Sustainable forest planning: Assessing biodiversity effects of Triad zoning based on empirical data and virtual landscapes

The Triad framework seeks to balance the economic and ecological functions in forested landscapes by combining intensively, extensively, and unmanaged areas, assuming a higher support to biodiversity in extensively rather than in intensively managed forests. We quantified the effects of Triad zoning on biodiversity in (sub)montane eutrophic European beech forests. Using a European-wide multitaxon database and a "virtual" landscape approach (i.e., by resampling empirical data), we evaluated how the proportion of Triad management categories affected the landscape-level species diversity of birds, saproxylic beetles, vascular plants, epiphytic bryophytes, lichens, and wood-inhabiting fungi, as well as multitaxonomic diversity. The results varied greatly among taxonomic groups. Multitaxonomic diversity peaked in landscapes composed of 60% unmanaged and 40% intensively managed forests. While intensive management can benefit some taxa through the creation of open habitats, unmanaged forests are the backbone of biodiversity conservation, underlining the need to safeguard the remaining old-growth forests under natural dynamics, and to extend the current area of unmanaged forests in Europe. Extensive forest management, however, did not contribute to biodiversity conservation as expected. As withdrawing such a high proportion of European forest landscapes from management is unfeasible given the increasing demand for timber, efforts are needed to increase the presence of structural features supporting biodiversity into extensively managed forests.

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Publication Details

Journal
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Published
2025-09-22
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2512683122
Citations
2
Primary Topic
Forest Ecology and Biodiversity Studies
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
3.34
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article

Sustainable forest planning: Assessing biodiversity effects of Triad zoning based on empirical data and virtual landscapes

Sabina Burrascano, Christophe Bouget, Steffen Boch, Peter Schall et al.
2 citations
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Forest Ecology and Biodiversity Studies
3.34
article

Sustainable forest planning: Assessing biodiversity effects of Triad zoning based on empirical data and virtual landscapes

Sabina Burrascano, Christophe Bouget, Steffen Boch, Peter Schall, Zdeněk Palice, Steffi Heinrichs, Rémi Duflot, Frédéric Gosselin, Frédéric Archaux, Francesco Chianucci, Daniel Dvořák, Markus Fischer, Yoan Paillet, Martin M. Goßner, Giovanni Trentanovi, Thomas A. Nagel, Eva Holá, Kirsten Jung, Lorenzo Balducci, Jeňýk Hofmeister, Marion Gosselin, Swen C. Renner, Wolfgang W. Weisser, Jan Hošek
article en
2 citations

Abstract

The Triad framework seeks to balance the economic and ecological functions in forested landscapes by combining intensively, extensively, and unmanaged areas, assuming a higher support to biodiversity in extensively rather than in intensively managed forests. We quantified the effects of Triad zoning on biodiversity in (sub)montane eutrophic European beech forests. Using a European-wide multitaxon database and a "virtual" landscape approach (i.e., by resampling empirical data), we evaluated how the proportion of Triad management categories affected the landscape-level species diversity of birds, saproxylic beetles, vascular plants, epiphytic bryophytes, lichens, and wood-inhabiting fungi, as well as multitaxonomic diversity. The results varied greatly among taxonomic groups. Multitaxonomic diversity peaked in landscapes composed of 60% unmanaged and 40% intensively managed forests. While intensive management can benefit some taxa through the creation of open habitats, unmanaged forests are the backbone of biodiversity conservation, underlining the need to safeguard the remaining old-growth forests under natural dynamics, and to extend the current area of unmanaged forests in Europe. Extensive forest management, however, did not contribute to biodiversity conservation as expected. As withdrawing such a high proportion of European forest landscapes from management is unfeasible given the increasing demand for timber, efforts are needed to increase the presence of structural features supporting biodiversity into extensively managed forests.

Proceedings of the National Academy of SciencesVol. 122(39)
University of Bern (CH), Natural History Museum Vienna (AT), Sewanee: The University of the South (US), Universität Ulm (DE), Czech Academy of Sciences (CZ), Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CZ), Masaryk University (CZ), Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (CH), Rottenburg University of Applied Forest Sciences (DE), ETH Zurich (CH), Institute of Forest Ecology of the Slovak Academy of Sciences (SK), Institut National de Recherche pour l'Agriculture, l'Alimentation et l'Environnement (FR), Cereal Research Centre (IT), Slovenian Forestry Institute (SI), Forestry Research Centre (IT), Wisdom Health (United States) (US), Institute of Plant Biology (HU), Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (AU), Department of Forestry (MW), Lithuanian Ornithological Society (LT), Technical University of Munich (DE), University of Göttingen (DE), Sapienza University of Rome (IT), Université Grenoble Alpes (FR), University of Jyväskylä (FI)
Openalex Percentile: Top 8%
Forest Ecology and Biodiversity Studies
3.34
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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