Species Diversity of Oak Stands and Its Significance for Drought Resistance

Abstract

Drought periods have an adverse impact on the condition of oak stands. Research on different types of ecosystems has confirmed a correlation between plant species diversity and the adverse effects of droughts. The purpose of this study was to investigate the changes that occurred in an oak stand (Krotoszyn Plateau, Poland) under the impact of the summer drought in 2015. We used a method based on remote sensing indices from satellite images in order to detect changes in the vegetation in 2014 and 2015. A positive difference was interpreted as an improvement, whereas a negative one was treated as a deterioration of the stand condition. The Shannon-Wiener species diversity was estimated using an iterative principal component analysis (PCA) algorithm based on aerial images. We observed a relationship between the species indices of the individual forest divisions and their response to drought. The highest correlation between the index differences and the Shannon-Wiener indices was found for the Green Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (GNDVI) index (+0.74). In addition, correlations were observed between the mean index difference and the percentage shares in the forest divisions of species such as Pinus sylvestris L. (P. sylvestris) (+0.67 ± 0.08) and Quercus robur L. (Q. robur) (−0.65 ± 0.10). Our results lead us to infer that forest management based on highly diverse habitats is more suitable to meet the challenges in the context of global climatic changes, characterized by increasingly frequent droughts.

The impact of drought in 2015 on the health forest condition determined using Landsat-8 OLI images

“…at the same time, these areas were the most resistant to stressors. This confirms the conclusion that biodiversity influences the resistance of drought of a study forests area (Anderegg et al 2018;grossiord 2018;Kotlarz et al 2018). the regions of interest consisting of most differentiated pixels, as a result of their spectral reflectance in the particular channels, also had the most diversified land cover.…”

“…Examples of local drought occurrence and impact have been studied in Poland for Białowieża Primeval Forest (Michalski et al 2004), Niepołomice Forest (Bednarz 1994), and Silesian Beskid (Durło et al 2015). Drought occurrence in Wielkopolska region was described in Kotlarz et al 2018. Quercus robur l., is especially vulnerable to water shortages. summer droughts were found to inhibit their growth.…”

“…Drought has various impacts on particular plant species and/or plant communities. ecosystem functioning is sensitive to biodiversity, and thus, resistance to drought is correlated with species richness (tilman, Downing 1994;Kotlarz et al 2018). the research done to date has demonstrated that areas with enhanced biodiversity are less sensitive to drought (thompson et al 2009).…”

The Use of Rolling Stock as a Carrier of Sensors in the Field of Environmental Monitoring

“…Drzewa są ważnym elementem środowiska kolejowego, który często w trakcie modelowania 3D jest trudny do wyodrębnienia (obiekt tego typu jest nieciągły, często niezbędne jest zastosowanie zaawansowanych algorytmów topologicznych w celu klasyfikacji punktów należących do korony drzewa, pnia, podłoża itp. [20,25]). Ekstrakcja drzew z punktów pozyskanych w ALS była pierwotnie wykorzystywana w inwentaryzacji obszarów leśnych (gęstość punktów wynosiła jedynie 2-8/m 2 ).…”

Isotopic and Water Relation Responses to Ozone and Water Stress in Seedlings of Three Oak Species with Different Adaptation Strategies

“…Oaks are widely distributed in the Mediterranean basin where drought and air pollution such as tropospheric ozone (O 3 ) are the main limiting factors for productivity [1][2][3]. The diversity of oak species is the result of the adaptation to the environment [4]. A wide phenotypic plasticity helps the Two-year-old seedlings of potted Q. ilex L., Q. robur L., and Q. pubescens Willd.…”