Revegetation and reclamation of soils using wild leguminous shrubs in cold semiarid Mediterranean conditions: Litterfall and carbon and nitrogen returns under two aridity regimes

Carbon storage in the Mediterranean upland shrub communities of Montesinho Natural Park, northeast of Portugal

“…This is in accordance with the work developed by Vargas et al (2006) who reported for a microcosm decomposition experiment, using two evergreen shrubs (Atriplex lampa and Junellia seriphioides), the decrease in litter C associated with a significant increase in SOC. Similar concentrations of carbon in litter were reported by Alegre et al (2004) for Colutea arborescens (44 %) and Medicago Strasseri (41 %) in cold semiarid Mediterranean conditions (Madrid, Spain). Thus, in permanently vegetated soils, the effects of plant species on ecosystem are related to the quantity and quality of litter deposited on soil surface (Alegre et al 2004;Chojnacky and Milton, 2008;Nicolini and Topp 2005).…”

“…Similar concentrations of carbon in litter were reported by Alegre et al (2004) for Colutea arborescens (44 %) and Medicago Strasseri (41 %) in cold semiarid Mediterranean conditions (Madrid, Spain). Thus, in permanently vegetated soils, the effects of plant species on ecosystem are related to the quantity and quality of litter deposited on soil surface (Alegre et al 2004;Chojnacky and Milton, 2008;Nicolini and Topp 2005). Despite its minor contribution to total carbon, litter is an important component of the carbon biogeochemical cycle (Ordóñez et al 2008;Zhang et al 2007), as it is the interface between vegetation and soil.…”

Variation in response to heavy metals during vegetative growth in Dorycnium pentaphyllum Scop.

“…35 ± 0.01 a 0.21 ± 0.01 a -1.12 ± 0.08 a 1.39 ± 0.05 a 0.42 ± 0.02 a 0.24 ± 0.01 a Cd 10 lM -2.99 ± 0.12 b 0.81 ± 0.09 b 0.26 ± 0.01 b 0.22 ± 0.01 a -3.06 ± 0.14 b 1.24 ± 0.07 a 0.27 ± 0.02 b 0.23 ± 0.03 a Zn 100 lM -2.86 ± 0.08 b 0.78 ± 0.06 b 0.21 ± 0.03 b 0.21 ± 0.02 a -2.21 ± 0.13 c 1.30 ± 0.03 a 0.29 ± 0.04 b 0.22 ± 0.00 a a Basal level (BL) represents organs already present at the time of stress application, while upper level (UL) represents those resulting from the elongation process occurring during the time-course of stress exposure. Means with common letters are not significantly different at P B 0.05, according to Scheffé F test purposes and soil reclamation (Walker et al 2003;Alegre et al 2004;Bell 2005;Bell et al 2007). The presence of high concentrations of heavy metals in former mining areas often constitutes a serious threat for ecosystem stability (Del Río et al 2002;Wong 2003;Walker et al 2003;Vogel-Mikuš et al 2005).…”

“…pentaphyllum is a valuable plant species for the rehabilitation of semi-arid degraded lands (Alegre et al 2004). The present work shows that this plant could also be used as an attractive tool for the revegetation of heavy metal-contaminated areas since it appears to be resistant at different developmental stages of plant growth.…”

Effects of warmer and drier climate conditions on plant composition and biomass production in a Mediterranean shrubland community

“…5), with no differ ences between the control and the warming and drought treatments. According to several authors (Pavón et al 2005, Alegre et al 2004, Simmons et al 1996, litter production is strongly controlled by precipitation, fol lowing a direct relationship (lower the pre cipitation, lower the litter production). Moreover, Pavón et al (2005) showed that temperature was negatively related to litter fall amount.…”