Rapid recovery of the vegetation diversity and soil fertility after cropland abandonment in a semiarid oak ecosystem: An approach based on plant functional groups

Heydari, Mehdi; Zeynali, Nasim; Bazgir, Masoud; Omidipour, Reza; Kohzadian, Mehrdad; Sagar, R.; Prévosto, Bernard

doi:10.1016/j.ecoleng.2020.105963

Cited by 23 publications

(12 citation statements)

References 90 publications

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“…According to the model, the shrubland (25.2%) and rock (32.7%) classes will be major contributors to woodland expansion. This dynamic corresponds to the vegetation's natural development and will obviously be influenced by any unpredictable forest fires (Lasanta-Martínez et al 2005;Zakkak et al 2018;Heydari et al 2020).…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes on the Climatic Edge: Adaptation of and Challenges to Pastoralism in Montesinho (Northern Portugal)

Castro

Gómez‐Sal

2021

Mountain Research and Development

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Changes on the Climatic Edge: Adaptation of and Challenges to Pastoralism in Montesinho (Northern Portugal)

Castro

Gómez‐Sal

2021

Mountain Research and Development

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“…Studies that report soil quality improvement following afforestation of arable land did not consider plant diversity [23,24]. Abandonment of agricultural land presents opportunity for the recovery of soil properties related to fertility, and an increase in biodiversity with little need for active restoration and at less expense [25]. Understanding which edaphic and other environmental variables explain plant diversity under semiarid conditions, particularly in afforestation projects, could support any decision-making processes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of Afforestation on Plant Diversity and Soil Quality in Semiarid SE Spain

Segura

Jiménez

Ondoño

et al. 2021

Forests

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Farmland afforestation has been promoted in recent decades and is one of the main strategies included in the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration to recover degraded areas. However, the impacts of afforestation on plant diversity and soil quality indicators are still not well-understood in semiarid environments. In this study, we assessed the relationships between plant diversity indicators (abundance, total richness, richness by functional groups, and Shannon diversity) and a large number of variables in 48 afforestation sites in southeast Spain. We considered associated environmental factors, such as geographical, climatic or edaphic variables, age, and land-use history. We compared plant diversity and soil properties following land-use change from cereal cropping to afforestation, which is one of the most common land-use changes in Mediterranean areas. Plant diversity in afforested sites was found to be dependent on previous land use, the proximity of natural vegetation, several soil properties (texture, pH, and total nitrogen), and plantation age. Afforested soils showed higher plant diversity and an improvement in edaphic parameters related to multifunctionality in semiarid ecosystems (i.e., soil organic carbon, nitrogen, and potassium) than arable cropped soils.

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“…Two common applications of PFTs are: (i) to characterize the responses of plant communities to environmental changes, and (ii) to quantify the influence of community changes on the ecosystem processes [ 97 ]. They are used in secondary succession studies to establish differences between abandonment stages or to compare types of vegetation or flora and are more closely related to the functioning of plant communities [ 82 , 98 ].…”

Section: Species Pool Priority Effects and Species Coexistencementioning

confidence: 99%

“…A negative correlation was also found between richness and diversity in all functional groups with silt. This is because silt changes the soil pH and reduces the availability of micronutrients, zinc, manganese, and P [ 98 ].…”

Section: Chronosequencementioning

confidence: 99%

Impacts of Land-Use Changes on Vegetation and Ecosystem Functioning: Old-Field Secondary Succession

Pérez-Hernández

Gavilán

2021

Plants

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The study of ecological succession to determine how plant communities re-assemble after a natural or anthropogenic disturbance has always been an important topic in ecology. The understanding of these processes forms part of the new theories of community assembly and species coexistence, and is attracting attention in a context of expanding human impacts. Specifically, new successional studies provide answers to different mechanisms of community assemblage, and aim to define the importance of deterministic or stochastic processes in the succession dynamic. Biotic limits, which depend directly on biodiversity (i.e., species competition), and abiotic filtering, which depends on the environment, become particularly important when they are exceeded, making the succession process more complicated to reach the previous disturbance stage. Plant functional traits (PFTs) are used in secondary succession studies to establish differences between abandonment stages or to compare types of vegetation or flora, and are more closely related to the functioning of plant communities. Dispersal limitation is a PFT considered an important process from a stochastic point of view because it is related to the establishing of plants. Related to it the soil seed bank plays an important role in secondary succession because it is essential for ecosystem functioning. Soil compounds and microbial community are important variables to take into account when studying any succession stage. Chronosequence is the best way to study the whole process at different time scales. Finally, our objective in this review is to show how past studies and new insights are being incorporated into the basis of classic succession. To further explore this subject we have chosen old-field recovery as an example of how a number of different plant communities, including annual and perennial grasslands and shrublands, play an important role in secondary succession.

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Rapid recovery of the vegetation diversity and soil fertility after cropland abandonment in a semiarid oak ecosystem: An approach based on plant functional groups

Cited by 23 publications

References 90 publications

Changes on the Climatic Edge: Adaptation of and Challenges to Pastoralism in Montesinho (Northern Portugal)

Changes on the Climatic Edge: Adaptation of and Challenges to Pastoralism in Montesinho (Northern Portugal)

Effects of Afforestation on Plant Diversity and Soil Quality in Semiarid SE Spain

Impacts of Land-Use Changes on Vegetation and Ecosystem Functioning: Old-Field Secondary Succession

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