Loading...
Pubblicazioni Scientifiche
Filtri di ricerca 2 risultati
Pubblicazioni per anno
Towards an effective in-situ biodiversity assessment in European forests
Burrascano
,
Sabina
,
Chojnacki
,
Lucas
,
Balducci
,
Lorenzo
,
Chianucci
,
Francesco
,
Haeler
,
Elena
,
Kepfer-Rojas
,
Sebastian
,
Paillet
,
Yoan
,
de Andrade
,
Rafael Barreto
,
Boch
,
Steffen
,
de Smedt
,
Pallieter
,
Fischer
,
Markus
,
Mijangos
,
Itziar Garcia
,
Heilmann-Clausen
,
Jacob
,
Hofmeister
,
Jeňýk
,
Hošek
,
Jan
,
Kozák
,
Daniel
,
Kutszegi
,
Gergely
,
Lachat
,
Thibault
,
Mikoláš
,
Martin
,
Samu
,
Ferenc
,
Ravera
,
Sonia
,
Schall
,
Peter
,
Sitzia
,
Tommaso
,
Svoboda
,
Miroslav
,
Trentanovi
,
Giovanni
,
Ujházyová
,
Mariana
,
Vandekerkhove
,
Kris
,
Tinya
,
Flóra
,
Ódor
,
Péter
forest biodiversity
vascular plants
birds
epiphytic bryophytes
epiphytic lichens
monitoring network
multivariate standard error
rarefaction curves
saproxylic beetles
wood-inhabiting fungi
Mostra abstract
Assessing multi-taxon biodiversity is crucial to understand forests’ response to environmental changes and to inform management strategies. In Europe, forest biodiversity monitoring is still scattered and heterogeneous, although a long-term monitoring network has long been advocated. Given the monitoring aims reported in various EU policies, this network should be accurately designed also through the estimation of its sampling effort, here intended as the number of sampling plots and sites. We used a novel database of forest multi-taxon biodiversity for a pilot study to: estimate the minimum sampling effort needed to: assess variation in species richness and composition; compare these estimates with the efforts invested in the pilot database; discuss estimates’ differences across taxonomic groups and forest categories. We focused on six taxonomic groups (vascular plants, birds, epiphytic lichens and bryophytes, wood-inhabiting fungi and saproxylic beetles) across six forest categories. Based on 6,165 plots at 2,084 different locations across Europe, we benchmarked the effort to achieve: a complete species richness estimate through interpolation/extrapolation curves, and a precise evaluation of species composition variation through multivariate standard error. Our estimates differed widely, especially among taxonomic groups. For species richness, estimates range from 3 to 147 plots per site across 3 to 29 sites per forest category, with birds and epiphytic bryophytes requiring the least effort. For species composition, estimates range from 5 to over 25 plots per site across 5 to 20 sites per forest category, with saproxylic beetles, vascular plants, and fungi displaying the highest estimates. The taxonomic groups requiring an effort comparable to existing data were the least diverse, all the others need greater efforts, either for species richness (e.g., saproxylic beetles), or species composition (e.g., vascular plants), or both (e.g., wood-inhabiting fungi). An effective monitoring network of European forests’ biodiversity should thoroughly account for these benchmarks and for their taxon-dependency. © 2025
Handbook of field sampling for multi-taxon biodiversity studies in European forests
Burrascano
,
Sabina
,
Trentanovi
,
Giovanni
,
Paillet
,
Yoan
,
Heilmann-Clausen
,
Jacob
,
Giordani
,
P.
,
Bagella
,
Simonetta
,
Bravo-Oviedo
,
Andrés
,
Campagnaro
,
Thomas
,
Campanaro
,
Alessandro
,
Chianucci
,
Francesco
,
de Smedt
,
Pallieter
,
Itziar
,
García Mijangos
,
Matošević
,
Dinka
,
Sitzia
,
Tommaso
,
Aszalós
,
Réka
,
Brazaitis
,
Gediminas
,
Cutini
,
Andrea
,
D'Andrea
,
Ettore
,
Doerfler
,
Inken
,
Hofmeister
,
Jeňýk
,
Hošek
,
Jan
,
Janssen
,
Philippe
,
Kepfer-Rojas
,
Sebastian
,
Korboulewsky
,
Nathalie
,
Kozák
,
Daniel
,
Lachat
,
Thibault
,
Lõhmus
,
Asko
,
López
,
Rosana
,
Mårell
,
Anders
,
Matula
,
Radim
,
Mikoláš
,
Martin
,
Munzi
,
Silvana
,
Nordén
,
Björn
,
Pärtel
,
Meelis
,
Penner
,
Johannes
,
Runnel
,
Kadri
,
Schall
,
Peter
,
Svoboda
,
Miroslav
,
Tinya
,
Flóra
,
Ujházyová
,
Mariana
,
Vandekerkhove
,
Kris
,
Verheyen
,
Kris
,
Xystrakis
,
Fotios
,
Ódor
,
Péter
Mostra abstract
Forests host most terrestrial biodiversity and their sustainable management is crucial to halt biodiversity loss. Although scientific evidence indicates that sustainable forest management (SFM) should be assessed by monitoring multi-taxon biodiversity, most current SFM criteria and indicators account only for trees or consider indirect biodiversity proxies. Several projects performed multi-taxon sampling to investigate the effects of forest management on biodiversity, but the large variability of their sampling approaches hampers the identification of general trends, and limits broad-scale inference for designing SFM. Here we address the need of common sampling protocols for forest structure and multi-taxon biodiversity to be used at broad spatial scales. We established a network of researchers involved in 41 projects on forest multi-taxon biodiversity across 13 European countries. The network data structure comprised the assessment of at least three taxa, and the measurement of forest stand structure in the same plots or stands. We mapped the sampling approaches to multi-taxon biodiversity, standing trees and deadwood, and used this overview to provide operational answers to two simple, yet crucial, questions: what to sample? How to sample? The most commonly sampled taxonomic groups are vascular plants (83% of datasets), beetles (80%), lichens (66%), birds (66%), fungi (61%), bryophytes (49%). They cover different forest structures and habitats, with a limited focus on soil, litter and forest canopy. Notwithstanding the common goal of assessing forest management effects on biodiversity, sampling approaches differed widely within and among taxonomic groups. Differences derive from sampling units (plots size, use of stand vs. plot scale), and from the focus on different substrates or functional groups of organisms. Sampling methods for standing trees and lying deadwood were relatively homogeneous and focused on volume calculations, but with a great variability in sampling units and diameter thresholds. We developed a handbook of sampling methods (SI 3) aimed at the greatest possible comparability across taxonomic groups and studies as a basis for European-wide biodiversity monitoring programs, robust understanding of biodiversity response to forest structure and management, and the identification of direct indicators of SFM. © 2021 The Authors