A review analysis of the degradation of cork oak forests in North Atlantic, Morocco

Abstract

Like Mediterranean forests, Morocco's forest formations are highly diverse and comprise many species. Among the noble species, the cork oak (Quercus suber L.) is important in the Moroccan forest landscape. However, anthropogenic and natural pressures have almost completely degraded cork oak ecosystems. This study was conducted on the Maamora cork oak forest in north-west Morocco. The methodology adopted was based on a bibliographic review, GIS cartographic and teledetection analysis of the forest area, in order to assess the state of degradation of the forest areas and their evolution and to investigate the causes about anthropic pressure and the climate change factor. Progressive degradation results from a combination of climatic and anthropogenic factors that continue to intensify. The lack of natural regeneration is one of the most worrying problems, requiring advanced reforestation and sustainable development.

An Integrating Framework for Biomass and Carbon Stock Spatialization and Dynamics Assessment Using Unmanned Aerial Vehicle LiDAR (LiDAR UAV) Data, Landsat Imagery, and Forest Survey Data in the Mediterranean Cork Oak Forest of Maamora

“…Since the early 20th century (1918), the Maamora forest has been the subject of several forest management plans, which have recommended the introduction of exotic species, the involvement of the local population and the regeneration of cork oaks by seeding or planting, but the objective of conserving and perpetuating this forest has still not been achieved. Natural factors are also partly to blame, such as fires, insect pests, aging of the stands, and recurrent droughts [65], climate change, and decrease in stand tree density (<100 trees/ha) [48], etc. Thus, the combination of all these factors has led to the degradation of the Maamora forest, which is reflected in its range [66], biodiversity, stand structure, and tree density.…”

Natural regeneration of cork oak forests under climate change: a case study in Portugal

“…Several studies in the Iberian Peninsula and North Africa also mentioned the cork oak's lack of natural regeneration (Montero et al, 1989(Montero et al, , 1994Pérez-Ramos and Marañón, 2005;Acácio et al, 2007;Duarte, 2008;Jdaidi et al, 2017;Mundet et al, 2018;Ritsche et al, 2021;Laaribya, 2023;Sobehi et al, 2023). In general, failures in the natural regeneration of cork oak are essentially due to seed predation and grazing by domestic and wild animals (Herrera, 1995;Pérez-Ramos et al, 2004;Acácio et al, 2007;Pérez-Ramos et al, 2007), summer drought (Gómez-Aparicio et al, 2008;Pérez-Ramos et al, 2012;Arosa et al, 2015), soil degradation (Sousa et al, 2007), and cork oak decline (Ribeiro and Surový, 2008;Fonseca and Martins, 2015), resulting from the effect of more than one factor.…”