Reducing Reforestation Costs in Lebanon: Adaptive Field Trials

Haroutunian, Garabet; Chojnacky, David C.; Riachy, Richard El; Chojnacky, Cindy C.

doi:10.3390/f8050169

Cited by 5 publications

(3 citation statements)

References 14 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…), was wider than today, but forests have changed since the Late Glacial era (Hajar et al 2010). Currently, it exists only about 2000 and 400 ha in Lebanon and Syria, respectively (Khuri et al 2000;Haroutunian, Chojnacky et al 2017). Although the same disturbances have continued in Anatolia (Asia Minor), only small populations have survived in a well-preserved state in disjoint areas, particularly the almost inaccessible topography of the Taurus Mountains has prevented C. libani from extinction (Boydak 2003; Boydak and Çalıkoğlu 2008).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intraspecific variability in cold hardiness of Taurus Cedar (Cedrus libani A. Rich.) in Türkiye

Imal

Semerci

Gonzalez‐Benecke

2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

To better guide Cedrus libani provenances movement to northerly and higher altitudes sites for afforestation, the limits of hardiness to cold should be better known. In this study, we quantified the cold hardiness of seven C. libani provenances sampled from a provenance trial in Ankara, Türkiye, a site located outside the natural range of distribution of the species. Visual damage observation and chlorophyll fluorometry screening methods were used to assess variation in cold hardiness (LT50, the temperature estimated at which 50% of the needle tissue is damaged) among populations. Overall, C. libani can tolerate winter temperatures up to -21°C. Even though there were significant differences in cold hardiness among populations, the maximum difference was only 1.9°C between the most and the least cold-resistant provenances. Cold tolerance was generally greater for provenances that experienced colder temperatures in March and lower levels of total precipitation in their native ranges. We also conclude that the fluorometry method provides a more efficient and stable comparison of cold hardiness than visual observation for C. libani. The results of this study may be useful for assisted migration and breeding programs, as well as for developing guidelines for genetic materials transfer, to increase productivity or adaptability of C. libani.

show abstract

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Intraspecific variability in cold hardiness of Taurus Cedar (Cedrus libani A. Rich.) in Türkiye

Imal

Semerci

Gonzalez‐Benecke

2023

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The forests of Lebanon have been exploited for the last 5000 years, since the time of the Pharaohs [1,2] and later by Phoenicians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Kings of Israel, Romans, and more recently, by the Turkish Ottoman Empire until World War I [1]. At that time, forests covered up to 70% of Lebanon, but today they are highly fragmented due to urban expansion, sustainable timber use, grazing, and tourism [3,4] and have shrunk to 13.6% [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Guiding Conservation for Mountain Tree Species in Lebanon

Cheddadi

Khater

2022

Forests

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The objective of this study is to contribute to the conservation of upland tree species in the face of climate change. We used a conservation index to prioritize the areas and populations of three conifer species in the mountains of Lebanon. This conservation index integrates (1) mountain topography to identify areas that could provide a suitable microclimate, (2) genetic diversity to assess the adaptive capacity of populations in these mountain areas, and (3) a hypothetical climate change scenario that could affect this Mediterranean region. The idea of this index is to prioritize protected areas based on a match between the relevance of the area to be protected and the populations that need local and long-term protection. The stronger the match, the higher the priority of the area to be protected. We applied this conservation index to 36 populations of 15 fir, 15 cedar, and 6 juniper. These populations were genotyped by different authors whose published data we used. The results show that 10 populations of the 3 species have a very high index and 9 others have a lower but still high index, indicating a high conservation priority. These 19 populations occur in 5 different areas that we delineated and that form a network along the Lebanon Mountains. We hypothesize that the conservation of these 19 populations across the Lebanon Mountains could contribute to the long-term sustainability of the 3 species in the face of a 2 °C increase in mean seasonal temperature and a 20% decrease in seasonal precipitation compared to the current climate.

show abstract

“…Pinus pinea (stone pine) is a very important and typical species in the Mediterranean area because of its ecological and economical value, and one of the most valuable trees in the reforestation programs in particular in Lebanon (MoE, 2014;Haroutunian et al, 2017). Natural regeneration of the ageing P. pinea forests is thus a crucial step not only for economic purposes but also to adapt the future forests to climate change by selecting the most adapted seedlings to environmental conditions (Lucas-Borja, 2014).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Soil scarification favors natural regeneration of Pinus pinea in Lebanon forests: Evidences from field and laboratory experiments

Nakhoul

Santonja

Fernandez

et al. 2020

Forest Ecology and Management

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Pinus pinea is an important species for ecological and economic reasons in the Mediterranean area and especially in Lebanon. However, conditions of its natural regeneration have received little attention. Our study aimed to test the influence of soil disturbances, predation and autotoxicity on pine regeneration. A seed sowing field experiment was conducted in a mature stand in which two types of soil disturbances were tested (soil scarification and litter burning) in presence or absence of predation. In addition, a laboratory experiment evaluating the influence of litter (present, absent or burned) and green needle leachates (i.e. in order to mimic potential autotoxicity) on seed germination and seedling growth was conducted. Results showed a strong effect of soil disturbance, in particular soil scarification which promoted seedling emergence and early survival, whereas the role of predation was low. Forty to sixty days after seed installation, seedling density peaked at 14.9 ± 0.4 seedling.m-2 in the scarification treatment, 13.1 ± 0.4 in the burning treatment and 8.4 ± 0.4 in the control treatment. However, an unexpected high mortality rate was recorded at the end of the field experiment in all treatments, as after seven months seedling density dropped to 0.2 ± 0.02. In the laboratory experiment, we emphasized an autotoxic effect of green needle aqueous extract on seed germination and seedling growth in the presence of litter. This allelopathic effect could be potentially linked to the presence of quinic acid which was measured as the major metabolite detected in needle aqueous extracts. In conclusion, we recommend soil preparation treatments to favor seedling emergence in combination with thinning to achieve seedling development on the long term.

show abstract

Reducing Reforestation Costs in Lebanon: Adaptive Field Trials

Cited by 5 publications

References 14 publications

Intraspecific variability in cold hardiness of Taurus Cedar (Cedrus libani A. Rich.) in Türkiye

Intraspecific variability in cold hardiness of Taurus Cedar (Cedrus libani A. Rich.) in Türkiye

Guiding Conservation for Mountain Tree Species in Lebanon

Soil scarification favors natural regeneration of Pinus pinea in Lebanon forests: Evidences from field and laboratory experiments

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About