Influences of retention forestry structural elements on insect communities and ecosystem functions. Dissertation

Freiburg

2023

175 S.

Monographie

18358BU

40004227

The impact of forests for harboring terrestrial biodiversity cannot be overstated. Management of temperate forests for timber has resulted in the structural and compositional improverishment of this habitat, particularly in more developed regions of this habitat, particularly in more developed regions of the world such as Central Europe. As a reaction, more recent biodiversity-focused management initiatives such as retention forestry have actively prioritized structural and compositional elements characteristic of old-growth forests, such as standing deadwood, large habitat trees, ggreater richness of tree species and greater forest cover. Whilde the influence of forest strucutral elements on biodiversity has been well studied for certain taxa such as saproxylic beetles, more specific relationships with other feeding guilds habe been only superficially understood. Furthermore, many studies use biomass, abundance or diversity individually without accounting for differing relationships between these metrics of biodiversity and habitat structural elements.