Article Changes in Multi-Level Biodiversity and Soil Features in a Burned Beech Forest in the Southern Italian Coastal Mountain Adriano Stinca 1,* , Maria Ravo 2, Rossana Marzaioli 1,*, Giovanna Marchese 2, Angela Cordella 2, Flora A. Rutigliano 1 and Assunta Esposito 1 1 Department of Environmental Biological and Pharmaceutical Sciences and Technologies, University of Campania Luigi Vanvitelli, Via Vivaldi 43, 81100 Caserta, Italy; fl
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[email protected] (A.E.) 2 Genomix4Life S.r.l., Via Allende, 84081 Baronissi (Salerno), Italy;
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[email protected] (R.M.) Received: 1 August 2020; Accepted: 8 September 2020; Published: 11 September 2020 Abstract: In the context of global warming and increasing wildfire occurrence, this study aims to examine, for the first time, the changes in multi-level biodiversity and key soil features related to soil functioning in a burned Mediterranean beech forest. Two years after the 2017 wildfire, changes between burned and unburned plots of beech forest were analyzed for plant communities (vascular plant and cover, bryophytes diversity, structural, chorological, and ecological variables) and soil features (main chemical properties, microbial biomass and activity, bacterial community composition, and diversity), through a synchronic study. Fire-induced changes in the micro-environmental conditions triggered a secondary succession process with colonization by many native pioneer plant species. Indeed, higher frequency (e.g., Scrophularia vernalis L., Rubus hirtus Waldst. and Kit. group, and Funaria hygrometrica Hedw.) or coverage (e.g., Verbascum thapsus L.