Lichens in old-growth and managed mountain spruce forests in the Czech Republic: assessment of biodiversity, functional traits and bioindicators

Natural spruce forests are restricted to the highest mountain ranges in the Czech Republic. Spruce is also the commonest tree species in managed forests. Owing to a massive decline of spruce forests in Central Europe, caused by recent climatic fluctuations and disturbances, the lichen diversity and species composition was compared between ten representative natural mountain old-growth forests in the Czech Republic and their counterparts in...