ABSTRACT

Coppice management has a long and ancient tradition in Europe, but still comprises over 14% of the forest area despite showing catastrophic declines in the past century. Contemporary trends in forestry towards continuous cover management have major implications for cosmopolitan and early-successional groups of species which rely on short rotations and regular disturbance, such as heliophilous plants and those with persistent seed, insectivore songbirds, butterflies, and many invertebrates requiring understorey flowering, pollen and nectar. Some species are considered of such high conservation value that they justify continued coppicing. When abandoned or converted to high forest, coppice vegetation shows increasing homogenisation and may lose some rare plant species, although shade-tolerant plants are largely unaffected. Accumulated litter and depositions of atmospheric nitrogen also threaten a future eutrophic response. At the same time, most aging coppices are too young to develop any significant old-growth and saproxylic features of conservation significance. Re-coppicing after 50–100 years of neglect has shown moderate success, with most early successional species recovering well and restoring species and functional biodiversity, assuming available sources in the surrounding landscape. Re-coppiced stools showed variable survival, but with usually sufficient regrowth to restore the former canopy, supplemented by natural regeneration. Some aspects of the coppice cycle can be delivered by alternative silvicultural methods, or manipulated in order to add missing old-growth characteristics. Ultimately a landscape which carries the full range of interconnecting growth stages, including coppice, will yield the greatest opportunities for biodiversity and conservation.

摘要

欧洲的小灌木林管理有着悠久而古老的传统，但尽管在过去的一个世纪中出现了灾难性的下降，但仍占森林面积的14％以上。林业目前的趋势，即持续进行覆盖管理对那些依赖短轮作和定期干扰的国际性和早期成功物种群体具有重大影响，例如嗜油性植物和具有持久种子的植物，食虫鸣鸟，蝴蝶以及许多需要底层开花的无脊椎动物，花粉和花蜜。一些物种被认为具有很高的保护价值，因此有理由继续进行调查。当被遗弃或转化为高森林时，尽管耐荫性植物在很大程度上不受影响，但灌木林植被显示出越来越高的同质化，并可能失去一些稀有植物。垃圾的堆积和大气氮的沉积也威胁着未来的富营养化反应。同时，大多数衰老的科目还太年轻，无法发展出任何具有保护意义的显着的老龄和腐殖酸特征。经过50到100年的忽视，重新定植已显示出一定程度的成功，假定周围景观有可用资源，大多数早期演替物种恢复得很好，恢复了物种和功能性生物多样性。重新定型的粪便显示出可变的存活率，但通常具有足够的再生长来恢复前冠层，并辅以自然再生。小灌木林周期的某些方面可以通过其他造林方法来实现，也可以通过操纵来增加缺少的老龄化特征。