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The decreased competition in expanding versus mature juniper woodlands is counteracted by adverse climatic effects on growth

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Abstract

World-wide deforestation is being reversed in Mediterranean continental areas, where abandonment of traditional practises favours the expansion of valuable habitats, like Juniperus thurifera woodlands. We hypothesised that pre-existing trees facilitate establishment in expanding woodlands, whereas in mature woodlands, competition leads to patch disaggregation. We compared the imprint of these processes on growth, demographic and spatial structure of expanding and mature J. thurifera woodlands. We selected plots where we geopositioned, aged and quantified the morphological characteristics of all trees. In the mature woodland, trees arranged in clumps and randomly in the expanding woodland. Competition negatively affected growth, was greater in the mature woodland and led to disaggregation of juvenile clumps. Differences in growth between the mature and the expanding woodland disappeared in climatically unfavourable years, suggesting that adverse climate constrains growth more in expanding than in mature woodlands. We suggest that change in the dispersal agents and a decrease of facilitation underlay differences in spatial patters between the expanding and the mature woodland. Observed effective recruitment in less than 30 years into the expanding woodland evidenced that propagule arrival and sapling survival do not constrain woodland expansion. Furthermore, growth of juveniles established in these new areas is favoured by reduced intra-specific competition. However, we expect growth in expanding woodlands to be negatively impacted by climate change. We conclude that under current global change scenario, conservation of J. thurifera woodlands is favoured by changes in land use, but greater frequency and severity of drier than usual episodes could hamper natural reforestation.

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Acknowledgments

Founding was provided by the Spanish Ministry for Innovation and Science [grants Consolider Montes (CSD2008_00040), VULGLO (CGL2010-22180-C03-03) and ISLAS (CGL2009-13190-C03-01/BOS)], the Community of Madrid and the European Social Founding [programme REMEDINAL 2 (CMS2009/AMB-1783)] and the European Community [programme BACCARA (FP7/2007-2013-226299)]. We thank Christian Messier and all the staff from the Centre d’Études de la Forêt (CÉF-UQÀM, Montréal, Canada) where wood-core samples measurement was done. Thanks to the Centro Nacional de Información Geográfica for the aerial images, to Jesús J. Camarero, José M. Iriondo, Juan C. Linares, Marcelino De la Cruz, Sonia G. Rabasa and Virginia Sanz-Pérez for their advice during experimental design and data analyses.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratorio Internacional de Cambio Global (LINC-Global), Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, MNCN, CSIC, Serrano 115 dpdo., 28006, Madrid, Spain

    Teresa E. Gimeno, Beatriz Pías, Jesús Martínez-Fernández, David L. Quiroga & Fernando Valladares

  2. Departamento de Biología y Geología, ESCET, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Tulipán s/n, 28933, Móstoles, Spain

    Teresa E. Gimeno, Adrián Escudero & Fernando Valladares

  3. Departamento de Botánica, Universidad Complutense de Madrid, José Antonio Novais 2, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Beatriz Pías

  4. Centro de Investigación Forestal, CIFOR-INIA, Crta. de la Coruña km 7, 28040, Madrid, Spain

    Jesús Martínez-Fernández

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  1. Teresa E. Gimeno
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  2. Beatriz Pías
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Correspondence to Teresa E. Gimeno.

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Communicated by U. Berger.

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Gimeno, T.E., Pías, B., Martínez-Fernández, J. et al. The decreased competition in expanding versus mature juniper woodlands is counteracted by adverse climatic effects on growth. Eur J Forest Res 131, 977–987 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-011-0569-2

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