Drought conditions, aridity and forest structure control the responses of Iberian holm oak woodlands to extreme droughts: A large-scale remote-sensing exploration in eastern Spain
Understanding how Mediterranean forests respond to the increasing frequency of extreme droughts and forest densification is crucial for effective land management in the present context of climate change and land abandonment. We study the responses of Iberian holm oak (Quercus ilex L.) woodlands to recent extreme droughts during 2000–2019 along broad gradients of climate aridity and forest structure. To this purpose, we apply large-scale remote-sensing using MODIS EVI as a primary production proxy in 5274 Q. ilex sites distributed within a 100,000 km2 region in eastern Spain. These woodlands were extensively affected by two extreme drought events in 2005 and 2012. Resistance, assessed as the capacity of the ecosystems to maintain primary production during drought, was significantly lower for semi-arid than for sub-humid and dry-transition conditions. Holm oak woodlands located in semi-arid areas of the region showed also poorer resilience to drought, characterized by low capacity to fully recover to their pre-drought production levels. Further, drought intensity and both pre- and post-drought hydric conditions controlled the variations of resistance, recovery and resilience between the two analyzed extreme drought events. Drought effects were particularly negative for dense Q. ilex stands under semi-arid climate conditions, where strong competition for scarce water resources reduced drought resistance. The observed drought vulnerability of semi-arid holm oak woodlands may affect the long-term stability of these dry forests. Adaptive management strategies, such as selective forest thinning, may be useful for improving drought responses in these more vulnerable semi-arid woodlands. Conversely, natural rewilding may more appropriately guide management actions for more humid areas, where densely developed Q. ilex woodlands show in general a high ability to maintain ecosystem primary production during drought.
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Elsevier
2023-11-25
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Subjects: | Aridity, Drought, Ecosystem stability, Forest structure, Holm oak, Resilience, |
Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10261/344477 |
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dig-cide-es-10261-3444772024-01-30T14:05:41Z Drought conditions, aridity and forest structure control the responses of Iberian holm oak woodlands to extreme droughts: A large-scale remote-sensing exploration in eastern Spain Moreno de las Heras, Mariano Bochet, E. Vicente Serrano, Sergio M. Espigares, T. Molina, M. J. Monleón, Vicente Nicolau, J. M. Tormo, Jaume García-Fayos, P. Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España) Agencia Estatal de Investigación (España) European Commission Generalitat de Catalunya Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca Aridity Drought Ecosystem stability Forest structure Holm oak Resilience Understanding how Mediterranean forests respond to the increasing frequency of extreme droughts and forest densification is crucial for effective land management in the present context of climate change and land abandonment. We study the responses of Iberian holm oak (Quercus ilex L.) woodlands to recent extreme droughts during 2000–2019 along broad gradients of climate aridity and forest structure. To this purpose, we apply large-scale remote-sensing using MODIS EVI as a primary production proxy in 5274 Q. ilex sites distributed within a 100,000 km2 region in eastern Spain. These woodlands were extensively affected by two extreme drought events in 2005 and 2012. Resistance, assessed as the capacity of the ecosystems to maintain primary production during drought, was significantly lower for semi-arid than for sub-humid and dry-transition conditions. Holm oak woodlands located in semi-arid areas of the region showed also poorer resilience to drought, characterized by low capacity to fully recover to their pre-drought production levels. Further, drought intensity and both pre- and post-drought hydric conditions controlled the variations of resistance, recovery and resilience between the two analyzed extreme drought events. Drought effects were particularly negative for dense Q. ilex stands under semi-arid climate conditions, where strong competition for scarce water resources reduced drought resistance. The observed drought vulnerability of semi-arid holm oak woodlands may affect the long-term stability of these dry forests. Adaptive management strategies, such as selective forest thinning, may be useful for improving drought responses in these more vulnerable semi-arid woodlands. Conversely, natural rewilding may more appropriately guide management actions for more humid areas, where densely developed Q. ilex woodlands show in general a high ability to maintain ecosystem primary production during drought. This work was supported by the caRRRascal project (grant RTI2018-095037-B-I00), funded by MCIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and “ERDF A way of making Europe”. Mariano Moreno-de-las-Heras is beneficiary of a Serra Hunter fellowship on Physical and Environmental Geography, funded by Generalitat de Catalunya (UB-LE-9055), and grant 2021SGR00859, awarded by the Agència de Gestió d'Ajuts Universitaris i de Recerca de la Generalitat de Catalunya (SGR2021-2024). Peer reviewed 2024-01-30T14:02:33Z 2024-01-30T14:02:33Z 2023-11-25 artículo Science of the Total Environment 901: 165887 (2023) 0048-9697 http://hdl.handle.net/10261/344477 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.165887 1879-1026 en #PLACEHOLDER_PARENT_METADATA_VALUE# info:eu-repo/grantAgreement/AEI/Plan Estatal de Investigación Científica y Técnica y de Innovación 2017-2020/RTI2018-095037-B-I00/ES/RESISTENCIA, RESILIENCIA Y REFORESTACION DE LOS ENCINARES DEL SISTEMA IBERICO EN UN CONTEXTO DE CAMBIO GLOBAL/ Publisher's version The underlying dataset has been published as supplementary material of the article in the publisher platform at https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.165887 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.165887 Sí open application/pdf Elsevier |
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Aridity Drought Ecosystem stability Forest structure Holm oak Resilience Aridity Drought Ecosystem stability Forest structure Holm oak Resilience |
spellingShingle |
Aridity Drought Ecosystem stability Forest structure Holm oak Resilience Aridity Drought Ecosystem stability Forest structure Holm oak Resilience Moreno de las Heras, Mariano Bochet, E. Vicente Serrano, Sergio M. Espigares, T. Molina, M. J. Monleón, Vicente Nicolau, J. M. Tormo, Jaume García-Fayos, P. Drought conditions, aridity and forest structure control the responses of Iberian holm oak woodlands to extreme droughts: A large-scale remote-sensing exploration in eastern Spain |
description |
Understanding how Mediterranean forests respond to the increasing frequency of extreme droughts and forest densification is crucial for effective land management in the present context of climate change and land abandonment. We study the responses of Iberian holm oak (Quercus ilex L.) woodlands to recent extreme droughts during 2000–2019 along broad gradients of climate aridity and forest structure. To this purpose, we apply large-scale remote-sensing using MODIS EVI as a primary production proxy in 5274 Q. ilex sites distributed within a 100,000 km2 region in eastern Spain. These woodlands were extensively affected by two extreme drought events in 2005 and 2012. Resistance, assessed as the capacity of the ecosystems to maintain primary production during drought, was significantly lower for semi-arid than for sub-humid and dry-transition conditions. Holm oak woodlands located in semi-arid areas of the region showed also poorer resilience to drought, characterized by low capacity to fully recover to their pre-drought production levels. Further, drought intensity and both pre- and post-drought hydric conditions controlled the variations of resistance, recovery and resilience between the two analyzed extreme drought events. Drought effects were particularly negative for dense Q. ilex stands under semi-arid climate conditions, where strong competition for scarce water resources reduced drought resistance. The observed drought vulnerability of semi-arid holm oak woodlands may affect the long-term stability of these dry forests. Adaptive management strategies, such as selective forest thinning, may be useful for improving drought responses in these more vulnerable semi-arid woodlands. Conversely, natural rewilding may more appropriately guide management actions for more humid areas, where densely developed Q. ilex woodlands show in general a high ability to maintain ecosystem primary production during drought. |
author2 |
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España) |
author_facet |
Ministerio de Ciencia, Innovación y Universidades (España) Moreno de las Heras, Mariano Bochet, E. Vicente Serrano, Sergio M. Espigares, T. Molina, M. J. Monleón, Vicente Nicolau, J. M. Tormo, Jaume García-Fayos, P. |
format |
artículo |
topic_facet |
Aridity Drought Ecosystem stability Forest structure Holm oak Resilience |
author |
Moreno de las Heras, Mariano Bochet, E. Vicente Serrano, Sergio M. Espigares, T. Molina, M. J. Monleón, Vicente Nicolau, J. M. Tormo, Jaume García-Fayos, P. |
author_sort |
Moreno de las Heras, Mariano |
title |
Drought conditions, aridity and forest structure control the responses of Iberian holm oak woodlands to extreme droughts: A large-scale remote-sensing exploration in eastern Spain |
title_short |
Drought conditions, aridity and forest structure control the responses of Iberian holm oak woodlands to extreme droughts: A large-scale remote-sensing exploration in eastern Spain |
title_full |
Drought conditions, aridity and forest structure control the responses of Iberian holm oak woodlands to extreme droughts: A large-scale remote-sensing exploration in eastern Spain |
title_fullStr |
Drought conditions, aridity and forest structure control the responses of Iberian holm oak woodlands to extreme droughts: A large-scale remote-sensing exploration in eastern Spain |
title_full_unstemmed |
Drought conditions, aridity and forest structure control the responses of Iberian holm oak woodlands to extreme droughts: A large-scale remote-sensing exploration in eastern Spain |
title_sort |
drought conditions, aridity and forest structure control the responses of iberian holm oak woodlands to extreme droughts: a large-scale remote-sensing exploration in eastern spain |
publisher |
Elsevier |
publishDate |
2023-11-25 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10261/344477 |
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