• Key message: A multi-criteria analysis can be an interesting tool to assess the effects of silvicultural treatments on ecosystem services supply. In the degraded forests, thinning has a positive effect on the provision of ecosystem services such as timber and bioenergy production, climate change mitigation, and recreational attractiveness. • Context: The Millennium Ecosystem Assessment highlights the importance of the ecosystem services for human well-being and for maintaining conditions for life on Earth. Silvicultural treatments can improve the provision of ecosystem services to increase local communities’ well-being. • Aims: The aim of this study is to understand the effects of two-forest restoration practices (selective thinning and thinning from below) on three ecosystem services (wood production, climate change mitigation, and recreational opportunities) in an Italian case study. • Methods: A multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) was performed to compare the effects of three forest restoration scenarios (baseline, selective thinning, thinning from below) on ecosystem services. Wood production was estimated considering the local market prices and the wood volumes harvested, while climate change mitigation was quantified through the C-stock and C-sequestration changes in carbon pools due to the silvicultural treatments. The recreational activities were assessed through a questionnaire survey. A sample of 200 visitors was interviewed face-to-face to estimate the impact of thinning on recreational activities. • Results: The results of the MCDA show that the selective thinning scenario is the optimal forest restoration practice to increase the recreational attractiveness and the wood production in the study area. • Conclusion: The results concerning the effects of the silvicultural treatments on ecosystem services supply are an important tool to support decision makers. © 2021, INRAE and Springer-Verlag France SAS, part of Springer Nature.

In Mediterranean ecosystems an increasing demand for in situ trace gas exchange data is emerging to enhance the adaptation and mitigation strategies under forest degradation. Field-chamber green-house gas fluxes and site characteristics were analysed in two Mediterranean peri-urban pine forests showing degradation symptoms. We examined the effect of different thinning interventions on soil CO<inf>2</inf>, CH<inf>4</inf> and N<inf>2</inf>O fluxes, addressing the relationships with the environmental variables and C and N contents along forest floor-soil layers. Soil temperature resulted as the main driving variable for CO<inf>2</inf> efflux and CH<inf>4</inf> uptake. Soil moisture content and organic matter availability affected CO<inf>2</inf> emission patterns in the two sites. N<inf>2</inf>O fluxes showed a positive correlation with soil moisture under wetter climatic conditions only. GHG fluxes showed significant correlations with C and N content of both forest floor and mineral soil, especially in the deepest layers, suggesting that it should be considered, together with environmental variables when accounting GHG fluxes in degraded forests. Short-term effects of thinning on CO<inf>2</inf> emissions were dependent on disturbance induced by logging operations and organic matter inputs. After thinning CH<inf>4</inf> uptake increased significantly under selective treatment, independently from specific site-induced effects. N<inf>2</inf>O fluxes were characterized by low emissions in both sites and were not affected by treatments. Soil CO<inf>2</inf> efflux was the largest component of global warming potential (GWP) from both sites (11,553 kg ha⁻¹ y⁻¹ on average). Although it has a large global warming potential, N<inf>2</inf>O contribution to GWP was about 131 kg CO<inf>2</inf>eq ha⁻¹ y⁻¹. The contribution of CH<inf>4</inf>-CO<inf>2</inf> equivalent to total GWP showed a clear and significant CH<inf>4</inf> sink behaviour under selective treatment (36 kg ha⁻¹ y⁻¹ on average). However, in the short-term both thinning approaches produced a weak effect on total GWP. © 2018 Elsevier B.V.