Habitat Directive Forest Type Western Taiga (*9010) in Estonia - the First Description of Stand Structure According to Mapping and Monitoring Data

This paper provides a comparative description of the Estonian Western taiga habitat type (*9010) based on data from the national Habitat Directive Annex I forest habitat monitoring program and two regional studies. Various stand structure characteristics associated with forest representativity, continuity age, region and dominant tree species are analyzed using logistic regression and models for count data. We found that most of the studied characteristics show expressive regional differences. Many stands' traits are well associated with representativity grading and continuity age. To predict the presence of many structure characteristics, we found that it may be sufficient to know the forest's stand composition (coniferous, deciduous or mixed) instead of tree species. We conclude that the Estonian mapping and monitoring methodologies are well-suited to describing and assessing the quality of the Western taiga habitat type in Estonia.