'Castanea sativa woods' in the Northern Apennines: a phytosociological analysis along ecological gradients

Castanea sativa woods, one of the most widespread habitats of southern Europe, are included in the European Community Natura 2000 network within Sites of Community Importance (SCI). In the Northern Apennines, chestnut woods are mainly coppices derived from old chestnut orchards, and now abandoned. To describe the relationship between present chestnut structure and vegetation features, we analysed the plant diversity of chestnut woods by 143 phytosociological releves within 6 SCIs. The gradient of diversity was identified by multivariate analysis (clustering and ordination) and related to other woods such as mixed oak woods or lowest altitude Fagus sylvatica woods in order to evaluate the potential evolutionary pattern of present chestnut woods.