Long-term effects of logging intensity on structures, birds, saproxylic beetles and wood-inhabiting fungi in stands of European beech Fagus sylvatica L.

We investigated the influence of dead wood amount and trees with nesting holes on species communities of birds, saproxylic beetles and wood-inhabiting fungi in beech forests. Data have been gathered in a standardized way in beech stands of three categories with different forest-use intensities in Southern Germany. While stands of the first category are subject to intense silviculture of high-quality beech, dead wood structures and trees with nesting cavities have been protected in the second commercial forest category for 30 years. There has been no wood withdrawal in the third category for 25 years. Therefore, dead wood structures and age of these stands are comparable to pristine forests. The main differences show up in dead wood amounts and in trees with nesting cavities. No differences were found in the total number of species and individuals. This is in stark contrast to species groups which indicate environments close to pristine conditions, such as wood-inhabiting birds and cavity breeding birds, as well as saproxylic beetles and wood-inhabiting fungi decline significantly with increasing thinning activity intensity. From our results we conclude that in deciduous forest logging, even if done selectively, will reduce the numbers of species with higher demand on structures typical for pristine or close to pristine forests. For a monitoring of forest influence in beech dominated forests it is important to focus on these indicator groups and not on the total number of species to recognize degradation in forest species. (C) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.