Coppicing and plant diversity in a lowland wood remnant in North–East Italy

In European lowlands, remnants of natural forests are rare, small, fragmented and often endangered. Most of the recent EU environmental policies have included such habitats in protected areas. However, nature conservation measures may conflict with traditional forest management, such as coppicing. We used a space-for-time approach to assess the effect of two contrasting silvicultural practices (coppicing vs. conversion to high forest) on composition and structure of plant community. Plant diversity was calculated as overall and single vegetation layer value. Functional diversity was evaluated in terms of functional richness, evenness and divergence. Our findings showed that coppice age has a strong effect on taxonomical and functional diversities, which generally decreased from young to mature stands. Species composition was significantly changed with coppice age and after the conversion to high forest, showing that traditional coppicing may contribute to sustaining habitat heterogeneity and key taxa for nature conservation. The abandonment of coppicing in the area might lead to a general landscape and habitat simplification, a weakening of the system functions and the loss of crucial species.