Universität zu Köln

Lopez-Sanchez, Aida ORCID: 0000-0003-3857-2816, Bareth, Georg, Bolten, Andreas, Rose, Laura E., Mansfeldt, Tim, Sapp, Melanie and Linstaedter, Anja (2021). Effects of declining oak vitality on ecosystem multifunctionality: Lessons from a Spanish oak woodland. For. Ecol. Manage., 484. AMSTERDAM: ELSEVIER. ISSN 1872-7042

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Abstract

Mediterranean oak woodlands are currently facing unprecedented degradation threats from oak decline. The Iberian oak decline Seca, related to Phytophthora infection, causes crown defoliation that may adversely affect ecosystem services (ESs). We aim to improve our understanding of how Seca-induced declines in crown foliation affect the provision of multiple ecosystem services from understory vegetation. We selected holm (Quercus ilex) and cork oak (Q. suber) trees in a Spanish oak woodland and evaluated three proxies of canopy effects. One proxy (crown defoliation) solely captured Seca-dependent effects, one proxy solely captured Seca-independent effects (tree dimensions such as diameter and height), while the third proxy (tree vigor) captured overall canopy effects. We then used the best-performing proxies to assess canopy effects on key ecosystem services (ESs) such as aboveground net primary production (ANPP), grass and legume biomass, species diversity, litter decomposition rates, and a combined index of ecosystem multifunctionality. We found that both types of canopy effects (i.e. Seca-dependent and Seca-independent effects) were related, indicating that ANPP was disproportionally more affected by Seca when defoliated trees were large. Responses of other ESs were mostly not significant, although lower species diversity was found under trees with intermediate vigor. Our results underline that a Seca-related decline in canopy density triggered a homogenization of ecosystem service delivery on the ecosystem scale. The ecosystem functions (EFs) under trees of low vigor are similar to that in adjacent open microsites indicating that the presence of vigorous (i.e. old and vital) trees is critical for maintaining EFs at a landscape level. Our results also highlight the importance of quantifying not only defoliation but also tree dimensions as both factors jointly and interactively modify canopy effects on ecosystem multifunctionality.

Item Type:	Journal Article
Creators:	Creators Email ORCID ORCID Put Code Lopez-Sanchez, Aida UNSPECIFIED orcid.org/0000-0003-3857-2816 UNSPECIFIED Bareth, Georg UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Bolten, Andreas UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Rose, Laura E. UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Mansfeldt, Tim UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Sapp, Melanie UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED Linstaedter, Anja UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED UNSPECIFIED
URN:	urn:nbn:de:hbz:38-586273
DOI:	10.1016/j.foreco.2021.118927
Journal or Publication Title:	For. Ecol. Manage.
Volume:	484
Date:	2021
Publisher:	ELSEVIER
Place of Publication:	AMSTERDAM
ISSN:	1872-7042
Language:	English
Faculty:	Unspecified
Divisions:	Unspecified
Subjects:	no entry
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Keywords Language Forestry Multiple languages
URI:	http://kups.ub.uni-koeln.de/id/eprint/58627