Functional diversity enhances tree growth and reduces herbivory damage in secondary broadleaf forests, but does not influence resilience to drought

Abstract

1. Since the mid-20th Century, Europe has experienced an unprecedented forest expansion associated with the abandonment of rural landscapes. Secondary forests may provide relevant ecosystem services such as landscape defragmentation, biodiversity conservation, control of hydrological cycling and carbon sequestration. 2. Secondary forests may benefit from the legacies of the former agricultural land use, and exhibit enhanced growth. Moreover, they may differ from longestablished forests in terms of tree species composition and diversity, as community composition has been less modified by succession or management. However, we lack evidence whether the effects of land use legacies on tree species diversity may also result in differences in the response of secondary forests to biotic and abiotic disturbances. 3. We aimed to evaluate the effects of land use legacies on taxonomic and functional diversity and their effects on the response of temperate broadleaf forests to drought and herbivory damage. For this aim, we compared secondary beech Fagus sylvatica forests established after 1950 in abandoned pastures with longestablished (pre-1950) forests. We calculated indices of taxonomic and functional diversity and determined mean growth and growth response of beech to two drought events (1991, 2006), and insect herbivory damage. 4. Secondary and long-established beech forests marginally differed in species richness but the former exhibited a significantly higher Shannon diversity index and evenness. Yet, differences in taxonomic diversity did not result in differences in functional diversity between forest types. 5. Mean tree growth was higher in secondary than in long-established forests and it increased with functional diversity in both forest types. However, diversity was unrelated with the growth response to drought. Insect herbivory | 2363

Addressing a potential weakness in indices of predation, herbivory, and parasitism

“…Studies on crop damage tended to focus on pests that are highly specialized on a single target taxon, for example, Dias et al (2018). Studies on other herbivores tended to examine foraging on more than a single taxon, for example, Espelta et al (2020).…”

Spontaneous forest regrowth in South‐West Europe: Consequences for nature's contributions to people

“…In the F. sylvatica case study, we selected 18 plots comparing long‐existing forests with novel ones. The assignment of individual study plots to the different forest types in both these cases was performed based on a series of aerial photographs dating back to 1950s (see Alfaro‐Sánchez et al., 2019; Espelta et al., 2020a; Villellas et al., 2020a; Supporting Information S1 for further information). Three forest stages could readily be distinguished in the J. thurifera case thanks to the large spatial dimension of its expansion, which has originated discernible ‘recolonisation waves’ spanning up to a few kilometres; such a distinction, however, was unfeasible in the F. sylvatica case, whose expansion has occurred more locally.…”

“…(2020b) https://doi.org/10.20350/digitalCSIC/12519, Espelta et al. (2020b) https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12646400.v1, in Ruiz‐Carbayo et al. (2020b) https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.rxwdbrv4v and in the Supporting Information of Valdés‐Correcher et al.…”

Caracterización fisicoquímica de material particulado del Popocatépetl, trayecto Atlixco-Puebla, y su impacto en la salud y el ambiente

“…Este riesgo se ve incrementado por el viento que se dispersa en diferentes direcciones y el número de exhalaciones del volcán Popocatépetl, el cual solo en el año 2019 fue de 9903 erupciones confirmadas (Global Volcanism Program, 2013). Estas condiciones incrementan la disponibilidad de metales que al disolverse permiten integrarse a los ciclos biológicos con efectos nocivos para las poblaciones expuestas (Espelta et al, 2020;Shruti et al, 2018).…”