Grazing effects on plant diversity in the endemic<i>Erica mackayana</i>heathland community of north-west Spain

Fagúndez, Jaime

doi:10.1080/17550874.2016.1191555

Cited by 16 publications

(50 citation statements)

References 56 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Unclassified

Order By: Relevance

“…The E. mackayana wet heaths from northern Galicia occurs in a wide oceanic belt in northern Galicia, with a core area in the Xistral mountains, a protected Natura 2000 site of 22,964 ha (Consellería de Medio Ambiente, Territorio e Vivienda, 2018). In this area, heaths are commonly used as rangeland for cattle and wild ponies, more rarely for sheep (Fagúndez, 2016). The wild ponies of Serra do Xistral belong to the group of Atlantic Ponies that live in the north of the Iberian Peninsula (Bárcena, 2012) and have their largest population in the mountains of Galicia (Nuñez et al, 2016).…”

Section: Target Habitatmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Ponies live free in the mountain throughout the year, but are rounded up once or twice a year in a typical event called "curro" or "rapa das bestas" mainly to fire brand them, share their mane and tail, and take the foals for meat (Iglesia, 1973;Bárcena, 2012;Lagos, 2013). Their positive influence on the structure and diversity of the Atlantic wet heathlands of E. mackayana has been demonstrated (Fagúndez, 2016). The main threats to the habitat is afforestation by exotic species, mainly Eucalyptus spp.…”

Section: Target Habitatmentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Habitat quality assessment of Atlantic wet heathlands in Serra do Xistral, NW Spain

Muñoz-Barcia

Lagos

Blanco-Arias

et al. 2019

CIG

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The assessment of habitat quality, especially in semi-natural managed systems, provides a powerful tool for monitoring short and longterm conservation actions. The Erica mackayana Atlantic wet heathlands of the Serra do Xistral protected area in Galicia, NW Spain, represent a dynamic system with high conservation value associated to traditional management through grazing of free-ranging cattle and wild ponies. Here, we aimed to develop a spatially-explicit, quantitative method for Habitat Quality Assessment, defining an optimum state and the alternative states that may arise from habitat degradation. Vegetation structure, grass-shrub cover ratio, gorse cover, presence of bracken, exotic species such as pine trees and saplings, erosive events and altered hydrological dynamics were identified as the main indicators of habitat degradation. A heterogeneous vegetation structure with a dominant shrub cover of c.a. 0.5 m height and constant gaps among shrubs, with a limited cover of gorse and absence of pine trees, bramble and bracken, and absence of erosive events was recognized as the optimum state. We applied the Habitat Quality Assessment (HQA) method to a pilot area within the Xistral protected site. Wet heathland was the dominant habitat, covering 37.1% of the area. 7.0% of the assessed heathlands were recognized as in the optimum state for habitat quality. Recommendations are made for habitat management to revert low scores, mainly by the adjustment of livestock numbers and the removal of exotic pine trees. Evaluación de la calidad de hábitats de brezales húmedos atlánticos en la Serra do Xistral, NO EspañaRESUMEN. La evaluación de la calidad de hábitats constituye una herramienta muy útil para el seguimiento, a medio y largo plazo, de las acciones de conservación, especialmente en sistemas semi-naturales manejados. Los brezales húmedos atlánticos con Erica mackayana del espacio Red Natura Serra do Xistral, situado en Galicia, noroeste de España, representan un sistema dinámico con alto valor de conservación asociado al manejo tradicional mediante Muñoz-Barcia et al. 534Cuadernos de Investigación Geográfica 45 (2), 2019, pp. 533-549 ganado vacuno y caballos salvajes. En este artículo desarrollamos un método cuantitativo y espacialmente explícito para la evaluación de la calidad del hábitat en brezales húmedos. Para ello definimos un estado óptimo y los estados alternativos que pueden resultar de la degradación del hábitat. Los principales indicadores de degradación que identificamos fueron la estructura de la vegetación, la proporción de cobertura de herbáceas-arbustivas, la cobertura de tojo, la presencia de helechos (Pteridium aquilinum), especies exóticas como los pinos, eventos erosivos y la existencia de dinámicas hidrológicas alteradas. El estado óptimo se definió como una estructura de la vegetación heterogénea, con una cobertura de arbustivas dominante de entorno a 0,5 m de alto y pasillos constantes entre las matas, con cierta cobertura de tojo, ausencia de pinos, helechos, eventos erosivos y alterac...

show abstract

Section: Target Habitatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Target Habitatmentioning

confidence: 99%

Habitat quality assessment of Atlantic wet heathlands in Serra do Xistral, NW Spain

Muñoz-Barcia

Lagos

Blanco-Arias

et al. 2019

CIG

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…() described the heathlands (Calluno‐Ulicetea: Ulicion minoris) of the Iberian peninsula of which, S. tinctoria was a component species. S. tinctoria is a characteristic species of the Atlantic wet Erica mackayana heath community (Calluno‐Ulicetea) in Galicia in north‐west Spain (Fagúndez ). Ellenberg () also records S. tinctoria as being associated with mixed oakwoods of the Potentillo‐Quercetum in Central Europe.…”

Section: Communitiesmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Fagúndez (), in a study of Erica makayana heathland in Galicia, Spain, found that S tinctoria was far more abundant in sites grazed by wild ponies than in ungrazed sites. Stampfli () found that a mowing treatment resulted in a significant increase in the number of reproductive shoots of S. tinctoria in abandoned grasslands dominated by Molinia caerulea in southern Switzerland.…”

Section: Response To Biotic Factorsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biological Flora of the British Isles: Serratula tinctoria

Jefferson

Walker

2017

Journal of Ecology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary This account presents information on all aspects of the biology of Serratula tinctoria L. that are relevant to understanding its ecological characteristics and behaviour. The main topics are presented within the standard framework of the Biological Flora of the British Isles: distribution, habitat, communities, responses to biotic factors, responses to environment, structure and physiology, phenology, floral and seed characters, herbivores and disease, history and conservation. Serratula tinctoria is a gynodioecious perennial forb of open or semi‐shaded habitats including grassland, heath, mire, open woodland and scrub and their ecotones. It is found throughout most of England and Wales but it is very rare in Scotland and absent from Ireland. Serratula tinctoria is found in Europe as far north as southern Sweden and Norway. It is absent from much of the Boreal biogeographical zone, including most of Fennoscandia and northern Poland, Russia and the Baltic States, and from the lowland Mediterranean zone. Serratula tinctoria occurs on soils overlying a wide variety of superficial deposits and sedimentary, metamorphic and igneous rocks, including ultramafic rocks. The pH range of these soils is wide, ranging from acidic to moderately alkaline but with nutrient status classed as oligotrophic, or more rarely mesotrophic. In mire or fen habitats, it occurs in topogenous or soligenous situations with a similar soil water pH range. It is able to tolerate a wide spectrum of soil water‐table conditions, ranging from very dry to flooded. Serratula tinctoria is pollinated by various insects of the orders Hymenoptera, Diptera and Lepidoptera, particularly bumblebees, hoverflies and butterflies. It produces phytoecdysteroids, which mimic a hormone that regulates insect development. The seed has a feathery pappus for wind dispersal and establishment is primarily from seed. However, it has strong dispersal limitation with slow migration rates into restored grasslands of 1 m year−1. The species has a short‐term persistent seed bank. Seedling recruitment is enhanced by disturbance that creates bare ground, increasing light flux and lower cover of bryophytes and litter, and reduced by higher nutrient availability and lack of management. Formerly the source of a yellow dye, S. tinctoria has declined in Britain since at least the late 19th Century primarily due to a combination of drainage, ploughing and agricultural improvement and, conversely, lack of management by cutting and grazing in its grassland, heath and mire habitats. There is evidence that the decline slowed or stabilised between the late‐1980s and the mid‐2000s, in part due to the positive impact of conservation via statutory protection on designated sites and wider measures delivered through agri‐environment schemes.

show abstract

“…selected a heathland that has been unmanaged for over a century, but with unknown impediments to successional changes that limited tree invasion. In other areas, such as coastal western Spain, vegetation rapidly changes after abandonment (Fagúndez ), and management is needed at some level of intensity to maintain heathland structure in south England (Cordingley et al. ), Scotland (Britton et al.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The interplay of nutrients and tree invasion shapes the plant community in heathland habitats

Fagúndez

2016

Applied Vegetation Science

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Can drivers of temporal vegetation changes and their interactions be modelled in dynamic ecosystems? Kepfer-Rojas et al., in this issue of Applied Vegetation Science, studied species richness and cover in an unmanaged heathland to address this topic. Complex interactions between drivers and their degree of spatial dependence condition the success of each functional group, in a scenario of permanent competition.Heathlands are low-shrub habitats dominated by ericoid species, frequent across the Atlantic European region, and elsewhere in the world (e.g. Australia). Heath communities are shaped by a plethora of biotic and abiotic factors that interact to determine the occurrence and dominance of species, and these underlying forces actuate at different temporal and spatial scales. Disentangling the drivers of such complexity can be a major task for plant ecologists, as deduced from the fine-scale study by Kepfer-Rojas et al. in this issue of AVS. They analysed the effect of land-use legacy on the composition of a heath community in Denmark. By creating a theoretical model that includes landuse changes, distance to the edge and tree encroachment, they test the robustness of the model with a set of variables that include plant cover, species richness and soil nutrients. Not surprisingly, different factors have significant effects in the model, and differentially affect grasses, trees or shrubs.Climate and soil conditions are known to be major drivers of plant assemblages at regional scales. Natural succession, the process of community replacements over time, is also a major driver of vegetation change in dynamic ecosystems. Temperate heaths, as other intermediate communities in successional series that rely upon disturbance for their existence, are tightly connected to the human management that limits their transformation into forests.

show abstract

Grazing effects on plant diversity in the endemicErica mackayanaheathland community of north-west Spain

Cited by 16 publications

References 56 publications

Habitat quality assessment of Atlantic wet heathlands in Serra do Xistral, NW Spain

Habitat quality assessment of Atlantic wet heathlands in Serra do Xistral, NW Spain

Biological Flora of the British Isles: Serratula tinctoria

The interplay of nutrients and tree invasion shapes the plant community in heathland habitats

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About