Post-cultural stand dynamics in an abandoned chestnut coppice at its ecological border

• Format: Article
• Language: Italian
• Published: Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology (SISEF) 2006-01-01
• Series: Forest@
• Subjects: coppice; abandonment; stand development; competition; dendroecology; chestnut; Italy
• Online Access: http://www.sisef.it/forest@/showPaper.php?action=html(7,340)&lang=en

Until the be­ginning of the last century, chestnut has played an important role as staple food and primary wood source. In many cases it was cultivated at the border of its ecological limits where it was planted by man in place of the original and more site-adapted tree species. However, with the abandonment of the rural activities, ma­nagement of chestnut forests was progressively left starting from more marginal areas, usually occupied by coppice stands. After the interruption of the traditional coppice management system (usual rotation periods of 10-25 years), natural intra- and interspecific competition dynamics have become the driving force of the stand evolution. This may lead to dramatic changes in both structure and species composition of the stands. The aim of this study is to analyse the post-cultural evolution of an abandoned chestnut coppice in the Pesio Valley (Piedmont, Italy) in order to highlight the competition among different "basic silvi­cultural components" of the forest using a dendroecological approach. The "basic silvicultural components" are intended as the elements defined as groups of trees of the stand that have similar features such as silvi­culturally relevant attributes: species (chestnut, beech, fir), origin (seed, sprout) and cultural age and function (standard/reserve, maiden, shoot, regeneration, dead tree). The mean growth curves of the compo­nents show the different fitness of each category. From a general point of view, the beech and fir components show a better competitive potential in comparison with chestnut. Among chestnut components, maidens from seeds reveal a better growth trend compared to coppice shoots and standards.