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Moving from one habitat to another, the dispersal of individuals has consequences for their conditions, population dynamics and gene flow. Our major motivation was to explore the effects of different forestry treatments, such as preparation (partial) cuts and clear cuts, on the selected population of the forest ground beetle, Carabus coriaceus (Coleoptera: Carabidae). We tagged six individuals (three males and three females) with small radio-transmitters and each was released in the treatment habitat core, at the edges and in the core of control forests respectively. The recorded trajectories were divided into two major movement phases: a random walk and a directional movement using hidden Markov models. Our results revealed that in the core zone of preparation cuts, the random walk and the directional movement were equally distributed in the trajectory. A clear directional movement was observed in the clear cuts suggesting the beetles moved directly toward the adjacent (control) forest interior. The trajectories at the edges of both treatments were dominated by the random walk and so for the controls. These results suggest that forest ground beetles can avoid the forestry treatments especially clear cuts, however edge habitats and (the studied) preparation cuts can mitigate the migration constraints due to their more favorable environmental conditions compared to clear cuts.

In Europe, forest management has controlled forest dynamics to sustain commodity production over multiple centuries. Yet over-regulation for growth and yield diminishes resilience to environmental stress as well as threatens biodiversity, leading to increasing forest susceptibility to an array of disturbances. These trends have stimulated interest in alternative management systems, including natural dynamics silviculture (NDS). NDS aims to emulate natural disturbance dynamics at stand and landscape scales through silvicultural manipulations of forest structure and landscape patterns. We adapted a "Comparability Index" (CI) to assess convergence/divergence between natural disturbances and forest management effects. We extended the original CI concept based on disturbance size and frequency by adding the residual structure of canopy trees after a disturbance as a third dimension. We populated the model by compiling data on natural disturbance dynamics and management from 13 countries in Europe, covering four major forest types (i.e., spruce, beech, oak, and pine-dominated forests). We found that natural disturbances are highly variable in size, frequency, and residual structure, but European forest management fails to encompass this complexity. Silviculture in Europe is skewed toward even-aged systems, used predominately (72.9% of management) across the countries assessed. The residual structure proved crucial in the comparison of natural disturbances and silvicultural systems. CI indicated the highest congruence between uneven-aged silvicultural systems and key natural disturbance attributes. Even so, uneven-aged practices emulated only a portion of the complexity associated with natural disturbance effects. The remaining silvicultural systems perform poorly in terms of retention compared to tree survivorship after natural disturbances. We suggest that NDS can enrich Europe's portfolio of management systems, for example where wood production is not the primary objective. NDS is especially relevant to forests managed for habitat quality, risk reduction, and a variety of ecosystem services. We suggest a holistic approach integrating NDS with more conventional practices.

Forests host most terrestrial biodiversity and their sustainable management is crucial to halt biodiversity loss. Although scientific evidence indicates that sustainable forest management (SFM) should be assessed by monitoring multi-taxon biodiversity, most current SFM criteria and indicators account only for trees or consider indirect biodiversity proxies. Several projects performed multi-taxon sampling to investigate the effects of forest management on biodiversity, but the large variability of their sampling approaches hampers the identification of general trends, and limits broad-scale inference for designing SFM. Here we address the need of common sampling protocols for forest structure and multi-taxon biodiversity to be used at broad spatial scales. We established a network of researchers involved in 41 projects on forest multi-taxon biodiversity across 13 European countries. The network data structure comprised the assessment of at least three taxa, and the measurement of forest stand structure in the same plots or stands. We mapped the sampling approaches to multi-taxon biodiversity, standing trees and deadwood, and used this overview to provide operational answers to two simple, yet crucial, questions: what to sample? How to sample? The most commonly sampled taxonomic groups are vascular plants (83% of datasets), beetles (80%), lichens (66%), birds (66%), fungi (61%), bryophytes (49%). They cover different forest structures and habitats, with a limited focus on soil, litter and forest canopy. Notwithstanding the common goal of assessing forest management effects on biodiversity, sampling approaches differed widely within and among taxonomic groups. Differences derive from sampling units (plots size, use of stand vs. plot scale), and from the focus on different substrates or functional groups of organisms. Sampling methods for standing trees and lying deadwood were relatively homogeneous and focused on volume calculations, but with a great variability in sampling units and diameter thresholds. We developed a handbook of sampling methods (SI 3) aimed at the greatest possible comparability across taxonomic groups and studies as a basis for European-wide biodiversity monitoring programs, robust understanding of biodiversity response to forest structure and management, and the identification of direct indicators of SFM., This review was funded by the EU Framework Programme Horizon 2020 through the COST Association: COST Action CA18207: BOTTOMSUP- Biodiversity Of Temperate forest Taxa Orienting Management Sustainability by Unifying Perspectives.

We studied the response of enchytraeid (Annelida: Oligochaeta) community structure to different forest management treatments via an open-field forestry experiment in a managed sessile oak-hornbeam forest in Hungary. The applied forestry treatments were 1) clear-cutting 2) clear cutting with a small patch of retention tree group, 3) gap-cutting, 4) preparation cutting and 5) control (closed mature stand). Our questions were: how did the selected forestry treatments influence the abundance and species richness of enchytraeids two years after the intervention, and how could the worms compensate the altered environmental conditions by vertical movements in topsoil layers (0–12 cm). The effects of the treatments on the species composition of the assemblages and species-specific responses were also analysed. Two years after the treatments, a strong response of enchytraeids was observed in clear-cutting and even more in retention tree group: in both treatments the abundance and the species richness of enchytraeids were reduced. Species did not show vertical movements into deeper layers and were not able to tolerate the altered soil conditions caused by changed microclimate. Gap-cutting and preparation cutting did not differ significantly from control plots. Our study showed that right after the interventions tree retention at the size of one tree height in diameter had no sheltering effect on this important soil decomposer animal community. These results are in contrast with earlier findings in boreal zones, where soil organic layer is considered a well buffered habitat against environmental changes. Oppositely, enchytraeid assemblages in a temperate deciduous forest are more diverse but seem more vulnerable to management-related alterations in soil conditions (soil temperate increment, reduced soil moisture).

As modern silviculture in natural forests is based on natural regeneration, finding the most important drivers of regeneration is crucial for forestry as well as conservation. We explored the relationship between numerous environmental and land use history variables and the species richness, cover and composition of the regeneration layer, and also the cover of the dominant species of the regeneration (sessile oak, hornbeam and beech) in coniferous-deciduous mixed forests. We identified the key factors which forest management can influence to support the regeneration of mixedwoods. Thirty-four stands were sampled, representing different tree species combinations and stand structures. We used redundancy analysis to explore the effects of the explanatory variables on the regeneration’s species composition, and general linear modelling to examine their effects on its species richness and cover. The most important drivers of species composition were tree species richness, the amount of relative diffuse light, the proportion of beech in the overstory, and the heterogeneity of the diameter of trees. The cover of the regeneration layer was positively related to the density of large trees and to the amount of relative diffuse light. Its species richness was most strongly influenced by light and tree species richness. For the cover of a particular species in the regeneration, the proportion of the conspecific species in the overstory was determinant for every species, but other, various drivers also played a role in the case of the different species. According to our results, the community variables of the regeneration are mainly driven by the characteristics of the current forest stands, thus they are strongly influenced by management. Compositional heterogeneity of the overstory, various tree size distribution and the presence of large trees play key roles in the maintenance of a heterogeneous regeneration layer. The shelterwood forestry system is partially capable of providing these conditions, but continuous cover forestry is much more suitable to achieve them. Besides the stand structural variables, among the drivers of the individual species, various variables of forest site, landscape and land use history also occurred. Therefore, we conclude that maintaining the landscape-scale heterogeneity of forest types and management systems may promote the coexistence of various species in the region.

Dry oak forests have one of the richest understory vegetation in Europe, but the environmental drivers of this community have been scarcely revealed. In this study, we assessed whether the amount of light, soil pH or stand heterogeneity affect primarily the species composition of this community. We investigaed 332 sampling plots in 40–165 year old managed and abandoned Quercus cerris and Q. petraea dominated forests in North Hungary. Presence-absence data of herbaceous species and seedlings of woody species were recorded in 28 subplots within each sampling plot. Stand structure, canopy openness and soil pH were also measured in each plot. The relationships between stand characteristics and the species assemblage were explored by redundancy analysis, while the individual responses of species and species groups were studied by generalized linear mixed models. Multivariate methods and individual species response analyses provided similar results, the amount of light and soil pH were equally important variables (both of them explained 2.8% of species variance), while stand heterogeneity had a bit lower, albeit still significant role in determining understory species composition (1.9% of species variance explained). Seedlings of woody species preferred shaded (half-shaded) conditions, while many herbaceous species were positively related to light. The effect of the three explanatory variables was hard to separate, since they influenced each other as well. Sessile oak seedlings and herbs typical of dry forests, forest edges, grasslands and acidic soil habitats preferred light rich habitats with homogeneous stand structure and low soil pH. Mesic forest herbs and seedlings of other woody species were related to relatively high soil pH, heterogeneous stand structure and closed canopy. These two understory types were clearly separated regarding composition. This study emphasizes the importance of heterogenous light conditions and mosaic, diverse forest structure (presence of homogeneous and heterogeneous forest patches) during forest management for the maintenance of understory biodiversity.

Although the functional trait approach can facilitate the understanding of mechanisms that underline community responses to habitat alteration, only a few studies used this way on exploring the structure of insect assemblages compared to taxon-based analyses. We compared the descriptive power of medium-term effects (2014-2018) of forestry treatments in a temperate managed oak-dominated forest on taxon- vs. trait-based descriptors of ground beetle assemblages. The treatments included rotation forestry (partial preparation cutting, clear-cutting, retention-tree group, and mature closed forest as control) and continuous cover forestry (gap cutting) operations. The species composition was only slightly influenced by the treatments; on the ordination biplot, the control, retention tree group, and clear-cutting treatments formed relatively homogeneous groups, well separated from each other, while the others were scattered randomly in the ordination space. Over time, the species richness decreased in all treatments, but it was higher in the retention tree group treatment than in others in 2016 and 2017. The activity density also declined between years, but an immediate mass effect was revealed after the implementation of treatment types especially in the control, gap, and preparation cuts. We found that assemblages in the clear-cutting and retention-tree group had similar characteristics: high functional diversity; more open-habitat, generalist, and omnivore species and fewer carnivore species; while those in the control, gap, and preparation cutting groups had the opposite: lower functional diversity, more forest species, and more carnivorous species. Our findings will demonstrate that the simultaneous use of the two approaches will allow the most articulate understanding of the status of ground beetles assemblages in managed forests.

In recent decades, alternative management techniques integrating conservation concerns into industrial forestry have become increasingly widespread. In order to compare the effects of various management methods on forest site and biodiversity, a systematic forestry experiment was conducted in a managed, mature oak–hornbeam forest. The present work introduces the 2-year responses of environmental variables and understory vegetation to different silvicultural treatments. These belong either to clear-cutting (clear-cutting, retention tree group), to shelterwood (preparation cutting), or to continuous cover forestry systems (gap-cutting). The experiment follows a complete block design with four replicates. Light availability was significantly higher in all the treatments than in the uncut control, with highest values in the clear-cuts. Soil moisture was highest in the gap-cuts and clear-cuts, while in the retention tree group, it did not differ from the control. Species richness, cover, and height of the understory considerably differed from the control in the clear-cuts and gap-cuts, while in the retention tree group, only species richness was higher. The establishment of ruderal, non-forest species altered the species composition in the clear-cuts. Based on these short-term responses, we conclude that as a result of the extreme environmental changes, clear-cutting in oak–hornbeam forests changes the understory vegetation considerably. Retention tree groups can maintain legacies of the understory composition for some years. Despite the experienced high vegetation cover, gap-cutting preserves the forest characteristics of the understory better than clear-cutting. These results confirm that in oak–hornbeam forests, continuous cover forestry may be more sustainable from conservational aspect than clear-cutting system.

Correction to: Biologia The original version of the article was published as first online in Biologia on 18 June 2021. Unfortunately, the original version of this article contains a mistake in the Material and Methods section (Page 3, lines 19–22 in the first section) in terms of body/tag mass ratio for insects, please find the corrected statement below

Dead wood (DW) has great importance for many wildlife species and ecological processes. The volume of DW is considered a useful indicator of the sustainability and maintenance of biodiversity in forests. Though dry-mesic oak forests cover large areas in Hungary, little is known about DW quantities or dynamics in these forests. We investigated DW conditions in five age classes of dry-mesic Quercus petraea and Q. cerris dominated forests in the Hungarian Carpathians. Stands of the first four age classes (age class 1: 40–59, age class 2: 60–79, age class 3: 80–99, age class 4: 100–119 years old) were managed and stands at least 120 years old were unmanaged at least for 30 years (age class 5). We measured the volume, density, dominance and size distribution of standing DW and volume of downed DW. We also evaluated the decay stages of DW on an ordinal scale (I-V, intact to well-decayed). The effect of age class on the derived variables such as density, dominance, volume or proportion of DW was analysed with general linear mixed models using age class as a fixed and region as a random effect. Mean total DW volume did not reach 15 m3/ha in age class 1, 2 and 3. A much larger volume of DW was found in age class 4 and 5, where the mean total volume of DW was 36.9 and 45.1 m3/ha, respectively. Volume and proportion of total DW over 30 cm in diameter were markedly lower in age classes 1, 2 and 3 than in age classes 4 and 5, moreover standing and downed DW over 30 cm in diameter were totally absent in stands under 100 years old. The proportion of well-decomposed (decay stage IV and V) DW was much lower (3–18% of the volume) in all five age classes than in old-growth stands of dry-mesic oak forests. After three decades of non-intervention (age class 5), the volume of DW can approach that of old-growth forests. The 40–99-year old stands contained a similarly low percentage of DW as other managed dry-mesic oak forests in Europe. Based on the results, it is likely that stands greater than 100 years old will support much higher biodiversity of saproxylic organisms compared to younger stands.

The complex interactions between stand characteristics and forest site variables result in specific understory microclimate conditions, which are essential for many forest-dwelling organism groups. The main aim of our study was to evaluate the relative importance of stand structure variables and landscape elements that account for the microclimate in closed, managed, mature forest stands. The relationships between different microclimatic variables were also analyzed. 35, 70–100 year-old deciduous-coniferous mixed forest stands were selected in Western Hungary. Air temperature, relative humidity, and relative diffuse light were measured at eight sampling periods between 2009 and 2011. Below-canopy air temperature and humidity showed a strong negative correlation, but diffuse light was independent. The mean values of air temperature and humidity depended on stand structure elements, chiefly on the subcanopy and shrub layer, while their variance was lowered by litter cover. The amount of diffuse light was negatively affected by tree diameter, basal area and tree size diversity. Our results suggest that structural elements have a stronger influence on microclimate conditions than tree species composition of the overstory. The midstory and the shrub layer play key roles in maintaining the special microclimate of forests with continuous canopy-cover. Our results can provide adoptable aspects for forest management and nature conservation for the maintenance of the specific conditions favorable to sensitive forest specialist taxa (e.g. forest herbs, forest-dwelling ground beetles, epiphytic bryophytes, and lichens).

Light is one of the most important drivers of understory vegetation in forests, influencing the patterns of total cover as well as the abundance of individual species. Based on a multi-scale approach, the relationships between the amount and pattern of relative diffuse light and forest understory were studied in an old-growth, temperate mixed forest (Hungary). The recorded vegetation variables were the cover of the vascular understory (herbs, woody seedlings), the bryophyte layer, and some selected vascular understory species. The pattern of light showed aggregations at two scales: 10 × 10 and 25 × 25 m. Both vascular understory and bryophyte cover had significant positive correlations with light availability, and their spatial pattern was related to it. The pattern of seedlings displayed the strongest relationships with that of light at a coarser scale (25 × 25 m) than herbs and bryophytes (10 × 10 m). At the species level, Festuca heterophylla , Fragaria vesca and Poa nemoralis were characterized as light-demanding herbaceous species (their spatial pattern was congruent with light), Brachypodium sylvaticum and Carex pallescens were transitional, while some species proved to be shade-tolerant (e.g. Ajuga reptans , Dryopteris carthusiana , Viola reichenbachiana ). Regarding seedlings, the patterns of Betula pendula , Carpinus betulus , Pinus sylvestris and Quercus petraea were related to the pattern of light. According to our observations, diversity and composition of vascular forest understory and bryophytes were related to heterogeneous light conditions. Forest management should maintain continuous shelter on the stand level; however, smaller gaps are necessary for the survival of light-demanding forest herbs and bryophytes, and larger gaps for tree seedlings.

A stable below‐canopy microclimate of forests is essential for their biodiversity and ecosystem functionality. Forest management necessarily modifies the buffering capacity of woodlands. However, the specific effects of different forestry treatments on site conditions, the temporal recovery after the harvests, and the reason for the contrasts between treatments are still poorly understood. The effects of four different forestry treatments (clear‐cutting, retention tree group, preparation cutting, and gap‐cutting) on microclimatic variables were studied within a field experiment in a managed oak‐dominated stand in Hungary, before (2014) and after (2015–2017) the interventions by complete block design with six replicates. From the first post‐treatment year, clear‐cuts differed the most from the uncut control due to the increased irradiance and heat load. Means and variability of air and soil temperature increased, air became dryer along with higher soil moisture levels. Retention tree groups could effectively ameliorate the extreme temperatures but not the mean values. Preparation cutting induced slight changes from the original buffered and humid forest microclimate. Despite the substantially more incoming light, gap‐cutting could retain the cool and humid air conditions and showed the highest increase in soil moisture after the interventions. For most microclimate variables, we could not observe any obvious trend within 3 yr. However, soil temperature variability decreased with time in clear‐cuts, while soil moisture difference continuously increased in gap‐ and clear‐cuts. Based on multivariate analyses, the treatments separated significantly based mainly on the temperature maxima and variability. We found that (1) the effect sizes among treatment levels were consistent throughout the years, (2) the climatic recovery time for variables appears to be far more than 3 yr, and (3) the applied silvicultural methods diverged mainly among the temperature maxima. Based on our study, the spatially heterogeneous and fine‐scaled treatments of continuous cover forestry (gap‐cutting, selection systems) are recommended. By applying these practices, the essential structural elements creating buffered microclimate could be more successfully maintained. Thus, forestry interventions could induce less pronounced alterations in environmental conditions for forest‐dwelling organism groups.

Herbaceous understory vegetation is an important part of temperate forested ecosystems, the diversity and composition of which are strongly dependent on the conditions of the forest stand and the landscape. The aim of this study was to find the most important environmental drivers influencing understory herb layer species composition (explored with multivariate analysis), and richness and cover (analysed by linear modelling) in managed mixed forests in West Hungary. Our detailed inventory showed that the most important factors increasing the diversity and cover of the understory are light, tree species richness, and landscape diversity. Composition is also mainly influenced by light conditions and tree species richness, with minor effects of tree species composition, soil texture, and moss cover. As the strongest influencing factors are closely linked to stand structure and tree species composition, they can either directly or indirectly be altered by forest management. In the studied region, heterogeneous light conditions and canopy structure, the maintenance of tree species richness and forest continuity are key elements for the conservation of forest herbs. Forestry that maintains continuous forest cover and the tree selection management system can better provide these conditions than the presently widely used shelterwood management system.

The effects of stand structure, tree species composition, proportion of habitat types and land use history on breeding bird assemblages in temperate mixed forests in Western Hungary were studied. The species richness, the abundance and the composition of the whole breeding bird assemblage and of some groups formed on the basis of nesting site and rarity were examined. Stand structural variables had the highest impact on the breeding bird assemblage, while tree species composition, the varying proportion of vegetation types and land use history had no significant effect. In the case of the species richness, the abundance and the composition of the whole assemblage, the most important variables were the mean diameter of trees, the vegetation cover of the forest floor and the dead wood volume. The explained variance in the linear models of different groups varied between 20% and 60%, and the relative importance of these three variables also differed considerably. These results indicate that forest management may considerably influence the diversity and the composition of birds, as all the structural elements affecting birds deeply depend on it. Within the shelterwood management system, the elongation of the rotation and regeneration periods, and the relatively high proportion of retention tree groups after harvest could contribute to the conservation of forest birds. Our results also showed that for the forest bird communities, both the prevalence of big trees and the presence of a dense understory layer are important. Management regimes which apply continuous forest cover might be more appropriate for providing these structural elements simultaneously on small spatial scales, and for the maintenance of a more diverse bird community, thus healthier forest ecosystems.

Ecological, economic, and social demands triggered a shift in the management of temperate deciduous forests from rotation forestry system towards more nature-based forest management techniques such as continuous cover forestry. However, there is insufficient knowledge on the regeneration success of different tree species—especially oaks—within this management system. Through a systematic experiment, we compared the regeneration processes of a sessile oak-hornbeam forest after gap-cutting (as an element of continuous cover forestry system) to regeneration after clear-cutting, preparation cutting, and in retention tree groups (treatments of rotation forestry system). A managed, closed, mature forest was used as control. Several different aspects of the regeneration were studied: (1) seed supply of sessile oak—Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl., (2) species number and abundance of the natural regeneration, (3) survival and growth of individual saplings of five tree species (sessile and Turkey oak—Quercus cerris L., hornbeam—Carpinus betulus L., beech—Fagus sylvatica L., and common ash—Fraxinus excelsior L.). The number of acorns was high in closed forest, intermediate in preparation cutting and retention tree group, low in gaps, and zero in clear-cutting. Four years after the interventions, there was no detectable treatment effect on the species number of regeneration. Survival increased in every treatment compared to control, but there was no significant difference in this measure between the differently treated sites. Height growth was highest in the gaps and clear-cuts, intermediate in preparation cuts, and lowest in retention tree groups and controls. Species with different seed dispersal mechanisms responded differently to treatments: oaks were dispersal-limited in the gaps and clear-cuts, while anemochorous species (e.g., hornbeam and manna ash) were present in every treatment. The survival and growth pattern of the particular species proved to be similar, but the intensity of the response differed: shade-tolerants (hornbeam, beech, and ash) showed better survival than oaks in most treatments, and their height growth was larger. According to our results, oak regeneration establishes successfully in oak-hornbeam forests not only in the case of rotation forestry, but also during continuous cover forestry (gap-cutting). The survival and growth of the saplings are similar in cutting areas and gaps, but keeping in mind other considerations (such as preserving forest continuity, balanced site conditions, and forest biodiversity), continuous cover forestry should be preferred.

There are only few studies that explore the ecological consequences of forest management on several organism groups. We studied the short-term effects of four forestry treatments including preparation cutting, clear-cutting, retention tree group and gap-cutting in a temperate managed forest on the assemblage structure of understory plants, enchytraeid worms, spiders and ground beetles. Here we show, that the effect of treatments on the different facets of assemblage structure was taxon-specific. Clear-cutting and retention tree group strongly impoverished enchytraeids assemblages. Even if the species richness and cover of plants increased in clear-cutting and gap-cutting, their species composition moderately changed after treatments. For spiders only their species composition was influenced by the treatments, while the response of ground beetles was slightly affected. Short-term effect of forest management interventions on biodiversity might be compensated by the dispersal (spiders, ground beetles) and resilience (plants) of organism groups, however sedentary soil organism showed high sensitivity.

Background Forest management alters the forest site, however, information is still limited about how different silvicultural treatments modify these conditions. In the past decades, besides rotation forestry, new silvicultural systems were introduced, fulfilling the requirements of multipurpose forestry. In this study we investigated the short-term effects of different forestry treatments on microclimate, litter and soil conditions in a European oak-dominated forest. Methods A forest ecological experiment was established in a homogenous, managed, 80 years old, Quercus petraea and Carpinus betulus dominated forest, in 2014. Five treatments of three different forestry systems were installed following a complete block design in six replicates: clear-cutting with a circular retention tree group as typical elements of the clear-cutting system, preparation cutting (partial harvest) belonging to the shelterwood system, gap-cutting as a common tool of continuous cover forestry in Europe and uncut control. Microclimate, litter and soil variables were measured systematically since 2014. Here we present the results of the analyses of the first growing season following the interventions (2015). Results We found that there is strong treatment effect in the case of microclimate and litter varibles, but for soil characteristics the impacts will presumably appear in longer term. The increment of total and diffuse light was the greatest in clear-cutting, in gap-cutting the illuminance was intermediate, while light-levels were lower and less variant in preparation cutting and retention tree group. Air and soil temperature as well as vapor pressure deficit increased the most in clear-cutting; both means and variances were the highest in this treamtment. Retention tree group could not buffer the means of the temperature variables, but a small group of tree individuals was able to ameliorate the extremes of the microclimate. Significant increase of soil moisture was measured as a consequence of gap-cutting and less pronouncedly in clear-cutting. Similarly, litter pH and moisture were the highest in these treatment types. Significant increment in soil pH was detected in retention tree group. Through the analysis of microclimate variables during the growing season, we could demonstrate the buffering effect of forest canopy: differences between treatments were the greatest in summer for all microclimate variables. Discussion We can conclude that in oak–hornbeam forest, only less intensive and spatially heterogeneous silvicultural treatments could preserve the stable, cooler and humid below-canopy microclimate, therefore, group selection using gaps and irregular shelterwood systems are favourable. Our findings can support the mitigation of the negative impacts of climate change in managed forest. Moreover, besides basic research we can formulate implications for foresters and conservationists to preserve biodiversity in temperate forests.

Forest management alters forest site, however, information is still limited about how different silvicultural treatments modify abiotic conditions. We compared the effects of four treatments from three different forestry systems on forest microclimate, litter, and soil conditions. The clear-cutting, retention tree group, preparation cutting, and gap-cutting treatments were experimentally established in a European oak-dominated forest, following a complete block design with six replicates. In this study, we show the results of the quantitative analyses of 21 variables, one year after the interventions. Strong treatment effects were observed for the microclimate and litter variables, whereas the soil characteristics remained similar. The increase in light was the highest in the clear-cuts with intermediate effects in the gap-cuts. The means and variances of the air and soil temperature as well as the vapor pressure deficit were the highest for the clear-cutting treatment. An increase in soil moisture, litter pH, and litter moisture was significant in the gap-cuts and, to a smaller extent, in the clear-cuts. The soil pH increased in the retention tree groups. Microclimatic differences between the treatments were the largest during the summer, which demonstrates the buffering effect of the canopy. Our study confirms that less intensive and more spatially heterogeneous silvicultural treatments (e.g., gap-cutting) preserve a stable below-canopy microclimate more effectively. These results can support and might be useful for both forest management and conservation planning.

Characteristic features of European woodland include both a reduction in natural forest areas and an increase in former agricultural areas occupied by secondary woodland. The management of these areas is challenging in terms of nature conservation, agricultural and forestry management and policy. The aim of our study was to reconstruct the history and to document the current tree stand structure for a secondary oak-beech woodland in Hungary. Towards the end of the 1800s, this area which was once almost completely occupied by a continuous forest, had been transformed into a wood-pasture. As a result of its gradual abandonment, the closed forest stand of the pasture increased from 10 to 52% between 1963 and 2005. The most characteristic feature of this woodland is the abundance of large trees. Globally, the number of large and ancient trees is rapidly diminishing. Therefore preserving and maintaining such areas, where large trees could live, is an essential management task.

Controlling herbivore insects by insectivorous birds is a major ecosystem service, nevertheless little is known about how local habitat features and forest management influence the efficiency of this service and about how the pest control service birds provide can be maintained and improved. We conducted an experiment in temperate oak forests in the Matra Mountains, northern Hungary to measure bird predation rate of artificial caterpillars resembling winter moth (Operophtera brumata L.) larvae, to evaluate the relationships among insectivorous bird communities, caterpillar populations and leaf damage caused by caterpillars and to assess the effect of forest heterogeneity on these processes. We found, that structurally heterogeneous forests maintained a significantly higher abundance of insectivorous birds. Especially the tree size heterogeneity increased bird abundance. The rate of bird predation was positively related to the abundance of insectivorous birds as well as to caterpillar abundance, which indicates that birds were able to respond to caterpillar density. We were not able to demonstrate a direct negative effect of bird predation on caterpillar abundance and a positive effect of caterpillar abundance on leaf damage. Structurally heterogeneous forests, however, suffered from less leaf damage than did homogeneous forests, which result may indicates that the higher activity of insectivorous birds in heterogeneous stands resulted in lower activity of insect herbivores. Thus, we concluded that forest management can contribute to the mitigation of insect damages by maintaining the suitability of forest stands to the insectivorous bird communities through the maintenance of high stand heterogeneity and the presence of some key elements (e.g. retention tree groups, tree diversity, shrub layer).

Epiphytic bryophytes and lichens are an important component of the endangered forest biota in temperate forests, their diversity and composition patterns being regulated by tree, stand and landscape scale factors. The aim of this study is to improve ecological understanding of such factors in managed coniferous–deciduous mixed forests of Hungary in the context of forest management. In particular, this study investigate the effect of tree species composition, stand structure (tree size distribution, shrub layer and dead wood), microclimate (light, temperature and air humidity), landscape and historical factors on the stand level and tree level composition of epiphytic bryophytes and lichens. The relationships were explored by multivariate methods (Redundancy Analysis, canonical correspondence analysis and variation partitioning) and indicator species analysis. Tree species is among the most important driver of species composition in both organism groups. For bryophytes, the continuity of forest microclimate and the presence of shrub layer are also important, while lichen assemblages are influenced by light availability. Landscape and historical variables were less influential than stand scale factors. On the basis of our results, the main strategy of management focusing on epiphyte diversity conservation should include: (1) the maintenance of tree species diversity in mixed stands; (2) increasing the proportion of deciduous trees (mainly oaks and hornbeam); (3) the maintenance of large trees within the stands; (4) the presence of shrub and regeneration layer; (5) the creation of heterogeneous light conditions.

Intensive forest management creates habitat degradation by reducing the variation of forest stands in general, and by removing old trees and dead wood in particular. Non-intervention forest reserves are commonly believed to be the most efficient tool to counteract the negative effects on biodiversity, but actual knowledge of the conservation efficiency is limited, especially for recent reserves. The structure of ecological communities is often described with measures of nestedness, beta diversity and similarity between communities. We studied whether these measures differ among forest reserves with different management histories. For this purpose, we used a large data set of wood-inhabiting fungi collected from dead beech trees in European beech-dominated forest reserves. The structure of fungal assemblages showed high beta diversity, while nestedness and similarity was low. During the decomposition process of trees beta diversity between the communities occupying different trees increased in natural, but not in previously managed sites. Effects of management and decay process on nestedness were complex. We argue that the detected differences most likely reflect historical effects which have extirpated specialized species from the local species pools in managed sites, and resulted in more homogeneous communities in managed sites. It is alarming that community structure is affected the most in the latest decay stages where the decay process turns the dead wood into litter, and which is thus the interface between the wood decay and the litter-decaying ecosystem. The effects of simplified communities in late decay stages on soil biodiversity should be studied.

Different types of forest use significantly changed the structure and species composition of European temperate forests. Herbaceous species and seedlings are important parts of the forest ecosystem, thus it is necessary to understand the effects of stand characteristics on the species composition of the understory. In our study we assessed the main factors that affect the species composition of herb and tree seedling assemblages in Quercus petraea and Q. cerris dominated stands (age 50–150 years) in the Bukk Mountains, Hungary. The relationship between the studied assemblages and explanatory variables (tree species composition, stand structure, canopy closure and topography) were explored by Redundancy Analysis (RDA). The occurrence of herbaceous species was affected by canopy closure, stand structure (mean DBH and DBHcv of trees), topography and the density and diversity of shrub layers. Oak forest species were associated with more open stands with sparsely distributed large trees, while mesic forest species were positively associated with heterogeneous stand structure, low shrub density, and western exposure. Seedlings of trees and shrubs showed a dispersal limited phenomenon. The composition of seedlings was significantly influenced by the mean DBH of trees, the structural heterogeneity of the overstory, the tree species diversity and the density of shrub layers. However the seedlings of both dominant oak species required the same stand structure, sessile oak was able to regenerate almost exclusively in those stands where it was dominant in the overstory, which is significant for the management of the species. Generally, forest management affects species composition and structure of the overstory, accordingly it had direct and indirect effects on the understory community as well.

The effect of tree species, stand structure, landscape and historical variables was studied on the species composition, species richness and cover of epiphytic bryophyte assemblages in mixed deciduous–coniferous forests of Western Hungary. Stand and tree level assemblages were analyzed by ordinations and generalized linear modeling in 35 70–110 year old stands of different management regimes. Bryophytes showed a considerable preference to different host trees, so that stand level diversity of bryophyte assemblages was determined mainly by tree species diversity, and their composition by tree species composition. Cover and diversity of epiphytic bryophytes were the highest on oaks (Quercus petraea and Quercus robur), and the lowest on Scotch pine (Pinus sylvestris). The presence of sapling (shrub) layer increased, whereas a large number of medium sized trees decreased bryophyte species richness in this study. Tree size was much less influential which is explained by the lack of large, veteran trees. Forest management maintaining tree species diversity, structural heterogeneity and temporal continuity of the stands could considerably contribute to the conservation of this organism group. Selective cutting is more appropriate for these conservational purposes than shelterwood management system.

Background: Few studies analysing lichen diversity have simultaneously considered interactions among drivers that operate at different spatial and temporal scales.Aims: The aims of this study were to evaluate the relative importance of host tree, and local, landscape and historical factors in explaining lichen diversity in managed temperate forests, and to test the potential interactions among factors acting at different spatial scales.Methods: Thirty-five stands were selected in the O{double acute}rség region of western Hungary. Linear models and multi-model inference within an information-theory framework were used to evaluate the role of different variables on lichen species richness.Results: Drivers at multiple spatial scales contributed to shaping lichen species richness both at the tree and plot levels. Tree-level species richness was related to both tree- and plot-level factors. With increasing relative diffuse light lichen species richness increased; this effect was stronger on the higher than on the lower part of the trunks. At the plot scale, species richness was affected by local drivers. Landscape and historical factors had no, or only a marginal, effect.Conclusions: Lichen conservation in temperate managed forests could be improved if the complex interactions among host tree quality and availability, micro-climatic conditions, and management were taken into consideration.

Past and present pressures on forest resources have led to a drastic decrease in the surface area of unmanaged forests in Europe. Changes in forest structure, composition, and dynamics inevitably lead to changes in the biodiversity of forest-dwelling species. The possible biodiversity gains and losses due to forest management (i.e., anthropogenic pressures related to direct forest resource use), however, have never been assessed at a pan-European scale. We used meta-analysis to review 49 published papers containing 120 individual comparisons of species richness between unmanaged and managed forests throughout Europe. We explored the response of different taxonomic groups and the variability of their response with respect to time since abandonment and intensity of forest management. Species richness was slightly higher in unmanaged than in managed forests. Species dependent on forest cover continuity, deadwood, and large trees (bryophytes, lichens, fungi, saproxylic beetles) and carabids were negatively affected by forest management. In contrast, vascular plant species were favored. The response for birds was heterogeneous and probably depended more on factors such as landscape patterns. The global difference in species richness between unmanaged and managed forests increased with time since abandonment and indicated a gradual recovery of biodiversity. Clearcut forests in which the composition of tree species changed had the strongest effect on species richness, but the effects of different types of management on taxa could not be assessed in a robust way because of low numbers of replications in the management-intensity classes. Our results show that some taxa are more affected by forestry than others, but there is a need for research into poorly studied species groups in Europe and in particular locations. Our meta-analysis supports the need for a coordinated European research network to study and monitor the biodiversity of different taxa in managed and unmanaged forests.

Data were analysed on the volume of dead wood in 86 beech forest reserves, covering most of the range of European beech forests. The mean volume was 130 m3/ha and the variation among reserves was high, ranging from almost nil to 550 m3/ha. The volume depended significantly on forest type, age since reserve establishment and volume of living wood. More dead wood was found in montane (rather than lowland/submontane) reserves, longer-established reserves (time since designation) and reserves with higher volumes of living wood. On average, fallen dead wood contributed more to the total dead wood volume than standing dead wood. The percentage of dead wood that was standing was almost twice as high in montane than in lowland/submontane forest reserves (45% versus 25%). The volume of dead wood at selected sites changed considerably over time. The fluctuations were significantly higher in lowland/submontane than montane reserves, possibly connected with differences in the disturbance regimes and especially damage caused by windstorms. In NW Europe, the blow down of formerly managed, even-aged stands led to extraordinary high volumes of dead wood shortly after reserve establishment. The implications for forest management and biodiversity conservation are discussed. An increase in dead wood volumes must be carried out in accordance with the local/regional forest type and disturbance regime. Thus, in order to fulfil the requirements of as many wood-depending organisms as possible, it is important to preserve not only larger amounts of dead wood, but also dead wood of different types and dimensions as well as securing a long-term continuity of dead wood.