Changes of vascular plant diversity along a chronosequence of beech coppice stands, central Apennines, Italy

Abstract

This research sought to understand the patterns of vegetation recovery after disturbances because of coppice management in beech forests. Eighty sampling units from the mountain belt of the Marche region (Apennines, Italy) were collected according to a stratified sampling based on their geological setting (limestone, sandstone), elevation classes and age after last coppicing (to represent a chronosequence, from 1 to 90 years). The expected successional trend of decreasing species richness was confirmed, together with some stabilisation processes for older stand ages. However, more complex diversity patterns were found when total species richness was decomposed into the species richness of five social behaviour types (SBTs), defined based on the species' habitat preference. On both bedrocks, temporal gradients explained the observed diversity changes at the stand level: forest specialists increased whereas non-forest species decreased. A relatively long time after coppicing (40–60 years), the contribution of the beech specialist species doubled, whereas non-forest and species from anthropogenic habitats decreased by about 50%. On sandstone, the contribution of gap species also decreased over a long-period, and the beech stands experienced stronger changes over time. We conclude that the decomposition of total species richness in terms of SBT affords the opportunity to identify temporal references for thresholds which can be used to assess plant diversity status in relation to management schedules and conservation policy decisions.

Keywords:

• Coppice rotation cycle
• forest management
• functional groups
• richness
• repeated disturbances
• sustainability

Acknowledgements

This article was financially supported by “Montagna di Torricchio” Nature Reserve, “Environmental and landscape laboratory” LEADER + CE n. 2000/C 139/05. The Authors would like to thank the following institutions for their logistic and organizational support: the Ministero delle Politiche Agricole Alimentari e Forestali, Ufficio S.I.A.; Corpo Forestale dello Stato: Coordinamento regionale per le Marche, Comando Regionale Marche, and CTA Parco Nazionale dei Monti Sibillini. We are grateful to Romina Marinelli, Simone Gatto, Gergely Mányoki and Stefano Chelli for assistance during the fieldwork; Sandro Ballelli and Domenico Lucarini were helpful during species identification and group attribution. We would also like to express our gratitude to János Bölöni and three anonymous referees for their useful comments on an earlier draft.