Abstract: Retention forestry, which retains a portion of the original stand at the time of harvesting to maintain continuity of structural and compositional diversity, has been originally developed to mitigate the impacts of clear-cutting. Retention of habitat trees and deadwood has since become common practice also in continuous-cover forests of Central Europe. While the use of retention in these forests is plausible, the evidence base for its application is lacking, trade-offs have not been quantified, it is not clear what support it receives from forest owners and other stakeholders and how it is best integrated into forest management practices. The Research Training Group ConFoBi (Conservation of Forest Biodiversity in Multiple-use Landscapes of Central Europe) focusses on the effectiveness of retention forestry, combining ecological studies on forest biodiversity with social and economic studies of biodiversity conservation across multiple spatial scales. The aim of ConFoBi is to assess whether and how structural retention measures are appropriate for the conservation of forest biodiversity in uneven-aged and selectively harvested continuous-cover forests of temperate Europe. The study design is based on a pool of 135 plots (1 ha) distributed along gradients of forest connectivity and structure. The main objectives are (a) to investigate the effects of structural elements and landscape context on multiple taxa, including different trophic and functional groups, to evaluate the effectiveness of retention practices for biodiversity conservation; (b) to analyze how forest biodiversity conservation is perceived and practiced, and what costs and benefits it creates; and (c) to identify how biodiversity conservation can be effectively integrated in multi-functional forest management. ConFoBi will quantify retention levels required across the landscape, as well as the socio-economic prerequisites for their implementation by forest owners and managers. ConFoBi's research results will provide an evidence base for integrating biodiversity conservation into forest management in temperate forests

Abstract: Context Intensification and specialisation of agriculture and forest use has led to profound structural and compositional changes in European landscapes. In particular, sharp, narrow edges adjacent to relatively homogenous vegetation types progressively replace transitional habitats, crucial for a plethora of species and ecological processes. Quercus robur and Q. petraea regeneration niches make them best adapted to such transitional habitats. However, contemporary oaks' importance, including their regeneration, is usually considered within limits of forest habitats. Objective Defining habitats, landscape patterns and processes fostering oak regeneration and 'oakscape' development. Methods We assessed the state-of-the art of the topical literature with respect to various aspects of oak regeneration based on a refined list of 234 titles from the Web of Science database. Results The review confirmed that the vast majority of studies focus on forest habitats, disregarding the fact that substantial part of acorns are being carried away and seeded by birds in non-forest habitats. Conclusions The common acceptance of the simplistic landscape mosaic model, based on segregated homogenous vegetation categories and clear-cut lines separating patches, impedes proper assessment of landscape changes, referring to 'untypical', transitional habitats--the true oaks' domain. Hence, restoring and sustaining European 'oakscape' should result from the overall landscape management, based on a better adapted gradient approach to landscape studies. Applying such an approach, we identified a set of habitats fostering successful oak regeneration and recruitment without direct human support, contributing to the contemporary 'oakscape', represented mostly by non-forest, either natural or anthropogenic habitats