Lichens in old-growth and managed mountain spruce forests in the Czech Republic: assessment of biodiversity, functional traits and bioindicators

• DOI: 10.1007/s10531-019-01834-4
• Publication Date: 2019-09-07T01:03:40Z
• Authors: Jiří Malíček; Zdeněk Palice; Jan Vondrák; Martin Kostovčík; Veronika Lenzová; Jeňýk Hofmeister
• Keywords: Old-growth forest; Indicator species; Bioindicator

Natural spruce forests are restricted to the highest mountain ranges in the Czech Republic. Spruce is also the commonest tree species in managed forests. Owing to a massive decline of spruce forests in Central Europe, caused by recent climatic fluctuations and disturbances, the lichen diversity and species composition was compared between ten representative natural mountain old-growth forests in the Czech Republic and their counterparts in mature managed forests. The old-growth forests are characterized by a higher species richness, abundance, number of Red-listed species, functional, taxonomic and phylogenetic diversities. Plots with the highest species richness are situated in the Sumava Mountains, an area with a relatively low sulphur deposition in the past. Bioindication analysis searching for lichen indicators supported several species (e.g. Xylographa vitiligo, Chaenotheca sphaerocephala) and genera (e.g. Calicium, Xylographa) with a strong preference for old-growth forests. Analysis of lichen functional traits revealed a higher abundance of species with a vegetative reproduction in managed forests that may be explained by a higher efficiency in colonization by young successional stages. Lichens with stalked apothecia, pigmented ascospores and large ascospores are more frequent in old-growth forests. Our results are briefly discussed in terms of nature conservation, focusing on national refugees of old-growth forest species, biodiversity hot-spots, practical use of indicator species and representative measures for an evaluation of forest quality.