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Original Articles

Toward sustainable forest management indicators? A data mining approach to evaluate the impact of silvicultural practices on stand structure

, , , , &
Pages 372-382 | Received 13 Jul 2016, Accepted 11 Sep 2016, Published online: 03 Oct 2016
 

ABSTRACT

Indicators are increasingly required to support a fine-tuning between sustainable forestry and multiple environmental targets. A data mining strategy was implemented in this study to assess the overall impact of traditional and innovative silviculture on stand structure in a sample of beech forests with varying dominant age, management history and stand structure in Italy. Harvesting intensity and stand sensitivity to treatment were investigated using a principal component analysis (PCA) run on a set of dendrometric and stand-structure variables measured before and after practice implementation at the scale of forest compartment. The PCA decomposed the overall impact of silviculture on forest structure in two manipulative effects: (i) structural changes between control and treatments, and (ii) the net manipulative effect of innovative versus traditional treatment. Our approach informs the sustainable management of forests, outlining between-site differences in stand structure and identifying a diversity gradient shaped by silvicultural practices. Multivariate analysis of forest indicators following practice’s implementation is a promising tool to design innovative silviculture coherent with conservation of forests’ structural diversity.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Managing Forests for multiple purpose: Carbon, Biodiversity and socio-economic wellbeing: [Grant Number: LIFE09 ENV/IT000078].

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