Biodiversity composition reflects the history of ancient semi-natural woodland and forest habitats—Compilation of an indicator complex for restoration practice

For centuries, Fennoscandian wooded meadows and woodland pastures (Habitats Directive habitat types *6530 and 9070 respectively) covered large areas of Northern Europe. In the Twentieth Century, abandonment-driven encroachment has led to the wooded grasslands changing into what may be considered as old-growth deciduous forests. The present paper examined whether the present stand structure and the composition of three contrasting functional groups (herbaceous layer vascular plants, epiphytic bryophytes, and earthworms) could serve as indicators of the historic origin of the forest patches, i.e. to what extent changes in ecological conditions in overgrown woodlands have shifted towards broad-leaved forests with ancient trees. Indicators were tested for the objective of restoration planning of habitat quality, i.e. whether semi-open woodlands could be restored or if it would be more appropriate to preserve them as broad-leaved forests. The study was carried out by comparing the composition of ancient forest cores, forest edges and overgrown wooded grasslands. The land use history of sample sites was examined from historical topographical maps and aerial photos.The results showed that as long as 60 years after abandonment, parts of the studied forests still retained some light-demanding plant species characteristic of historical wooded grasslands. The composition of earthworm communities was similar in all of the studied historical forest groups. Only some of the stand structure characteristics and epiphytic mosses indicated that there were differences between ancient forest cores and overgrown wooded grasslands. We conclude that the combination of various functional indicators should be used in the evaluation of successional woodlands for habitat restoration.     

Some comments on the classification of African vegetation

Abstract. Problems of naming African vegetation units are discussed, and related to the AETFAT vegetation scheme and other recent publications. Particularly, the distinction is emphasized between the terms forest and woodland, which are often considered synonyms. In other cases, no precise and ecologically meaningful definitions are presented, which leads to confusion and superfluous terms. More strict rules for the definition and application of vegetation terminology are proposed, and suggested as basic information to be given in vegetation literature.     

Woodland history of northern Greece from the mid Holocene to recent time based on evidence from peat pollen profiles

The woodland history of the northern mountainous parts of Greece is considered in the context of pollen profiles from bogs in Rhodopes, Lailias-Vrontou, Paiko, Voras and Pieria. In the time period covered by these diagrams (only those from Voras and Lailias extend back to the 7th millennium B.P.) the overall trends in the woodland history at the particular sites are comparable but there are also substantial differences that are attributed to the effects of human influence which varied in time, intensify and extent. The earlier phase, which corresponds to the Atlantic period of Firbas, is characterized by mixed deciduous woodlands with Quercus or Tilia the main components. This is followed by the phase (Subboreal) in which coniferous woodlands, which consisted of Abies and Pinus, dominated. In this time, Fagus gradually expanded. In the final phase (Subatlantic), Abies becomes more or less extinct and Fagus has a dominant role. These developments broadly correspond with those recorded in pollen profiles from Central Europe.