Risks management for biodiversity conservation in riparian forests of the UNESCO Mura-Drava-Danube Biosphere Reserve

164-169

Artikel aus einem Buch

200210756

Worldwide, protected areas … protected areas aim to safeguard ecosystem resilience and biodiversity and thus may also contribute to the mitigation and adaptation to climate change. However, climate change poses one of the greatest threats for protected areas, together with the occurrence of invasive species and the impacts of intensiv tourism. Riparian forest ecosystems are among the most protected areas in Europe. We investigated the diversity of tree species, tree regeneration, the role of introduced tree species, deadwood occurrence and volumes, and genetic resources in hardwood and softwood floodplain forest types in the transnational biosphere reserve Mura-Drava-Danube (TBR). We quantified the effects of tree species, climate, site, and silvicultural characteristics on leaf damage
caused by insect pests and pathogens and the abundance of alien herbaceous plants, as well as their overall impact on forest regeneration to gain a deeper understanding of the interactions of risks and forest management under climate change. The data collection was performed on angle count plots along randomly located 47 transects with their axes oriented orthogonal to the river. The transects were, 20 m wide and at least 300 m long. Riparian forests in TBR provide habitats for several protected and threatened plant and animal species. Deadwood was observed more often in natural (78% of angle count plots) and uneven (74%) than in even (64%) and coppice (49%) stands. Biotic threats were affected in numerous ways by silvicultural practices, climatic and site characteristics. Our results show that a higher percentage of insect-induced leaf damage in coppice than in evenaged forests, while the other management types were not significant compared to even-aged forests. Stands with closed canopy revealed higher fungus- and insect-induced leaf damage. We identified numerous management options that can help safeguard biodiversity in riparian forests from adapting management systems, tree species composition, providing structural heterogeneity – e.g., by including deadwood and unmanaged patches into forests – and others. In conclusion, forest management measures can help support and promote stress resistance, resilience, and dynamic response to maintain and improve riparian forests ecosystem functioning.
Keywords: Flood plain, riparian area, hardwood floodplain, lying deadwood, UNESCO Biosphere reserve, wetlands