Taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity of forest biocenoses along a gradient of naturalness

The conservation of biodiversity in natural ecosystems depends partly on the development of faster, less costly and non-lethal tools for monitoring and quantifying biodiversity. New monitoring tools can help to provide indicators of the resilience potential of forests to environmental change, which can be used to implement biodiversity-friendly forest management practices. 

Objectives

1. To describe and quantify the taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity of birds, insects and vascular plants along a historical gradient of forest use in silver fir (Abies alba) stands in Occitanie,
2. To compare data from traditional (e.g. sampling and species identification by expert taxonomists) and innovative (e.g. metabarcoding, environmental DNA, ecoacoustics) inventory methods,
3. To investigate how biodiversity responds to the degree of naturalness of silver fir stands and to the history of their management.

BIOFORDIV will be based on the interdisciplinary OcciGen project (2021-2025), funded by the Occitanie Region and led by INRAE. OcciGen aims to develop genetic, ecophysiological and ecological indicators of resilience to climate change in old-growth forests with contrasting silvicultural management. The main expectation of OcciGen is to gain fundamental knowledge on the resilience of old-growth forests managed along management gradients, with many applications for rapid implementation by foresters and stakeholders.

Resources

BIOFORDIV will use an interdisciplinary, multi-taxonomic approach to measure biodiversity in silver fir stands in the mid-upper montane zone of the eastern and central French Pyrenees, France. These stands are located along a gradient of naturalness related to their historical management, i.e. old-growth forests with no trace of silvicultural exploitation (>100 years), formerly exploited (>50 years) and currently managed for timber exploitation.
Along with OcciGen, the contributions of BIOFORDIV will ultimately allow us to quantify the relationships between the evolutionary and response capacity of Silver fir stands to environmental stress and the associated taxonomic, functional and phylogenetic diversity of their biocenosis in contrasting forest management contexts.

Participants

Structures INRAE

• URFM
• URZF
• RECOVER
• DYNAFOR

Partners

• Conservatory of natural areas Occitanie
• National Center for Forest Property (CRPF)