Ecological transformations in the forest landscape unit at one alpine spruce (Picea abies K.) CONECOFOR plot, 1998-2004

• Main Author: Vittorio Ingegnoli
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Consiglio per la ricerca in agricoltura e l'analisi dell'economia agraria - Research Centre for Forestry and Wood 2013-11-01
• Series: Annals of Silvicultural Research
• Subjects: landscape ecology; forest transformation; diagnostic evaluation
• Online Access: http://cra-journals.cineca.it/index.php/asr/article/view/902

<p>The landscape unit (LU) of the Lavazé Pass (Trentino-AltoAdige) is mainly formed (75.3%) by a forest cover dominated by <em>Picea abies</em>. In the period 1998-2004 the LU changed the composition of its forest cover because of the increasing of the ski rides (+2.9%) and the naturally destroyed patches (+3.1%). These quite small transformations did not change the geo-botanical structure of the LU, while carried altered ecological consequences. The diagnostic index of the LU, based on a set of 10 landscape ecological parameters, diminished in only 6 years from 0.75 to 0.60. Consequently, in absence of re-balancing interventions, the landscape characters of the LU are changing from semi-natural to managed ones, thus affecting the selected plot too.</p>