Where are we now with European forest multi-taxon biodiversity and where can we head to?

Sabina Burrascano*, Francesco Chianucci, Giovanni Trentanovi, Sebastian Kepfer-Rojas, Tommaso Sitzia, Flóra Tinya, Inken Doerfler, Yoan Paillet, Thomas Andrew Nagel, Bozena Mitic, Lourdes Morillas, Silvana Munzi, Theo Van der Sluis, Edoardo Alterio, Lorenzo Balducci, Rafael Barreto de Andrade, Christophe Bouget, Paolo Giordani, Thibault Lachat, Dinka MatosevicFrancesca Napoleone, Juri Nascimbene, Chiara Paniccia, Nicolas Roth, Réka Aszalós, Gediminas Brazaitis, Andrea Cutini, Ettore D'Andrea, Pallieter De Smedt, Jacob Heilmann-Clausen, Philippe Janssen, Daniel Kozák, Anders Mårell, Martin Mikoláš, Björn Nordén, Radim Matula, Peter Schall, Miroslav Svoboda, Mariana Ujhazyova, Kris Vandekerkhove, Michael Wohlwend, Fotios Xystrakis, Michele Aleffi, Christian Ammer, Frederic Archaux, Thomas Asbeck, Dimitrios Avtzis, Manfred Ayasse, Simonetta Bagella, Rosario Balestrieri, Anna Barbati, Marco Basile, Ariel Bergamini, Giada Bertini, Alessandro Bruno Biscaccianti, Steffen Boch, János Bölöni, Pierluigi Bombi, Yves Boscardin, Giorgio Brunialti, Hans Henrik Bruun, François Buscot, David Bille Byriel, Thomas Campagnaro, Alessandro Campanaro, Matthieu Chauvat, Michał Ciach, Marek Čiliak, Luca Cistrone, Joao Manuel Cordeiro Pereira, Rolf Daniel, Bruno De Cinti, Gabriele De Filippo, Wouter Dekoninck, Umberto Di Salvatore, Yann Dumas, Zoltán Elek, Fabrizio Ferretti, Dimitrios Fotakis, Tamás Frank, Julian Frey, Carmen Giancola, Erika Gomoryová, Marion Gosselin, Frederic Gosselin, Martin M. Gossner, Frank Götmark, Elena Haeler, Aslak Kappel Hansen, Lionel Hertzog, Jeňýk Hofmeister, Jan Hošek, Vivian Kvist Johannsen, Mathias Just Justensen, Nathalie Korboulewsky, Bence Kovács, Ferenc Lakatos, Carlos Miguel Landivar, Luc Lens, Emanuele Lingua, Fabio Lombardi, František Máliš, Luca Marchino, Vitas Marozas, Giorgio Matteucci, Walter Mattioli, Peter Friis Møller, Jörg Müller, Csaba Németh, Gábor Ónodi, Francesco Parisi, Thomas Perot, Sandrine Perret, Anna Maria Persiani, Alessia Portaccio, Mario Posillico, Žydrūnas Preikša, Carsten Rahbek, Nolan James Rappa, Sonia Ravera, Antonio Romano, Ferenc Samu, Christoph Scheidegger, Inger Kappel Schmidt, Sebastian Schwegmann, Flavia Sicuriello, Andreea Petronela Spinu, Gavriil Spyroglou, Jonas Stillhard, Eleni Topalidou, Anders P. Tøttrup, Karol Ujházy, Katalin Veres, Kris Verheyen, Wolfgang W. Weisser, Livia Zapponi, Péter Ódor

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReviewResearchpeer-review

10 Citations (Scopus)
26 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

The European biodiversity and forest strategies rely on forest sustainable management (SFM) to conserve forest biodiversity. However, current sustainability assessments hardly account for direct biodiversity indicators. We focused on forest multi-taxon biodiversity to: i) gather and map the existing information; ii) identify knowledge and research gaps; iii) discuss its research potential. We established a research network to fit data on species, standing trees, lying deadwood and sampling unit description from 34 local datasets across 3591 sampling units. A total of 8724 species were represented, with the share of common and rare species varying across taxonomic classes: some included many species with several rare ones (e.g., Insecta); others (e.g., Bryopsida) were represented by few common species. Tree-related structural attributes were sampled in a subset of sampling units (2889; 2356; 2309 and 1388 respectively for diameter, height, deadwood and microhabitats). Overall, multi-taxon studies are biased towards mature forests and may underrepresent the species related to other developmental phases. European forest compositional categories were all represented, but beech forests were over-represented as compared to thermophilous and boreal forests. Most sampling units (94%) were referred to a habitat type of conservation concern. Existing information may support European conservation and SFM strategies in: (i) methodological harmonization and coordinated monitoring; (ii) definition and testing of SFM indicators and thresholds; (iii) data-driven assessment of the effects of environmental and management drivers on multi-taxon forest biological and functional diversity, (iv) multi-scale forest monitoring integrating in-situ and remotely sensed information.

Original languageEnglish
Article number110176
JournalBiological Conservation
Volume284
Number of pages13
ISSN0006-3207
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 2023

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This review was funded by the EU Framework Programme Horizon 2020 through the COST Association ( www.cost.eu ): COST Action CA18207: BOTTOMS-UP – Biodiversity Of Temperate forest Taxa Orienting Management Sustainability by Unifying Perspectives. The authors are thankful to all those experts contributing to the data here harmonized and resumed that were not listed as data contributors.

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 The Authors

Keywords

  • Biodiversity conservation
  • Forest biodiversity
  • Forest stand structure
  • Multi-taxon
  • Sustainable management

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