Skip to main content

Lund University Publications

LUND UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

Delayed and altered post-fire recovery pathways of Mediterranean shrubland under 20-year drought manipulation

Liu, Daijun ; Zhang, Chao ; Ogaya, Romà ; Estiarte, Marc ; Zhang, Xiwen ; Pugh, Thomas A.M. LU and Peñuelas, Josep (2022) In Forest Ecology and Management 506.
Abstract

Increasing water deficits and severe droughts are expected to alter the dynamics of vegetation post-disturbance recovery by decreasing new recruitment and limiting growth in semi-arid Mediterranean ecosystems in future. However, which vegetation metrics will be shifted and how they respond over time are not clear, and the experimental evidence is still limited. Here we assessed the impacts of a long-term (20 years) experimental drought (−30% rainfall) on the pathways of vegetation metrics related to species richness, community composition and abundance dynamics for an early-successional Mediterranean shrubland. The results indicate that the pathways of vegetation metrics were differently affected by experimental drought. The abundance... (More)

Increasing water deficits and severe droughts are expected to alter the dynamics of vegetation post-disturbance recovery by decreasing new recruitment and limiting growth in semi-arid Mediterranean ecosystems in future. However, which vegetation metrics will be shifted and how they respond over time are not clear, and the experimental evidence is still limited. Here we assessed the impacts of a long-term (20 years) experimental drought (−30% rainfall) on the pathways of vegetation metrics related to species richness, community composition and abundance dynamics for an early-successional Mediterranean shrubland. The results indicate that the pathways of vegetation metrics were differently affected by experimental drought. The abundance of Globularia alypum follows pathway 1 (altered mature state). Simpson diversity and abundance of Erica multiflora follow pathway 2 (delayed succession) while species richness, community abundance and shrub abundance follow pathway 3 (alternative stable state). There were no significances for the resilience to extremely dry years (the ratio between the performance after and before severe events) between control and drought treatment for all vegetation metric. But, their resilience for the metrics (except Simpson diversity) to extremely dry years in 2016–17 were significantly lower than that of 2001 and of 2006–07, possibly caused by the severe water deficits in 2016–17 at mature successional stage. Principal component analysis (PCA) shows that the first two principal components explained 72.3 % of the variance in vegetation metrics. The first axis was mainly related to the changes in community abundance, shrub abundance and species richness while the second axis was related to Simpson diversity and abundance of G. alypum and E. multiflora. Principal component scores along PC1 between control and drought treatment were significantly decreased by long-term experimental drought, but the scores along PC2 were not affected. Further research should focus on successional pathways in more water-deficit conditions in Mediterranean ecosystems and the consequences of changes in vegetation recovery pathways on ecosystem functions such as biomass accumulation and soil properties.

(Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
; ; ; ; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
keywords
Abundance dynamics, Climate change, Community composition, Long-term drought experiment, Mediterranean shrublands, Species diversity, Succession pathways, Vegetation metric space
in
Forest Ecology and Management
volume
506
article number
119970
publisher
Elsevier
external identifiers
  • scopus:85121661401
ISSN
0378-1127
DOI
10.1016/j.foreco.2021.119970
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © 2021
id
9678f259-8d27-4c1c-bdae-de7ac856f896
date added to LUP
2022-01-26 10:08:20
date last changed
2022-08-17 15:44:36
@article{9678f259-8d27-4c1c-bdae-de7ac856f896,
  abstract     = {{<p>Increasing water deficits and severe droughts are expected to alter the dynamics of vegetation post-disturbance recovery by decreasing new recruitment and limiting growth in semi-arid Mediterranean ecosystems in future. However, which vegetation metrics will be shifted and how they respond over time are not clear, and the experimental evidence is still limited. Here we assessed the impacts of a long-term (20 years) experimental drought (−30% rainfall) on the pathways of vegetation metrics related to species richness, community composition and abundance dynamics for an early-successional Mediterranean shrubland. The results indicate that the pathways of vegetation metrics were differently affected by experimental drought. The abundance of Globularia alypum follows pathway 1 (altered mature state). Simpson diversity and abundance of Erica multiflora follow pathway 2 (delayed succession) while species richness, community abundance and shrub abundance follow pathway 3 (alternative stable state). There were no significances for the resilience to extremely dry years (the ratio between the performance after and before severe events) between control and drought treatment for all vegetation metric. But, their resilience for the metrics (except Simpson diversity) to extremely dry years in 2016–17 were significantly lower than that of 2001 and of 2006–07, possibly caused by the severe water deficits in 2016–17 at mature successional stage. Principal component analysis (PCA) shows that the first two principal components explained 72.3 % of the variance in vegetation metrics. The first axis was mainly related to the changes in community abundance, shrub abundance and species richness while the second axis was related to Simpson diversity and abundance of G. alypum and E. multiflora. Principal component scores along PC1 between control and drought treatment were significantly decreased by long-term experimental drought, but the scores along PC2 were not affected. Further research should focus on successional pathways in more water-deficit conditions in Mediterranean ecosystems and the consequences of changes in vegetation recovery pathways on ecosystem functions such as biomass accumulation and soil properties.</p>}},
  author       = {{Liu, Daijun and Zhang, Chao and Ogaya, Romà and Estiarte, Marc and Zhang, Xiwen and Pugh, Thomas A.M. and Peñuelas, Josep}},
  issn         = {{0378-1127}},
  keywords     = {{Abundance dynamics; Climate change; Community composition; Long-term drought experiment; Mediterranean shrublands; Species diversity; Succession pathways; Vegetation metric space}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  month        = {{02}},
  publisher    = {{Elsevier}},
  series       = {{Forest Ecology and Management}},
  title        = {{Delayed and altered post-fire recovery pathways of Mediterranean shrubland under 20-year drought manipulation}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2021.119970}},
  doi          = {{10.1016/j.foreco.2021.119970}},
  volume       = {{506}},
  year         = {{2022}},
}