Natural seed regeneration in chestnut coppices: a key factor in planning silvicultural management.

Over the last 50 years, many unfavourable factors have led to the abandonment of the traditional management of many chestnut coppices. This generated a general aging of the stands and a related reduction of the slope stability, emphasizing the importance of natural regeneration for future forest management. Natural regeneration from seed contributes to the increase of the stem density, provides new stools for future coppice generations and promotes the proper development of the stand in terms of specific and structural diversity. In this study we tested the effect of different silvicultural treatments in coppice stands on the seed regeneration potential of the chestnut tree. The chestnut seed regeneration resulted to be influenced by: I) the age of the stand at felling time (increasing age was related to a greater presence of regeneration from seed), II) the cover of released over-aged trees (light conditions on the soil), III) microclimatic conditions (drought stress in particular). Overall, the natural regeneration dynamics in chestnut coppices revealed to be a useful reference to identify some general guidelines for sustainable interventions aiming to foster chestnut regeneration, while maintaining biodiversity in an effort to improve the quality of timber assortments.