Increasing aridity threatens the sexual regeneration of Quercus ilex(holm oak) in Mediterranean ecosystems.

ABSTRACT: Knowledge of the recruitment of dominant forest species is a key aspect for forest conservation and the ecosystem services they provide. In this paper, we address how the simultaneous action of climate change and the intensity of land use in the past influence the recruitment of a forest species that depends on the provision of nurse plants to recruit. We compared the number of saplings (up to 15 years old) and juveniles (16 to 50 years old) of Quercus ilex in 17, 5.3 ha plots in the Iberian System (eastern Spain). We used a gradient of past deforestation intensity crossed with two levels of average annual precipitation, one of them at the lower limit of the species' precipitation niche (semi-arid) and the other at the optimum (sub-humid). We also examined the association between recruits

SUBMITTER: Garcia-Fayos P 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7556486 | biostudies-literature | 2020

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature