Ecology and silviculture of silver fir (Abies alba Mill.): a review

ABSTRACTSilver fir ( Abies albaMill.) is one of the most valuable conifer trees in Europe for historical and economic reasons. Growing interest in the species, along with the recognition that silver fir was subjected to inappropriate silviculturalmeasures during the 20th century due a lack of understanding of its ecology, have spurred recent studies from various disciplines which have yielded new insights into the gene ecology, history, ecology, structure and dynamics of fir populations. In this paper, we provide a multidisciplinary, synoptical review discussing the prospects for silver fir forestry in the 21st century. We describe the main characteristics of the history and ecology of silver fir, with a particular emphasis on gene ecology and the structure and dynamics of fir populations with respect to mixed stands and fir management. Fir is a fundamental species for maintaining high biodiversity in forested ecosystems because of its shade tolerance, plasticity to environmental conditions and ability t...