Coppice abandonment and its implications for species diversity in forest vegetation

Forest Ecology and Management
Jana MüllerováPéter Szabó

Abstract

Coppicing, once a common type of management in European broadleaved forests, was abandoned in many places after WWII. This form of management provided a variety of structural and microclimatic conditions for tree and understorey vegetation. After the abandonment of this intensive management, succession towards mature close forests ensued, and suitable habitats for species ecologically connected to coppicing were reduced. In our study, we chose a region in central Europe where coppicing was the dominant type of forest management until the first half of the 20th century but was abandoned after WWII. We investigated long-term changes in both woody and herbaceous species composition in the Lower Morava UNESCO Biosphere Reserve using historical sources and vegetation plot resurveys from the 17th to the 21st century. The impact of coppice abandonment on vegetation composition and on the conservation value of forests was evaluated. Dominant tree species appeared to be very stable throughout the past four centuries, but changes occurred in their proportions. A shift from species rich oak-hornbeam woodland towards species poorer communities with increasing proportions of lime, ash and maple was observed after the abandonment of coppicin...Continue Reading

Citations

May 23, 2015·Conservation Biology : the Journal of the Society for Conservation Biology·Luigi Boitani, William J Sutherland
Apr 14, 2017·Ecology and Evolution·Norbert HelmThomas Dirnböck
Jan 20, 2016·PloS One·Jana MüllerováJiří Doležal
Jun 14, 2015·Environmental Management·Walter MattioliPiermaria Corona

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