Authors: Trentanovi, Giovanni; Campagnaro, Thomas ; Ammer, Christian;Bravo-Oviedo, Andrés ;Chianucci, Francesco;D’Andrea, Ettore ;del Río, Miren;Doerfler, Inken ;Fotakis, Dimitris;Kepfer Rojas, Sebastian ;

A myriad of forest management definitions are used in scientific literature. Their inconsistent use within biodiversity-oriented investigations hampers result comparability, and impedes conclusions on the effects of forest management on biodiversity. By using a bottom-up approach we provide shared definitions of silvicultural and management terms to be used in forest multi-taxon biodiversity studies. We collected and synthesised information of forest management deriving from the publications of 29 multi-taxon studies across Europe backing the COST Action “BOTTOMS-UP”. We asked the researchers involved to enter their management and silvicultural data in a standardised format. The results highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the terminology used in the selected studies. While data on forest stand biomass are frequently reported, information on the silvicultural regime is often lacking or fragmentary. We found broad and heterogeneous definitions of the silvicultural system and forest vegetation classifications. We propose a common framework of definitions and forest management data to be recorded with the aim of increasing the comparability of multi-taxon forest diversity studies. This work helps in bridging the gap between practice and science in the field of sustainable forest management.