Habitat fragmentation is one of the main causes of biodiversity loss and the alteration of the structure and function of habitat types. This study aimed to assess the conservation status of forest habitats by examining fragmentation and naturalness. As a case study, we examined the Oak forests of Calabria, which play an important structural and ecological role in the region. The vegetation analysis enabled us to define six forest communities, corresponding to six habitat types or subtypes, as defined by the EEC Directive 92/43. The ecological characteristics of the habitat types were analyzed using Ellenberg–Pignatti indicators. Temperature (T) and moisture (U) are the most significant ecological factors for distinguishing the different habitat types and are strongly correlated with naturalness. The analysis of landscape parameters revealed that habitat types 91AA* and 9330 are the most fragmented and punctuated, with an observed correlation between naturalness and patch density, a parameter expressing the number of patches per unit area. The study of ecological characteristics in relation to biodiversity and landscape indices contributes to the characterization of oak woodland habitats and provides guidelines for the implementation of active conservation measures.
Morabito et al. (Wed,) studied this question.