Microhabitat Diversity and Beetle Conservation in Managed Forests

Dear Colleagues,

The monitoring of biodiversity in the European forests through the study of ecological indicators (e.g. microhabitat, beetle) is necessary to support and strengthen ecologically sustainable forest management.

Furthermore, microhabitats have recently attracted the attention of scientists as indicators of biodiversity, with a potentially better or complementary role, compared to indicators classically used in forest monitoring, such as deadwood and large trees. The evolution of very detailed protocols allows for the refinement of existing approaches and the development of new methodologies for a better assessment of the diversity of forest ecosystems.

In European forests, recent studies have confirmed the positive effect of the heterogeneity in types and frequencies of microhabitats on biodiversity indicators, but have also highlighted the link between the complexity of forest stands and the abundance and diversity of beetles.

This aspect deserves to be regarded as a major target in sustainable forest management plans, especially in mountain areas, where the conservation of forests and the promotion of biodiverse forests are considered a priority.

For this reason, we invite contributions that focus their attention on the ecological relationships between biodiversity indicators and forest structure in managed forests, presenting evidence of case studies of European forests representing different ecological groups and types of conservation areas in the frameworks of forest management.

We invite contributions that address the benefits and challenges of forest biodiversity conservation in managed forests by presenting evidence of case studies from European forests representing different ecological groups and types of conservation areas in forest management frameworks. The papers presented in this special issue should contribute on the development of new or improvement of existing methodological approaches for assessing forest biodiversity.

Dr. Francesco Parisi
Guest Editor

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• biodiversity indicators
• forest monitoring
• forest heterogeneity
• habitat tree
• managed forests
• microhabitat