Nested plot designs used in forest inventory do not accurately capture tree species richness in Southwestern European forests
Key message
Nested plot designs with concentric plots with increasing radii and size threshold underestimate tree species richness with respect to full census sampling with no tree size restrictions. Regeneration emerged as the most relevant pool for tree species richness estimation.
Keywords
Big data; Biodiversity monitoring; Ecosystem functionality; Forest communities; Mediterranean; Sampling; Species composition; Woodlands
Publication
Moreno-Fernández, D., Cañellas, I., Hernández, L. et al. Nested plot designs used in forest inventory do not accurately capture tree species richness in Southwestern European forests. Annals of Forest Science 81, 20 (2024).
https://doi.org/10.1186/s13595-024-01237-8
Data and/or Code availability
The datasets generated during and/or analyzed during the current study are available in the Portal de Datos e Inventario del MITECO repository, https://www.miteco.gob.es/es/biodiversidad/temas/inventarios-nacionales/inventario-forestal-nacional/cuarto_inventario.html
Handling Editor
Marco Ferretti