Dead wood plays an important role in element cycling (carbon, nutrients, water, etc.) and the build-up of carbon and nutrient stocks. It also represents an important structural component of forests, providing habitat for a large variety of organisms with often highly specialized habitat requirements (e.g. xylobiontic beetles). Both dead wood quantity and quality as well as its chemical and structural diversity are assumed to be linked to tree diversity. This dataset contains decay class, size and species of fine woody debris in each plot.

Fine woody debris (FWD) were measured on two circular subplots (r=7 m) located in 2 opposite corners of every plot in every focal region. All standing dead trees and snags shorter than 1,3m and thiner than 5cm dbh, and all stumps and other dead wood pieces lying on the forest floor were measured (lenght/height and diameter in half lenght). Every piece was measured until its diameter dropped below 3 cm. Whenever possible, we determined species and in all cases, decay class.

Italy