Gazol, A. (Antonio)
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- Report on national ICP IM activities in Spain(Finnish Environment Institute, 2008) Ibañez-Gaston, R. (Ricardo); Ederra, A. (Alicia); Bermejo, R. (Raúl); Garrigó-Reixach, J. (Jordi); Gazol, A. (Antonio); Santamaria-Ulecia, J.M. (Jesús Miguel); Ariño-Plana, A.H. (Arturo Hugo)
- Different taxonomic and functional indices complement the understanding of herb-layer community assembly patterns in a southern-limit temperate forest(2022) Ibañez-Gaston, R. (Ricardo); Valerio-Galán, M. (Mercedes); Gazol, A. (Antonio); Puy, J. (Javier)The efficient conservation of vulnerable ecosystems in the face of global change requires a complete understanding of how plant communities respond to various environmental factors. We aim to demonstrate that a combined use of different approaches, traits, and indices representing each of the taxonomic and functional characteristics of plant communities will give complementary information on the factors driving vegetation assembly patterns. We analyzed variation across an environmental gradient in taxonomic and functional composition, richness, and diversity of the herb-layer of a temperate beech-oak forest that was located in northern Spain. We measured species cover and four functional traits: leaf dry matter content (LDMC), specific leaf area (SLA), leaf size, and plant height. We found that light is the most limiting resource influencing herb-layer vegetation. Taxonomic changes in richness are followed by equivalent functional changes in the diversity of leaf size but by opposite responses in the richness of SLA. Each functional index is related to different environmental factors even within a single trait (particularly for LDMC and leaf size). To conclude, each characteristic of a plant community is influenced by different and even contrasting factors or processes. Combining different approaches, traits, and indices simultaneously will help us understand how plant communities work.
- Forest growth responses to drought at short- and long-term scales in Spain: squeezing the stress memory from tree rings(2018) Ibañez-Gaston, R. (Ricardo); Granda, E. (Elena); Sanchez-Miranda, A. (Angela); Sangüesa-Barreda, G. (Gabriel); Camarero, J.J. (Julio J.); Cantero-Fariña, A. (Alejandro); Gazol, A. (Antonio); Sanchez-Salguero, R. (Raúl); Serra-Maluquer, X. (Xavier)Drought-triggered declines in forest productivity and associated die-off events have increased considerably due to climate warming in the last decades. There is an increasing interest in quantifying the resilience capacity of forests against climate warming and drought to uncover how different stands and tree species will resist and recover after more frequent and intense droughts. Trees form annual growth rings that represent an accurate record of how forest growth responded to past droughts. Here we use dendrochronology to quantify the radial growth of different forests subjected to contrasting climatic conditions in Spain during the last half century. Particularly, we considered four climatically contrasting areas where dominant forests showed clear signs of drought-induced dieback. Studied forests included wet sites dominated by silver fir (Abies alba) in the Pyrenees and beech (Fagus sylvatica) stands in northern Spain, and drought-prone sites dominated by Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) in eastern Spain and black pine (Pinus nigra) in the semi-arid south-eastern Spain. We quantified the growth reduction caused by different droughts and assessed the short-and long-term resilience capacity of declining vs. non-declining trees in each forest. In all cases, drought induced a marked growth reduction regardless tree vigor. However, the capacity to recover after drought (resilience) at short- and long-term scales varied greatly between declining and non-declining individuals. ..
- The role of canopy cover dynamics over a decade of changes in the understory of an atlantic beech-oak forest(2021) Ibañez-Gaston, R. (Ricardo); Valerio-Galán, M. (Mercedes); Gazol, A. (Antonio)The understory of temperate forests harbour most of the plant species diversity present in these ecosystems. The maintenance of this diversity is strongly dependent on canopy gap formation, a disturbance naturally happening in non-managed forests, which promotes spatiotemporal heterogeneity in understory conditions. This, in turn, favours regeneration dynamics, functioning and structural complexity by allowing changes in light, moisture and nutrient availability. Our aim is to study how gap dynamics influence the stability of understory plant communities over a decade, particularly in their structure and function. The study was carried out in 102 permanent plots (sampled in 2006 and revisited in 2016) distributed throughout a 132 ha basin located in a non-managed temperate beech-oak forest (Bertiz Natural Park, Spain). We related changes in the taxonomical and functional composition and diversity of the understory vegetation to changes in canopy coverage. We found that gap dynamics influenced the species composition and richness of the understory through changes in light availability and leaf litter cover. Species with different strategies related to shade tolerance and dispersion established in the understory following the temporal evolution of gaps. However, changes in understory species composition in response to canopy dynamics occur at a slow speed in old-growth temperate forests, needing more than a decade to really be significant.
- Seasonal precipitation and continentality drive bimodal growth in Mediterranean forests(2023) Colangelo, M. (Michele); Ibañez-Gaston, R. (Ricardo); Shisov, V. (Vladimir); Camarero, J.J. (Julio J.); Valerio-Galán, M. (Mercedes); Valeriano, C. (Cristina); Gazol, A. (Antonio); Sanchez-Salguero, R. (Raúl); Gutiérrez, E. (Emilia); Tumajer, J. (Jan); Martínez-de-Aragón, J. (Juan); Bonet, J.A. (José Antonio)Tree phenology is sensitive to climate warming and changes in seasonal precipitation. Long xylogenesis records are scarce, thus limiting our ability to analyse how radial growth responds to climate variability. Alternatively, process-based growth models can be used to simulate intra-annual growth dynamics and to better understand why growth bimodality varies along temperature and precipitation gradients. We used the Vaganov-Shashkin (VS) growth model to analyse the main climatic drivers of growth bimodality in eight trees and shrubs conifers (four pines and four junipers) across Spain. We selected eleven sites with different continentality degree and spring/autumn precipitation ratios since we expected to find pronounced bimodal growth in less continental sites with spring and autumn precipitation peaks. The VS model successfully simulated annual growth rates at all sites as a function of daily temperature and soil moisture data. Bimodal growth patterns clustered into less continental sites showing low spring/autumn precipitation ratios. This finding agrees with observed climate-growth associations showing that growth was enhanced by wet-cool winter-to-spring conditions, but also by wet autumn conditions in the most bimodal sites. We observed a stronger growth bimodality in pines compared to junipers.