Castanea sativa woods in some SIC of the Bologna Province: an analysis along a gradient.

Castanea sativa woods are one of the most widespread and typical habitats of the southern European mountain landscape and have both historical and agro-ecological value. Furthermore are considered an important habitat for biodiversity conservation point of view and are included in the European Community Natura 2000 network as the habitat “Castanea sativa-dominated forests and long-established plantations with semi-natural undergrowth” . In the Bologna Province, chestnut woods are mainly coppices derived from old chestnut orchards. The biodiversity of chestnut coppices was examined by 200 phytosociological releves and gradient of biodiversity was analyzed by multivariate analysis (clustering and ordination). Releves were also compared with those of mixed oak woods to evaluate transitions of chestnut woods into mixed oak woods.