Standard trees versus underwood: Historical patterns of tree taxon occurrence in coppice forests

Abstract

Questions: Coppice woods were once widespread in Europe. It is usually assumed that underwood tree taxon composition was not directly influenced by people, whereas especially Quercus was promoted among standard trees. However, no work has quantitatively tested these assumptions. Our main question was whether there were any patterns in our data to suggest that certain trees occurred more frequently as standards than as underwood, possibly as a result of management decisions. Location: Czech Republic. Methods: We constructed a database covering 12,000 hectares of forests around AD 1900. We recorded the occurrence of tree taxa for standards and underwood in 1,507 compartments in 21 forest units. We visualised patterns in these data by bar graphs and chord diagrams. We analysed correlation patterns through association analysis and co-correspondence analysis. Results: There was a statistically significant association between the occurrences of standards and underwood in individual compartments for Quercus, Alnus, Carpinus, Fagus, Larix, Populus tremula and Tilia. Only Quercus standards and underwood showed a positive association. The taxon composition of standards and underwood in forest compartments was statistically significantly correlated. Conclusions: No simple answer can be given to the question whether or not the taxon composition of standards and underwood in coppice woods differed as a result of management. At the level of individual tree taxa, some trees were more common as standards while others, as underwood. However, the prevalence of Quercus among standards was not confirmed because in our study area Quercus was a common underwood tree as well. At the same time, no significant differences were apparent in the taxon composition of standards and underwood in individual forest compartments. It seems difficult to differentiate between the effects of human selection and indirect selection through natural properties and environmental factors. Our results also highlight the need to carefully consider the properties of written historical sources.

Long‐term shift towards shady and nutrient‐rich habitats in Central European temperate forests

“…This is because resprouting capacity, and hence coppice potential, is highly variable between tree species: oak, lime and hornbeam are better at resprouting than beech or conifers (Buckley & Mills, 2015). In forests managed as coppice‐with‐standards, the coppiced underwood was historically composed of oak, hornbeam, lime, birch or poplar, whereas the standards of oak, beech and conifers formed the overstorey (Szabó et al ., 2021).…”

The importance of history for understanding contemporary ecosystems: Insights from vegetation science

“…One article also uses palaeoecological (specifically anthracological) data (Máliš et al, 2021). Only one study is solely based on archival data (Szabó et al, 2021). It seems that the direct combination of different types of data is rather exceptional; most often, vegetation data (phytosociological relevés, species inventories, etc.)…”

“…The first and simplest is location, which shows that four studies are from France (Abadie et al, 2021; Jamoneau et al, 2021; Lenoir et al, 2021), including the single review in this special issue (Bergès & Dupouey, 2021). The remaining studies are from Russia (Kapfer & Popova, 2021), Italy (Lelli et al, 2021), the Czech Republic (Szabó et al, 2021) and Slovakia (Máliš et al, 2021). Two of the eight papers are from the Mediterranean region, one from the Arctic.…”

Woodland Management as Major Energy Supply during the Early Industrialization: A Multiproxy Analysis in the Northwest European Lowlands

“…Evidence of different management regimes can be assessed, for instance through tree-ring analysis [20,21] or archival data [22]. Coppicing was a common practice for continuous wood supply in the pre-and early industrial period in Europe [23]. Coppicing became less significant from the late 19th century onwards, shifting to a high forest management regime [24] due to the decreasing demand for fuelwood [25].…”