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, position, size and species of the dead trees and other coarse woody debris in each plot.

Coarse woody debris (CWD) were measured on each and entire plot in every focal region. All standing dead trees and snags higher than 1,3m and thicker than 5cm dbh, and all downed trees and other dead wood pieces longer than 1,3m and thicker than 5cm at the lenght of 1,3m were measured. Only CWD with its thicker end within plot borders were considered to be "in" the plot. Whenever possible, we determined species and in all cases, decay class. For every decay class/species present on plot, a wood sample was taken in order to determine density and C and N content.

Italy