3ha-1). There are big (up to 160 cm dbh) and very old trees (>400 year for the three species). During the last three centuries the disturbance patterns, detected from tree ring patterns, have been characterized by very small-scale processes ranging from single-tree to small group mortality. Larger disturbances (> 0,5 ha) are rare and there are no evidences (both at the stand level using biological archives or ancillary data and at the forest-landscape levels using remote sensing) of large stand replacing disturbances. Knowledge on the range of variability of montane south-European forests is hampered by limited data on natural disturbance regime and by the small size of old-growth, but accumulation of evidence from the site network and the multidisciplinary and multi-scale approach shows that, at least in the last centuries, these forest have been affected by very small scale disturbances Even if there are evidences, at the regional scale, of silver fir decline and of beech increase, in the studied sites the structure and the composition of the forests seem relatively stable with little variation.
2015
X Congresso Nazionale SISEF. Sostenere il pianeta, boschi per la vita - Ricerca e innovazione per la tutela e la valorizzazione delle risorse forestali
Firenze
15-18 Sept 2015
Abstract book
SISEF
8
8
http://www.sisef.it/sisef/x-congresso/?id=poster#&ui-state=dialog
Old-growth forests, CWD coarse woody debris, Forest dynamics, Structure, Disturbances
Motta R; Borgogno Mondino E; Matteo G; Meloni F; Sibona E; Vacchiano G; Keren S; Govedar Z
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/2318/1574856
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