Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL

Know, protect and promote habitat trees

Know, protect and promote habitat trees
Authors:

Rita Bütler, Thibault Lachat, Frank Krumm, Daniel Kraus, Laurent Larrieu

Series:
WSL Fact Sheet 64
Publishing year:
2021
Amount:
12 Pages
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Quote:

Bütler R., Lachat T., Krumm F., Kraus D., Larrieu L. (2021) Know, protect and promote habitat trees. WSL Fact sheet 64. Birmensdorf: Swiss Federal Institute WSL. 12 p.

Available languages:
German, English, French, Italian

Brief summary

Biodiversity is of great importance for the functioning of the forest ecosystem. Habitat trees are a key component of forest biodiversity. Experts from Europe have developed a typology of tree-related microhabitats, small life-sites borne by some trees, which are indispensable for thousands of specialised organisms. This Fact Sheet is the basis for a standardised inventory method for TreMs and habitat trees, which is applicable in all temperate and Mediterranean European forests.

habitat tree
An exemplary habitat tree! Only the oldest and thickest trees show a large number and variety of tree-related microhabitats.
rot-hole
It takes many decades for a voluminous rot-hole to form. It is one of the rarest tree-related microhabitats in commercial forests.

Field guide to tree-related microhabitats

A supplementary field guide describes 47 different tree-related microhabitats, according to Larrieu et al. (2018), and classifies them into 15 groups and seven types. The guide also indicates recommended minimum inventorying sizes for each TreM and gives information about its frequency of occurrence and its replacement rate in the stand.

Contact

Related WSL Fact sheets

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Imprint

Publisher

Swiss Federal Institute WSL
Zürcherstrasse 111
CH-8903 Birmensdorf

The WSL is a research institute of the ETH Domain.

Concept

The Merkblatt für die Praxis (ISSN 1422-2876, digital ISSN 2296-4428) summarises key findings from WSL research and provides guidelines for best practice. The series is aimed at forestry and nature conservation groups, authorities, schools and interested laypersons.

French editions are published in the series Notice pour la practique (ISSN 2813-6071). Italian and English editions appear occasionally in the series Notizie per la pratica (ISSN 1422-2914) and WSL Fact Sheet (ISSN 2624-8069).

www.wsl.ch/merkblatt