Refine
Year of publication
- 2016 (1) (remove)
Document Type
- Article (1)
Language
- English (1) (remove)
Has Fulltext
- yes (1)
Is part of the Bibliography
- no (1) (remove)
Keywords
- beech (1) (remove)
Bilberry (Vaccinium myrtillus L.) is a dwarf shrub with high ecological relevance as habitat and as a food source for many animals in mountain forests of central Europe. This species benefits from conifer forests and declines with an increase of broadleaved tree species in the canopy. The ongoing large-scale conversion from conifer to broadleaved forests may significantly alter the ground vegetation, especially the dominance of a key species such as bilberry. We used morphological indicators to investigate the vitality of bilberry. The first objective was to determine whether the vitality of bilberry is negatively impacted by increasing the proportion of beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) in Norway spruce (Picea abies Karst.) forests. The vitality of bilberry was measured by its cover, height, biomass, shoot length and basal diameter. The second objective was to determine whether these changes in bilberry vitality were related to light, canopy cover, soil pH, organic layer mass and tree species. The data was collected from three study areas in the southern and central Black Forest. The bedrock consisted of gneiss and granite whereas the stands were either: pure beech, a mixture of beech and spruce or pure spruce. The stands were located adjacent to each other. On all three areas a higher vitality of bilberry was observed under spruce compared to beech. Mixed effect models show that the occurrence of spruce is the most important variable explaining the increase in bilberry biomass. Light had a small positive effect, whereas soil properties had negligible effects and were site specific. These results are a strong indication of the negative influence that beech has on bilberry in conifer dominated forests. This has to be taken into consideration when developing silvicultural approaches and should be a consideration when making plans for the preservation of habitat for species like capercaillie (Tetrao urogallus L.). This is even more important today because the recent trend in central European forestry is to increase the proportion of beech.