Maurizio Cutini

Old coppice versus high forest: the impact of beech forest management on plant species diversity in central Apennines (Italy)

Aims Silvicultural management plays a major role in shaping understory diversity through its action on stand structure. in many parts of Europe, recent socioeconomic changes have led to the progressive abandonment of coppicing in favor of high forest (HF) management. in order to examine how this change impacts understory species, we compared old coppice-with-standards and HF stands in terms of structural features and understory richness and composition, also taking into account the diagnostic species pool of the habitat. Since the management systems for coppices and HFs differ in cutting regime, we expect that they would cause different changes in floristic composition and richness. Methods The study area was the Montagne della Duchessa massif, in central italy. Structural differences and floristic richness were compared, and the diagnostic species diversity was analyzed using rarefaction curves and Rényi diversity profiles. Differences in understory composition were analyzed through indicator species analysis. Important Findings Our results showed that, though the old coppices have a slightly higher number of understory species in general, the HF stands have greater mean species richness in both understory and diagnostic species, the latter being more evenly distributed inside the community. These finding were related to the cut regime, which favor a constant canopy cover over time and thus the maintenance of more stable microclimatic conditions, promoting the higher abundance and evenness of shade-tolerant and vernal species. Conversely, the dense canopy of the old coppice appears to affect the understory richness by reducing the presence of light-demanding species, but still without a complete recolonization of the shade-tolerant species. Overall, our findings provide the first insights supporting that, in a Mediterranean montane context, old coppice conversion to HF could over time improve the species diversity in these habitats and help maintain good conservation status of the typical mature beech forests.

Phytosociology and ecology of the Mediterranean forests ecosystems in the Amalfi Coast (Monti Lattari, Italy)

The forest vegetation of the southern sector of the Monti Lattari complex (Amalfi Coast) has been investigated due to the lack of information on vegetation within an area of worldwide relevance and with a high floristic richness. This area shows several environmental peculiarities due to the marked orography, with pedologic features varying from carbonate to volcanic character, and bioclimatic conditions varying in a relatively short space from Mediterranean to temperate types. The study involved an extensive phytosociological survey and the analyses revealed clear differences among the forest communities, whose syntaxonomical queries and the biogeographic and ecological characters have been discussed. The communities varied from the coastal sclerophyllous forests (Cyclamino repandi–Quercetum ilicis) to the mixed thermophilous deciduous forests (Festuco exaltatae–Aceretum neapolitani, Seslerio autumnalis–Aceretum obtusati), and from the mountain neutral–subacid forests (Salvio glutinosae–Alnetum cordatae, Castanea sativa groupment, Asperulo taurinae–Alnetum cordatae) to the mountain beech forest (Anemono apenninae–Fagetum sylvaticae). Multivariate analysis showed the high relevance of steepness, elevation and pyroclastic presence, and a low relevance of aspect in the discrimination of forest communities. Syntaxonomical interpretations showed the affinity of the local communities with those of the southern Italy, but also some interesting peculiarity. Data highlight the area as a geographical boundary and phytogeographic hinge between central and southern Italy.