Hélène Gondard

Forest management and plant species diversity in chestnut stands of three Mediterranean areas

Over many centuries, chestnut fruits had an important role as food, while chestnut wood was used for local purposes. Today sweet chestnut stands are very common around the western Mediterranean Basin, and it is necessary to analyze the dynamic of plant species diversity in different chestnut stand types (groves and coppices) to guide management strategies that will allow the conservation of biodiversity. Our objective was to analyze consequences on plant species diversity of various management strategies in chestnut stands of three Mediterranean areas, Salamanca (Spain), the Cevennes (France), and Etna volcano (Italy). We found that plant species diversity is different according to management types; it is higher in groves than in coppice stands. We also demonstrated that Castanea sativa cultivated groves were characterized by small heliophillous therophytes. C. sativa abandoned groves, mixed C. sativa-Quercus pyrenaica coppice stands, Q. pyrenaica coppice stands, and young C. sativa coppice stands were characterized by hemicryptophytes with anemochorous dispersal mode and chamaephytes. Medium and old C. sativa coppice stands (that differ by the shoot age) were characterized by phanerophytes with zoochorous dispersal mode. Human perturbations maintain a quite high level of species diversity. In contrast, the abandonment of chestnut stands leads to homogeneous vegetation with decreasing diversity. One solution could be to maintain a landscape mosaic constituted of diverse chestnut stands modified by human activities (groves, cultivated or abandoned, and coppice stands). This could enhance regional plant diversity.

Impact of soil surface disturbances on functional group diversity after clear-cutting in Aleppo pine (Pinus halepensis) forests in southern France

Abstract The objective of this study was to analyze soil surface disturbances resulting from logging tractors, of different types (skidder and forwarder), used for clear-cutting in natural Aleppo pine forests and their consequences on plant species and functional group diversity. Results indicate that shallow disturbances (litter left in place or removed) were more frequent than deep disturbances (topsoil removed, subsoil exposed, rut exposed) regardless of the logging tractor used. The forests with previously cultivated terraces were the least disturbed. Moreover, with the aid of a functional group analysis we distinguished four plant species response groups to soil surface disturbance types. The mosaic created by these groups after clear-cutting and log removal probably contributes to a rapid auto-regeneration of a mixed plant community similar to that existing just prior to the clear-cutting.