Positive effect of catastrophic winds on reptile community recovery in pine plantations

The greatest threat to biodiversity is the alteration and destruction of habitats, and one of the causes is tree plantation, which normally are monospecific and unnatural high-density forest stands. In Spain these contain mainly Pinus species, and cover 25% of the forested area. Due to their dense canopy cover, these monocultures harbor poor communities in terms of species richness and abundance of other organisms, such as reptiles. In November...