Are drought and wildfires turning Mediterranean cork oak forests into persistent shrublands?

Acácio, Vanda; Holmgren, Milena; Rego, Francisco; Moreira, Francisco; Mohren, Frits

doi:10.1007/s10457-008-9165-y

Cited by 142 publications

(58 citation statements)

References 48 publications

(27 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Therefore, in the 1995-2007 period fire accelerated the change from oak forest to shrubland areas, following the typical land cover change pattern in burnt areas of the Mediterranean region, with a fire-driven decrease in the persistence of forests (San-Miguel-Ayans et al 2012). Also, this trend agrees with that reported by Acácio et al (2009) for open oak forest areas in southern Portugal subjected to recurrent fire events.…”

Section: Wildfires and Landscape Composition Trendssupporting

confidence: 92%

“…This pattern may be associated with less human activities in the latter areas. A similar scenario was reported by Acácio et al (2009) for southern Portugal (Serra do Caldeirão), where this trend was associated with limitations to agriculture imposed by steep slopes and thin soils (SROA 1972b -Fig. 5).…”

Section: Landscape Mosaic Vs Biophysical Conditionssupporting

confidence: 80%

“…woodlands, Huntsinger & Bartolome (1992) and Santos & Thorne (2010) concluded that different combinations of management intensities decisively affected oak woodland restoration and conservation. For southern Portugal, shifting rates and patterns of cork oak woodlands have been reported by Acácio et al (2009), Costa et al (2009 and . In these studies, changes in oak woodland landscapes always result in effective net losses of open farmland and cork oak woodlands, and in an expansion of forest plantations (pine and eucalyptus) or shrubland.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Is cork oak (Quercus suber L.) woodland loss driven by eucalyptus plantation? A case-study in southwestern Portugal

Costa¹,

Madeira²,

Lima³

2014

iForest

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

© iForest -Biogeosciences and Forestry IntroductionLandscapes with cork oak (Quercus suber L.) in southwestern Iberia (called montados in Portugal, dehesas in Spain) are cultural (wood-pastures) human-shaped landscapes, as defined by Manning et al. (2006). Despite strong disturbances caused by changes in human activity, these open woodland ecosystems mimic natural ecosystems (Joffre et al. 1999, Pereira & Fonseca 2003. Their high biodiversity (Bugalho et al. 2011) contributes to the heterogeneity of the landscape mosaic, including (open) woodlands, shrublands, and open farmland (Vallejo et al. 2006), and to the existing nested, multifunctional spatial structure, as characterized by Santos & Thorne (2010).In the last 50 years, imminent multiple changes, including agricultural conversion and new forest plantations (Martínez et al. 2010), have drastically affected the sustainability of Mediterranean woodland ecosystems, leading to their classification as at-risk native biodiversity hotspots (Myers et al. 2000). Assessment of the dynamics of these landscapes and the identification of the driving factors responsible for the current change processes are thus strongly needed.Recent changes reported for cork oak woodland landscapes were mainly related to stressful environmental conditions (e.g., soil type and hydrological regime - Costa et al. 2008Costa et al. , 2010, disturbance regimes (e.g., wildfire occurrence -Moreira et al. 2001), vulnerable agricultural economy (changing the incentive structure of successive Common Agricultural Policy reforms of the European Union), and labor force availability (PintoCorreia 2000, Plieninger 2006. These changes usually result in: (i) a more intense land use (e.g., higher grazing pressure, modern permanent-crop farming systems, or eucalyptus plantations); and (ii) an extended land use (e.g., shrubland encroachment in set-aside or burnt areas); and, therefore, (iii) a shift from the traditional multifunctional landscape to different singlefunction landscapes.Information on oak woodland landscape dynamics has been reported in Spain for cork oak and holm oak (Quercus ilex) dehesas (Cano et al. 2003, Plieninger 2006, and for mixed forests of cork oak and Algerian oak (Quercus canariensis -Urbieta et al. 2008), which emphasized the effect of environmental factors (climate and physiographical conditions) on oak woodland mosaic shifts. In California, for Quercus spp. woodlands, Huntsinger & Bartolome (1992) and Santos & Thorne (2010) concluded that different combinations of management intensities decisively affected oak woodland restoration and conservation. For southern Portugal, shifting rates and patterns of cork oak woodlands have been reported by Acácio et al. (2009), Costa et al. (2009, 2011. In these studies, changes in oak woodland landscapes always result in effective net losses of open farmland and cork oak woodlands, and in an expansion of forest plantations (pine and eucalyptus) or shrubland. However, none of the aforementioned studies analyzed where and how oak woodland land...

show abstract

Section: Wildfires and Landscape Composition Trendssupporting

confidence: 92%

Section: Landscape Mosaic Vs Biophysical Conditionssupporting

confidence: 80%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Is cork oak (Quercus suber L.) woodland loss driven by eucalyptus plantation? A case-study in southwestern Portugal

Costa¹,

Madeira²,

Lima³

2014

iForest

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The increasing drought but mainly recurrent wildfires have transformed several forested areas in southern Portugal to shrublands in the last 20 years [150]. In fact, the increased forest cover on abandoned land in Mediterranean mountainous areas during the last century is now under high risk of degradation and fire due to the increasingly arid conditions [151].…”

Section: Forests Versus Shrublands and Grasslandsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of Global Change on Mediterranean Forests and Their Services

Peñuelas

Sardans

Filella

et al. 2017

Forests

109

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Cork oak (Quercus suber L.) forests represent a very important Mediterranean ecosystem that is now facing increased threats from predicted climate change, cork exploitation, and oak decline. The combination of increasing mean temperatures and drought, which could also result in increasing wildfires, is one of the main concerns of cork oak forest producers (Acácio et al 2009). …”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ectomycorrhizal fungal diversity and community structure associated with cork oak in different landscapes

et al. 2018

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Cork oak (Quercus suber L.) forests play an important ecological and economic role. Ectomycorrhizal fungi (ECMF) are key components for the sustainability and functioning of these ecosystems. The community structure and composition of ECMF associated with Q. suber in different landscapes of distinct Mediterranean bioclimate regions have not previously been compared. In this work, soil samples from cork oak forests residing in different bioclimates (arid, semi-arid, sub-humid, and humid) were collected and surveyed for ectomycorrhizal (ECM) root tips. A global analysis performed on 3565 ECM root tips revealed that the ECMF community is highly enriched in Russula, Tomentella, and Cenoccocum, which correspond to the ECMF genera that mainly contribute to community differences. The ECMF communities from the rainiest and the driest cork oak forests were distinct, with soils from the rainiest climates being more heterogeneous than those from the driest climates. The analyses of several abiotic factors on the ECMF communities revealed that bioclimate, precipitation, soil texture, and forest management strongly influenced ECMF structure. Shifts in ECMF with different hyphal exploration types were also detected among forests, with precipitation, forest system, and soil texture being the main drivers controlling their composition. Understanding the effects of environmental factors on the structuring of ECM communities could be the first step for promoting the sustainability of this threatened ecosystem.

show abstract

Are drought and wildfires turning Mediterranean cork oak forests into persistent shrublands?

Cited by 142 publications

References 48 publications

Is cork oak (Quercus suber L.) woodland loss driven by eucalyptus plantation? A case-study in southwestern Portugal

Is cork oak (Quercus suber L.) woodland loss driven by eucalyptus plantation? A case-study in southwestern Portugal

Impacts of Global Change on Mediterranean Forests and Their Services

Ectomycorrhizal fungal diversity and community structure associated with cork oak in different landscapes

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About