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Changes in biodiversity indicators in managed and unmanaged forests in NE Spain

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Journal of Forest Research

Abstract

Major changes in Mediterranean forests have occurred in recent decades, mainly as a result of the abandonment of traditional activities and population decline in rural areas. In this study, we analyzed the short-term (11-year) evolution of forests in the region of Catalonia (NE Spain) and the role of management, by comparing seven biodiversity indicators estimated from 7,664 plots from the Second and Third Spanish National Forest Inventory. We evaluated the changes in unmanaged and managed stands with different silvicultural treatments, and considered the effect of stand density and land ownership on these dynamics. We found a general naturalization and maturation of forests and an increase in all of the biodiversity indicators investigated during the study period, with the increments being greater in unmanaged than in managed plots. Some types of silvicultural treatments, such as selection cutting or thinning, were shown to be compatible with an increase in the analyzed indicators, and thus were more adequate for a multifunctional management that considers forest production together with the maintenance or improvement of the diversity of forest communities. The increases in shrub species richness and in the number of large-diameter trees after silvicultural treatments were more prominent in dense stands. Private lands presented greater short-term increases than public forests in all biodiversity indicators, except for large-diameter trees. From these results, we concluded that the application of silvicultural treatments can be a key tool to shape and maintain diverse and healthy forest structures in the context of socioeconomic and environmental changes in the Mediterranean region, which may induce potentially excessive densification and homogenization of some forest stands and landscapes.

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Acknowledgments

Funding was provided by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the European Union (FEDER funds) through the IBEPFOR (CGL2006-00312/BOS), MONTES-CONSOLIDER (CSD2008-00040) and Restauración y Gestión Forestal (PSS-310000-2009) projects. Two anonymous reviewers made helpful comments on an earlier version of this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department d’Enginyeria Agroforestal, ETSEA, Universitat de Lleida, Av. Alcalde Rovira Roure, 191, 25198, Lleida, Spain

    Olga Torras & Assu Gil-Tena

  2. Àrea de Biodiversitat, Grup d’Ecologia del Paisatge, Centre Tecnològic Forestal de Catalunya, Ctra. de St. Llorenç de Morunys, km 2, 25280, Solsona, Spain

    Assu Gil-Tena

  3. Departamento de Economía y Gestión Forestal, ETSI Montes, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, Ciudad Universitaria s/n., 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Santiago Saura

Authors
  1. Olga Torras
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  2. Assu Gil-Tena
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  3. Santiago Saura
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Correspondence to Santiago Saura.

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Torras, O., Gil-Tena, A. & Saura, S. Changes in biodiversity indicators in managed and unmanaged forests in NE Spain. J For Res 17, 19–29 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10310-011-0269-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10310-011-0269-2

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