An eighty years long history

An eighty years long historyAnnals of Silvicultural Research (ASR) take over and are the on line follow-up of the former Annali. The Annali are a body of 36 volumes issued since 1970 from the Experimental Institute of Silviculture, then Forestry Research Centre of the Consiglio per la Ricerca e la sperimentazione in Agricoltura (CRA). They originate from the series of Papers of the same Institution (n. 15-18, 1968-69) and formerly of the Royal Station of Silviculture in Firenze (n. 1-14, 1932-67). The history of Annals dates therefore back to 80 years ago and covers quite completely the activity of our Institution since its early establishment in Firenze in 1922.Institutional duty of the Annali was the scientific dissemination of research trials’ outcomes and findings to the manifold stakeholders’ levels and was aimed at an effective transfer of knowledge and innovation in the practice of forestry. The Annali housed original research papers produced inside and in cooperation with researchers outside on the subject-matters of forest ecology, silviculture of semi-natural forests and forest plantations for environmental restoration and wood/ non-wood productions, tree farming and agro-forestry, forest mensuration and stand dynamics, dendro-ecology, conservation and valorization of genetic resources and levels and types of biodiversity, protection and provision of forest ecosystems services, maintenance of their multifunctional role, up to the more recent theme of the adaptive management framed within the environmental change in progress and related issues of forests’ mitigation & carbon sequestration/ stocking ability.A review of research topics and thematic volumes handled throughout the eighty years highlights the attention paid towards the national emerging subject-matters, since the Experiments on the introduction of exotic species in Italy by Pavari and De Philippis (1941), to its conclusive follow-up forty years later Role of exotic species in the Italian silviculture (1981-82), up to the special issues dealing with national and European projects joined by the Institution as coordinator or partner. Among these, it is worth reminding volumes on Tree farming experiments with valuable hardwood broadleaves (1994-95), Management of coppice forests in the Med. area (1996), and the four volumes on the activity of Italian teams involved in the Intensive monitoring of forest ecosystems within ICP-Forests programme (1999-2006).  Up to 1993, submitted papers underwent a peer-review at care of R. Morandini, director and member of many editorial boards in Italy and abroad. Since 1994, the referees’ committee was officially declared and issued. It was renewed per volume according to contents and expertise required. Scientists of other networks in Italy and foreign countries took usually part in the referees’ committee. The Editorial staff, together with Guest editors in case of special issues, took care of the revision process.  The Annali were issued in 1500 copies and distributed over 45 countries in Europe and outside Europe. Their diffusion allowed the exchange with about 100 foreign Journals and largely contributed to update the collection of periodicals at our library.The editorial format was renewed in 1996 (vol. 27) and since 1999 (vol. 30) texts are available also in digital format. Full texts of special issues dealing with international research activity were published in English.The Annali archive URL is http://ojs-cra.cilea.it/index.php/asr/issue/archive  Annals of Silvicultural Research (ASR) ASR are now part of the CRA Journals published by the Consiglio per la Ricerca e la sperimentazione in Agricoltura. The newly born Annals are a double blind peer-reviewed open access journal aimed at maintaining an updated form of scientifically and technically sound dissemination of main research and experimental findings. Its diffusion is addressed to the suite of stakeholders - scientists, technicians, managers, Forest Services, Governmental and Non- Governmental Organizations concerned with forest environment, silviculture and related issues. Preferred language of submission is English, but Italian is also allowed. ASR feature original research papers, review papers, concept notes and technical notes to meet all different challenges in research and innovation launched by the scientific community in the field of forestry.Contributions are open to research scientists from any Research Institutions and Networks and to independent researchers. Also the Editorial Team has been renewed including international experts to cover all topics considered by the journal.The subject-matters of ASR are the theory and the practice of silvicultural systems and related forestry issues. Distinctively, the journal deals with research experiences concerning the: (a) theoretical development and check in the practice of innovative criteria and methods of cultivation of semi-natural forests and forest plantations; (b) conservation of forest biodiversity and environmental protection; (c) bio-ecological functioning and monitoring of forest ecosystems under-cultivation and in post-cultivation phase; (d) maintenance and improvement of forest genetic resources; (e) forest management, inventory and geomatics to support silvicultural systems’ application; (f) forest tree farming and integrated agro-forestry systems; (g) silvicultural prevention of forest fires and post-fire management.The Annals of Silvicultural Research URL is http://ojs-cra.cilea.it/index.php/asr/index I do hope the journal will be able to gain more and more consideration by the forest scientific community and, meanwhile, I would like to thank all the Executive Editors as well as the Editorial assistants for the intense work at the start-up of the new journal. I want to thank the Editorial Board too for contributing to improve hereafter the scientific quality of issued papers. A particular acknowledgement is due to Paola Corsaro and her team as Scientific Dissemination Service at CRA. Finally, a special thank to Piermaria Corona, Director of the Forest Research Centre for the incentive to start this experience, for the active and proficient role, for the support during the start up of the journal.

Coppice forests, or the changeable aspect of things, a review

Coppiced forests were the main source of firewood, brushwood, and charcoal for rural and urban settlements’ basic needs such as cooking food and domestic heating for thousands of years and up to the mid-20th century in many European countries and, specifically, in Mediterranean countries. The global diffusion of fossil fuels reduced this leadership and the coppice system turned, to some extent, to a reminder of the past. Nowadays, the ongoing global changes and the related green-economy issues call for resilient systems and effective bio-energy producers. These issues have caused a second turning point and the coppice has returned fifty years later to play a role. A review of the silvicultural system has been carried out with a special focus on the changes which have occurred in between, taking Italy as a consistent case-study. The analysis is mainly framed upon the long-term research trials established by the CREA-Forestry Research Centre in the late sixties, to find out adaptive management strategies and overcome the system’s crisis. The findings and further knowledge achieved so far on the dynamics and functioning of coppice forests in the outgrown phase, both as natural evolutive patterns and silviculture-driven processes, are highlighted in this paper. They provide useful tools to handle the management shift regarding forthcoming issues, i.e. the current role attributable to the coppice system within the changing environment and the renewable energy demand. The basic features of each management area and their complementarities within the current framework are outlined.

Stand dynamics of a beech coppice beyond the rotation age and under conversion into high forest.

 One of major issues dealing with forest management in Italy is the lack or the suspension of silvicultural practices over an increased share of the forest area, in progress since a few decades ago. The abandonment of rural areas, the emerging environmental functions being nowadays addressed to natural resources, include also many forests and management systems formerly devoted mainly to wood production. This occurrence has its major evidence on coppice forests, i.e. about a half of the country forest area and the forest type historically submitted to the more intensive management practices. The results of an experimental trial started in 1972 in a beech coppice aged 27, i.e. a few years after the age of traditional rotation, comparing the natural evolutive pattern as well as the silvicultural practices aimed at its conversion into high forest, are here reported. The trial included the control thesis and three different thinning intensities. Each thesis was arranged within the same thinning type, taking into account the volume of former standing crop in each plot. The analysis includes the growth pattern and the dynamics of stand structure in the populations under natural evolution and under conversion into high forest. Four inventories were carried out since 1972 at each decade up to 2002. Three thinnings were undertaken within the same time. Results show that both the tested management options, alternative and/or complementary to the traditional coppice system, are based on reliable biological assumptions. The natural evolutive pattern highlights the growth trend at ages older than those monitored under the coppice system. Beech shows a peculiar behaviour in the range observed due to its specific shade-tolerance. The shoot population reveals a sustained growth between the ages of 30 to 40; then, the occurrence of a heavy, regular mortality up to 50; finally, the recovery of a high growth rate up to the age of 60 (ending of the monitored period at now). Such growth pattern moves up the current volume increment, delays its intersection to mean increment and postpones substantially the age of growth rates culmination. The observed trend deviates from the canonical stand growth pattern and seems to be grounded on beech auto-ecology. This extends the time of reaction between the opposite feedbacks of mortality and growth and allows monitoring a likely different behaviour ruling ageing coppice growth. The same occurrence had not been highlighted before studying light-demanding species (deciduous oaks in the case) under the same stand types, these species being able to settle much more rapidly the cycle mortality-growth recovery-incremental culmination. The thesis of conversion into high forest provides the technical cultivation rules (type, intensity and interval of thinning repetition) and suggests it as enforceable also in the private domain due to the shortly-repeated harvestings and intermediate volumes that make each intervention profitable. The basic outcomes of the applied silvicultural practices are (i) the early crown shaping of shoot dendrotypes; (ii) the modeling of clustered stand structure; (iii) the individual development of well-balanced trees, more suited to tackle the grown-up and mature stages till the time of regeneration from seed, ending of the transitory cycle

Early impact of alternative thinning approaches on structure diversity and complexity at stand level in two beech forests in Italy

Stand structure, tree density as well as tree spatial pattern define natural dynamics and competition process. They are therefore parameters used to define any silvicultural management type. This work aims to report first data resulting from a silvicultural experiment in beech forests. The objective of the trial is testing the structure manipulation in terms of diversity and the reduction of inter-tree competition of different thinning approaches. Alternative thinning methods have been applied in two independent experimental sites located in the pre-Alps and Southern Apennines, in Italy. Specific goals were to: (i) verify the impact early after thinning implementation on forest structure through a set of diversity and competition metrics resulting from a literature review; (ii) the sensitivity of tested indexes to effectively detect thinning manipulation. Main result show the low sensitivity of stand structure indexes and the ability of competition metrics to detect thinning outcome

Early impact of alternative thinning approaches on structure diversity and complexity at stand level in two beech forests in Italy

Stand structure, tree density as well as tree spatial pattern define natural dynamics and competition process. They are therefore parameters used to define any silvicultural management type. This work aims to report first data resulting from a silvicultural experiment in beech forests. The objective of the trial is testing the structure manipulation in terms of diversity and the reduction of inter-tree competition of different thinning approaches. Alternative thinning methods have been applied in two independent experimental sites located in the pre-Alps and Southern Apennines, in Italy. Specific goals were to: (i) verify the impact early after thinning implementation on forest structure through a set of diversity and competition metrics resulting from a literature review; (ii) the sensitivity of tested indexes to effectively detect thinning manipulation. Main result show the low sensitivity of stand structure indexes and the ability of competition metrics to detect thinning outcome

Changes in management, climate and N deposition explain recent deviation from expected growth in mature Spruce and Beech forests in Italy

A study on the effect of N deposition on tree grwoth in Italian forest

Making forest monitoring cheaper and closer to society: The LIFE+ Project "SMART4Action"

LIFE SMART4Action (Sustainable Monitoring And Reporting To Inform Forest- and. Environmental Awareness and Protection. LIFE13 ENV/IT/000813) intends to redesign forest monitoring and its information and reporting system in Italy. It is designed over the period September 2014 - March 2018 and will attempt to ensure financial sustainability to forest monitoring, despite budget restrictions, whilst maintaining scientific reliability. The project has two main goals: . design a new system to reduce the current annual costs by 30%, while recognizing the importance of national and regional statistics on key variables linked to sustainable forest management and ecosystem services; and . to improve communication with, and data transfer to, relevant stakeholders and citizens through a participatory process. The analysis of the available data series of forest monitoring data will permit to optimize the number of plots, the frequency and the distribution of the activities, to maximize the information, and identify possible areas were monitoring and modeling can be fruitfully integrated. To increase awareness about forest related issues and the importance of forest monitoring, SMART4Action will develop mechanisms to involve local people in plot management and basic monitoring for readily measurable variables, with local conferences and courses, synthetic result sheets at regional scale, and web-based and smartphone applications to obtain an active involvement of citizens. Present and historical monitoring data will also be shared online using geospatial standard services. Here, we intend to present the project at its very beginning in order to explore the possibility of interaction and synergy with other on-going activities

Indicators of sustainable forest management: application and assessment

Report of the international project Life ManForCBD

Contribution to growth and increment analysis on the Italian CONECOFOR Level II Network

The paper deals with the "Estimation of growth and yield" included in the National Programme on Intensive Monitoring of Forest Ecosystems CONECOFOR Aims of the paper are: i) to outline the composition and design of Level II PMPs network, also examining the structural characteristics of forest stands; ii) to describe the contents of mensurational surveys carried out in winter 1996/97 and 1999/00; iii) to analyse the growth rates in progress at each PMP using selected descriptors. Stand origin (11 high forests and 13 stored coppices and transitory crops) and the number of forest types tested are focused as the main discriminants of the PMPs network. This composition, together with irregular forestry practice, results in a number of consequences (prevailing age classes, tree densities and related stand structures, growth patterns) which cause a high in-and-between variability of all growth parameters. For the purposes of this analysis, the network of the plots was divided into three main sets: broadleaved high forest (i.e. beech stands), 6 PMPs; coniferous forest (i.e. Norway spruce stands), 5 PMPs; coppice forest (i.e. deciduous and evergreen oaks, beech and hardbeam stands), 13 PMPs. The measurement of basic growth variables (dbh and tree height) was used to describe the tree populations in each PMP; the calculation of basal area, mean and top dbh, mean and top height, provided the reference dataset at each inventory. The assessment of social class according to Kraft gave information on vertical stand structure and made it possible to analyse growth according to tree layers. Data comparison provided increments in the interval 1997-2000. The occurrence of natural mortality and ingrowth was also assessed to take into account their combined effect on tree population dynamics. No trend was found, due to limited data availability, but it was possible to have a detailed overview of the stand situation and growth rates in PMPs