Natural forest dynamics following bark beetle calamities in the Alpine National Park Berchtesgaden (Germany)
2012
Winter, Maria-Barbara (Berchtesgaden National Park Administration, Berchtesgaden (Germany)) | Baier, Roland (Berchtesgaden National Park Administration, Berchtesgaden (Germany)) | Müller, Jörg ( Bavarian Forest National Park Administration, Grafenau (Germany)) | Ammer, Christian (Berchtesgaden National Park Administration, Berchtesgaden (Germany))
Forest management has been aiming to eliminate natural disturbance dynamics in forest ecosystems over the last centuries. Since the last decades, however, the changes of structural and microclimatic conditions for example by storms or bark beetle infestations have been detected by science as valuable hotspots of forest biodiversity. Protected areas enable a monitoring of the natural processes following large-scale disturbances and their consequences for biodiversity. In the Berchtesgaden National Park winter storms in 1990 and 2007 led to subsequent bark beetle calamities, without interference by management on approximately 6,000 ha of forest land in the core zone of the park. To assess the impact of the large-scale disturbances on the unmanaged forest ecosystem we investigate how the site conditions are altered by the disturbances, how vegetation and deadwood develops and how this processes influence the diversity and abundance of selected groups of species. The study plots are located in three different types, namely, undisturbed spruce stands potentially susceptible to bark beetle infestation (reference), stands affected by bark beetles within the last 5 years (new disturbance) and stands being infested in the 1990th (old disturbance). Stand structure, regeneration, vascular plants and arthropods diversity were surveyed during the vegetation period 2012. Preliminary results show that nitrophyllous and light demanding species as Rubus idaeus, Rubus fructicosus s.l., Urtica dioica and fern species were more abundant in bark beetle gaps. No significant differences in species numbers between the different levels of forest succession could be detected yet. An increase in sample size in the next year may provide a clearer picture in further analysis.
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