Forest Biodiversity Assessment in Relic Ecosystem: Monitoring and Management Practice Implications

Elsa Sattout,Peter D S Caligari

doi:10.3390/d3030531

Abstract

The remnants of old-growth cedar forests in Lebanon are currently protected since they are taken to represent relic ecosystems sheltering many endemic, rare and endangered species. However, it is not always obvious how “natural” these forest relics are, and how the past use, conservation and management history have affected their current structural properties and species community composition. Even though Integrated Monitoring Programs have been initiated and developed, they are not being implemented effectively. The present research studied the effect of forest stand structure and the impacts of the anthropogenic activities effects on forest composition and floristic richness in four cedar forests in Lebanon. Horizontal and vertical structure was assessed by relying on the measurement of the physical characteristics and status of cedar trees including diversity and similarity indices. Two hundred and seventeen flora species were identified, among which 51 species were found to have biogeographical specificity and peculiar traits. The species composition seems not to be correlated with stand age structure; however, the occurrence of multiple age cedar stands favors floristic richness and variability in species composition as observed in one of the stands where the variation in diversity indices was high. In conclusion; to conserve biodiversity across landscapes, it is necessary to maintain a collection of stands of different vertical structure; an effect produced both by natural and anthropogenic disturbances since they both create a mosaic of different aged succession stands.

Highlights

Forest inventories aimed at building up long term national databases for integrated monitoring purposes are central to conservation
In Lebanon, the early period of nature reserve management regimes relied on strict conservation practices which have affected the ecological evolutionary processes and disrupted the existing relationship between humans and their environment
These approaches have ignored the role that local communities have played in shaping the landscapes of cedar forest relics including their vertical and horizontal structures

Summary

Introduction

Forest inventories aimed at building up long term national databases for integrated monitoring purposes are central to conservation. The design of natural resource conservation and forest management plans need to synergize all activities in order to conserve, in an appropriate way, each particular forest stand, the environmental services and goods it provides. This integration is an important feature of conservation policies, as the uses which are made of the forest, play an important role in the shaping of stand structure and determining the associated floristic richness [3,4,5]

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Conclusion