Green desert?: Biodiversity patterns in forest plantations

Forest plantations represent a globally important land use, and their growth is expected to triple by the end of the century. Therefore, they could represent an important habitat remnant to support the survival of species. We measured the impact of forest plantations on biodiversity with a focus on eight groups of biota including saproxylic and ground mycorrhizal fungi, lichens, herbs together with shrubs, tree seedlings, aculeate hymenopterans, beetles and birds, in patches with formerly continuous vegetation dominated by native oak and in patches in spruce plantations (reflecting spatiotemporal discontinuity) in the East-Bohemian woodlands of the Czech Republic. We found that species richness and numbers of obligate species were higher in native than in normative forests, but there was no significant difference in red-listed species. Nevertheless, the species of three of the eight studied groups profited from increasing proportion of spruce in the tree composition; only beetles and birds were negatively affected. The results revealed more highly contrasting and often complex responses among the groups than what might be expected theoretically. The first key issue in the management of plantation forests in terms of biodiversity is the partial retention and restoration of islands of native vegetation. The second issue is that the impact of a normative tree species is not always negative.