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Different intra‑ and interspecific facilitation mechanisms between two Mediterranean trees under a climate change scenario
- Source :
- Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC, instname
- Publication Year :
- 2015
- Publisher :
- Springer, 2015.
-
Abstract
- Received: 30 June 2014 / Accepted: 14 October 2014 / Published online: 30 October 2014<br />In harsh environments facilitation alleviates biotic and abiotic constraints on tree recruitment. Under ongoing drier climate change, we expect facilitation to increase as a driver of coexistence. However, this might not hold under extreme abiotic stress and when the outcome depends on the interaction with other drivers such as altered herbivore pressure due to land use change. We performed a field water-manipulation experiment to quantify the importance of facilitation in two coexisting Mediterranean trees (dominant Juniperus thurifera and coexisting Quercus ilex subsp. ballota) under a climate change scenario. Shifts in canopy dominance favouring Q. ilex could be based on the extension of heterospecific facilitation to the detriment of conspecific alleviation. We found that saplings of both species transplanted under the canopy of nurse trees had greater survival probability, growth and photochemical efficiency. Intra- and interspecific facilitation mechanisms differed: alleviation of abiotic stress benefited both species during summer and J. thurifera during winter, whereas browsing protection was relevant only for Q. ilex. Facilitation was greater under the dry treatment only for Q. ilex, which partially agreed with the predictions of the stress gradient hypothesis. We conclude that present rainfall availability limits neither J. thurifera nor Q. ilex establishment. Nevertheless, under current global change scenarios, imposing increasing abiotic stress together with altered herbivore browsing, nurse trees could differentially facilitate the establishment of Q. ilex due to species-specific traits, i.e. palatability; drought, heat and cold tolerance, underlying species differences in the facilitation mechanisms and eventually triggering a change from pure juniper woodlands to mixed formations.<br />Funding was provided by the Spanish Ministry for Innovation and Science with grants Consolider Montes (CSD2008_00040), VULGLO (CGL2010-22180-C03-03) and MOUNTAINS (CGL2012-8427/BOS), by the Community of Madrid and the European Social Fund with the program REMEDINAL 3 and by the European Community's 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development with grant BACCARA (FP7/2007-2013-226299).
- Subjects :
- Climate Change
Rain
Quercus ilex subsp. ballota
Photochemical efficiency
Trees
Juniperus thurifera
Quercus
Species Specificity
Stress, Physiological
Climate change scenario
Ecosystem
Herbivory
Species interactions
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Probability
Abiotic component
Herbivore
Ecology
biology
Mediterranean Region
Abiotic stress
Temperature
Water
Interspecific competition
biology.organism_classification
Droughts
Phenotype
Juniperus
Facilitation
Seasons
Subjects
Details
- Language :
- English
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Digital.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC, instname
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....fd851b64ece37aaa846142ccb976ce4e