Kris Vandekerkhove

Research Institute for Nature and Forest | INBO · Forest Ecology and Management

Nanopore raw read accuracy has improved to over 99%, making it a potential tool for metabarcoding. For broad adoption, guidelines on quality filtering are needed to ensure reliable taxonomic unit recovery. This study aims to provide those guidelines for a fungal metabarcoding context and to apply them to a case study of ectomycorrhizae in the decay...

Managing forests to sustain their diversity and functioning is a major challenge in a changing world. Despite the key role of understory vegetation in driving forest biodiversity, regeneration and functioning, few studies address the functional dimensions of understory vegetation response to silvicultural management. We assessed the influence of th...

Nanopore raw read accuracy has improved to over 99%, making it a potential tool for metabarcoding. For broad adoption, guidelines on quality filtering are needed to ensure reliable taxonomic unit recovery. This study aims to provide those guidelines for a fungal metabarcoding context and to apply them to a case-study of ectomycorrhizae in decaying...

Several regional initiatives and reporting efforts assess the state of forest biodiversity through broad-scale indicators based on data from national forest inventories. Although valuable, these indicators are essentially indirect and evaluate habitat quantity and quality rather than biodiversity per se. Therefore, their link to biodiversity may be...

Introduction: In situ carbon sequestration in forests is important in the context of climate change mitigation, and setting aside managed forests has been proposed as an option for increased carbon sequestration. Comparing set-aside and managed forests may provide insights and rules of thumb on the potential for additional in situ carbon sequestrat...

Recent observations of tree regeneration failures following large and severe disturbances , particularly under warm and dry conditions, have raised concerns about the resilience of forest ecosystems and their recovery dynamics in the face of climate change. We investigated the recovery of temperate forests in Europe after large and severe disturban...

Tree regeneration is a key demographic process influencing long‐term forest dynamics. It is driven by climate, disturbances, biotic factors and their interactions. Thus, predictions of tree regeneration are challenging due to complex feedbacks along the wide climatic gradients covered by most tree species. The stress gradient hypothesis (SGH) provi...

Common beech (Fagus sylvatica) is one of the most important deciduous tree species in European forests. However, climate-change-induced drought may threaten its dominant position. The Sonian Forest close to Brussels (Belgium) is home to some of the largest beech trees in the world. This UNESCO world heritage site is famous for its high density of v...

Forest biodiversity studies conducted across Europe use a multitude of forestry terms, often inconsistently. This hinders the comparability across studies and makes the assessment of the impacts of forest management on biodiversity highly context-dependent. Recent attempts to standardize forestry and stand description terminology mostly used a top-...

The European biodiversity and forest strategies rely on forest sustainable management (SFM) to conserve forest biodiversity. However, current sustainability assessments hardly account for direct biodiversity indicators. We focused on forest multi-taxon biodiversity to: i) gather and map the existing information; ii) identify knowledge and research...

Old-growth forests (OGF) provide valuable ecosystem services such as habitat provision, carbon sequestration or recreation maintaining biodiversity, carbon storage, or human well-being. Long-term human pressure caused OGFs in Europe to be rare and scattered. Their detailed extent and current status are largely unknown. This review aims to identify...

Tree regeneration is a key demographic process influencing long-term forest dynamics. It is driven by many biotic and abiotic factors. Thus, predictions of tree regeneration are challenging because of complex feedbacks along climatic gradients. The stress gradient hypothesis (SGH) and life-history strategies (LHS) provide a framework for assessing...

Tree-related microhabitats (TreMs) have been identified as key features for forest-dwelling taxa and are often employed as measures for biodiversity conservation in integrative forest management. However, managing forests to ensure an uninterrupted resource supply for TreM-dwelling taxa is challenging since TreMs are structures with a limited avail...

Forests host most terrestrial biodiversity and their sustainable management is crucial to halt biodiversity loss. Although scientific evidence indicates that sustainable forest management (SFM) should be assessed by monitoring multi-taxon biodiversity, most current SFM criteria and indicators account only for trees or consider indirect biodiversity...

Global change increases the risk of extreme climatic events. The impact of extreme temperature may depend on the tree species and also on the provenance. Ten provenances of Fagus sylvatica L. were grown in a common garden environment in Belgium and subjected to different temperature treatments. Half of the one year old seedlings were submitted to a...

Alle Taxa Biodiversiteit Inventarisatie en 30 jaar natuurbeheer

Questions Managed forests often show a more homogeneous age structure compared to unmanaged forests, but also a higher share and frequency of canopy and soil disturbances due to harvest operations. Here, we investigate what happens when non-intervention is introduced in formerly managed forests. • - Was there a significant decrease in vascular pla...

The geographical distributions of species associated with European temperate broadleaf forests have been significantly influenced by glacial–interglacial cycles. During glacial periods, these species persisted in Mediterranean and extra-Mediterranean refugia and later, during interglacial periods, expanded northwards. The widespread saproxylic beet...

Many studies have investigated how spring temperature affects laying dates and how this in turn affects the synchrony between nestling food demands and the insect food peak that follows tree budburst. While there is strong evidence that temperature itself acts as a cue for this plasticity in annual timing, the exact nature of the cue and response r...

The first life stages of a tree are subject to strong environmental stresses and competition, limiting their chances of survival. Establishing a mutualistic relationship with mycorrhizal fungi during early life stages may increase growth and survival rates of trees, but how mycorrhizal communities assemble during these stages remains unclear. Here,...

In a heavily frequented urban forest, with extraordinary high natural values and a comparable cultural heritage, integrated forest management is the only way to ensure that the various functions of the forest can be maintained while remaining flexible enough to adjust to changing environmental conditions and a variety of societal expectations

Paper in Dutch : 'Do we write off beech to promptly ? On the sensitivity of beech towards climate change and summer drought and its undervalued importance for biodiversity. Heel wat beuken, vooral in het open landschap en langs bosranden, hebben het lastig met de hitte en de droogte van de voorbije jaren. Door dit opvallende beeld verschijnen rege...

This report represents an extended version of the chapter on Invasive Alien Species of the Flemish State of the Environment report 2020. Invasive Alien Species represent a growing threat to biodiversity and ecosystem services in the region. This report describes the current situation of introductions and impact of alien species in Flanders and revi...

Categorizing species with respect to their affinity to forest ecosystems can help to assess forest habitat quality and support scientifically based decision-making for management. Recently, a set of forest affinity assessments was published covering 25% of the German fauna. Unfortunately, terrestrial isopods were not included, despite their importa...

Primary forests are critical for forest biodiversity and provide key ecosystem services. In Europe, these forests are particularly scarce and it is unclear whether they are sufficiently protected. Here we aim to: (a) understand whether extant primary forests are representative of the range of naturally occurring forest types, (b) identify forest ty...

article in Dutch about research on the role of ectomycorrhiza in natural regeneration of beech. Schimmels spelen een belangrijke rol in bosecosystemen. Ze zorgen niet alleen voor de afbraak van organisch materiaal, maar leveren ook essentiële voedingsstoffen en water aan bomen in ruil voor suikers die geproduceerd worden door de bomen. Op die mani...

an article that points at the importance for biodiversity of closed-canopy areas in forests (next to open areas). Especially as save havens for species that require the specific conditions of forest microhabitat. (in Dutch) Bij het beheer van onze bossen is er de laatste jaren veel aandacht voor open plekken en 'meer licht in het bos'. Licht in he...

Europe has a history rich in examples of successful and problematic introductions of trees with a native origin outside of Europe (non-native trees, NNT). Many international legal frameworks such as treaties and conventions and also the European Union have responded to the global concern about potential negative impacts of NNT that may become invas...

Landpissebedden (Isopoda: Oniscidea) zijn een unieke groep bodemdieren doordat ze nagenoeg als enige kreeftachtige de overgang van het water naar het land succesvol hebben doorgemaakt. Desondanks zijn ze nog steeds sterk gebonden aan vochtige omstandigheden en zijn ze zeer gevoelig voor uitdroging. Het hoeft dan ook niet te verbazen dat boshabitat...

This yearly publication summarises the most important results of our research in strict forest reserves over the past year towards a wider public. Written in Dutch. Content : - Ash to ashes? Bosdynamiek in het Muizenbos na de intrede van de essen-taksterfte - Een doctoraat over het onderzoek in onze onbeheerde bossen - Dood hout: bron van stikst...

article on the ecological advantages of single-tree oriented forestry systems (such as continuous cover forestry), but also warning to keep the diversity of management approaches, both for shade-loving and light-demanding species. (in dutch) Boomgericht bosbeheer heeft zeker voordelen voor de houtkwaliteit en voor de biodiversiteit. Maar het is ni...

Bossen in Vlaanderen zijn vaak klein, sterk gefragmenteerd en relatief jong. Hoewel Vlaanderen netto nog steeds aan bosareaal verliest, worden er toch regelmatig nieuwe bossen aangeplant. Maar een bos is meer dan een verzameling bomen. Een echt bosecosysteem herbergt ook typische soorten planten, dieren en zwammen. Het is al langer geweten dat heel...

We studied the effect of coarse woody debris (CWD) on the soil nutrient status in two beech (Fagus sylvatica) dominated forest reserves in Flanders, Belgium: Wijnendale Forest, on a sandy soil and Kersselaerspleyn in Sonian Forest, on a loamy soil. More specifically, we looked at the chemical composition of beech logs of different stages of decay....

Aim The tinder fungus Fomes fomentarius is a pivotal wood decomposer in European beech Fagus sylvatica forests. The fungus, however, has regionally declined due to centuries of logging. To unravel biogeographical drivers of arthropod communities associated with this fungus, we investigated how space, climate and habitat amount structure alpha and b...

Yearly publication for wide audience, summing up the most interesting results of our research in forest reserves - in Dutch

Successful colonization of empty habitat patches depends both on the capacity of a species to reach the patch and its ability to establish and persist. Getting better insights into the various factors that affect colonization success is especially relevant in the context of restoration projects that aim at restoring biodiversity in newly created ha...

The study of charcoal production pits (pit kilns), excavated in central Belgium, provides information on Early and High Medieval woodland dynamics and human impact on the forest composition in the Northwest-European Lowland. Radiocarbon dating of charcoal recovered from the kilns demonstrates two different phases of charcoal production, one during...

• Global habitat destruction is bringing species to the edge. Consequently, understanding species dispersal behaviour is becoming essential in order to safeguard vital meta‐populations. Nevertheless, dispersal is too often seen as unconditional rather than triggered by habitat cues. • We applied radio telemetry on female European stag beetles [Luc...

The effects of mixing tree species on tree growth and stand production have been abundantly studied, mostly looking at tree species diversity effects while controlling for stand density and structure. Regarding the shift towards managing forests as complex adaptive systems, we also need insight into the effects of structural diversity. Strict fores...

Tree related Microhabitats (hereafter TreMs) have been widely recognized as important substrates and structures for biodiversity in both commercial and protected forests and are receiving increasing attention in management , conservation and research. How to record TreMs in forest inventories is a question of recent interest since TreMs represent p...

Report for COST Action FP1301 EuroCoppice; Innovative management and multifunctional utilisation of traditional coppice forests –an answer to future ecological, economic and social challenges in the European forestry sector