
Alberto VilagrosaMediterranean Center for Environmental Studies | CEAM · Joint Research Unit University of Alicante - CEAM
Alberto Vilagrosa
PhD.
Research in ecological restoration of degraded ecosystems focused on the effects of global change and extreme events
About
144
Publications
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Introduction
I conduct research in plant physiological ecology in relation to ecological restoration of degraded ecosystems.
Research lines:
A. Plant stock quality for resforestation
B. Ecological restoration of degraded Mediterranean ecosystems
C. Functional ecology of Mediterranean plants
For more information: http://avilagrosa.weebly.com/
Additional affiliations
August 2019 - November 2020
August 2016 - October 2016

Los Alamos National Security
Position
- PostDoc Position
August 2009 - August 2009
Publications
Publications (144)
Rates of tree mortality are increasing globally, with implications for forests and climate. Yet, how and why these trends vary globally remain unknown. Developing a comprehensive assessment of global tree mortality will require systematically integrating data from ground‐based long‐term forest monitoring with large‐scale remote sensing. We surveyed...
Global climate change projections highlight the Mediterranean Basin as one of the most susceptible areas to the effects of intense and prolonged droughts, as well as increasing air temperatures. Accordingly, the productivity and survival of forests in this area will depend on their ability to resist and adapt to increasingly drier conditions. Diffe...
La restauración de zonas degradadas comúnmente se inicia recuperando la cobertura vegetal mediante métodos de revegetación, los cuales se apoyan de diversas técnicas para establecer las plantas de las especies objetivo (leñosas y/o herbáceas). Además de la correcta elección de la especie y la procedencia del material de propagación, las técnicas qu...
Increasing tree species diversity in Mediterranean forests could reduce drought‐induced hydraulic impairments through improved microclimate and reduced competition for water. However, it remains unclear if and how species diversity modulates tree hydraulic functions and how impacts may shift during the growing season.
Using unmanaged Mediterranean...
Drought hardening is a nursery technique aimed to enhance early forest plantation establishment under dry conditions, which is a main limiting factors for plantation success. However, the quantitative effectiveness of drought hardening remains unclear. We conducted a meta-analysis to evaluate the influence of different factors in the effectiveness...
Southeastern Spain and other semi-arid areas of the Mediterranean are among the most aff ected by deserti fi cati on in Europe. These areas are considered biodiversity hotspots due to the great diversity of ecosystems, climate and topography, but are also characterized by extensive land use over millennia.
In additi on, the climati c characteristi...
Tree species diversity in forest ecosystems could reduce their vulnerability to extreme droughts through improved microclimate and below‐ground water source partitioning driven by contrasting species‐specific water use patterns. However, little is known about the seasonal dynamics of belowground water uptake that determine whether diversity positiv...
Heatwaves and soil droughts are increasing in frequency and intensity, leading many tree species to exceed their thermal thresholds, and driving wide‐scale forest mortality. Therefore, investigating heat tolerance and canopy temperature regulation mechanisms is essential to understanding and predicting tree vulnerability to hot droughts. We measure...
Key message
Using artificial shading in reforested seedlings is recommended for different species, irrigation levels and soil treatments in semiarid ecosystems, but the application of pork sludge and horse guano are ineffective.
Abstract
Application of irrigation, artificial shade and soil amendments can increase the survival of seedlings in plant...
The importance of mining in Europe as a key strategic
sector is undeniable. It supplies other industrial
sectors with the basic raw materials needed to produce
materials used every day.
Some industrial-scale mining activities entail deep and
long-lasting landscape transformations, especially on certain
elements of the environment, such as soil, veg...
A successful choice of post-mining restoration activities in dry climates may depend on relevant features related to topographic characteristics, hydrological processes and vegetation development, which will determine functional recovery in these ecosystems. The combination of different restoration techniques to reestablish vegetation, such as sowi...
Mixing species with contrasting resource use strategies could reduce forest vulnerability to extreme events. Yet, how species diversity affects seedling hydraulic responses to heat and drought, including mortality risk, is largely unknown.
Using open‐top chambers, we assessed how, over several years, species interactions (monocultures vs mixtures)...
Tree species diversity in forest ecosystems could reduce their vulnerability to extreme droughts through reduced belowground competition for water. However, little is known about the seasonal dynamics of belowground water uptake that determine whether diversity positively or negatively impacts tree carbon and water exchange. Using a network of 30 p...
Extensive research has been conducted on quarry restoration strategies, however, failures are still common. In arid regions such as the Mediterranean Basin, successful vegetation restoration efforts require appropriate species selection and restoration techniques that contribute to soil protection and to restoration of vegetation covert. In this co...
Tree transpiration considerably contributes to evaporative fluxes to the atmosphere in terrestrial ecosystems. Accurate transpiration quantification provides relevant information about forest water use and may benefit adaptive forest management, especially in a global change context. Tree transpiration can be measured by several methods, and sap fl...
Knowledge of how extreme drought events induce plant dieback and, eventually, plant mortality, may improve our ecosystem change forecasting according to future climate
projections, especially in Mediterranean drylands. In them, shrublands are the main vegetation communities in transition areas from a subhumid to semi-arid climate. This study
anal...
El pinar de carrasco (Pinus halepensis) es una de las formaciones vegetales más
abundantes en la cuenca mediterránea. Sin embargo, presenta escenarios de
vulnerabilidad respecto a perturbaciones como el fuego y la sequía prolongada que,
además, se verán acentuados en las próximas décadas. En este informe se presenta una
revisión de la ecología de e...
Predicted climate change in the Mediterranean region has raised concerns about the possible impacts on Alphagrass (Stipa tenacissima L.) steppes. To understand the vulnerability degree and acclimation capacity of S. tenacissima populations to climate warming and the CO2 mitigation potential of Alfa steppes, we measured the physiological and morphol...
Tree transpiration considerably contributes to evaporative fluxes to the atmosphere in terrestrial ecosystems. Accurate transpiration quantification promotes the knowledge of water consumption by forests and could favour an adaptive forest management, especially in a global change context. Tree transpiration can be measured by a wide range of metho...
Monospecific pine forests are widespread due to extensive afforestation efforts and natural colonization of abandoned croplands in the Mediterranean Basin. It was originally thought that pines would facilitate the natural colonization of native late-successional resprouter species (e.g., hardwoods), but these species can be compromised if competiti...
Understanding plant trait coordination and variance across climatic gradients is critical for assessing forests’ adaptive potential to climate change. We measured eleven hydraulic, anatomical and leaf-level physiological traits in European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) along a moisture and temperature gradient in the French Alps. We assessed how trait...
Drought-related tree mortality is a global phenomenon that currently affects a wide range of forests. Key functional variables on plant hydraulics, carbon economy, growth and allocation have been identified and play a role in tree drought responses. However, tree mortality thresholds based on such variables are difficult to identify, especially und...
Adaptive forest management (AFM) is an urgent need because of the uncertainty regarding how changes in the climate will affect the structure, composition and function of forests during the next decades. Current research initiatives for the long-term monitoring of impacts of silviculture are scattered and not integrated into research networks, with...
Melon (Cucumis melo L.) is a crop with important agronomic interest worldwide. Because of the increase of drought and salinity in many cultivation areas as a result of anthropogenic global warming, the obtention of varieties tolerant to these conditions is a major objective for agronomical improvement. The identification of the limiting factors for...
Background
Salt stress is one of the main constraints determining crop productivity, and therefore one of the main limitations for food production. The aim of this study was to characterize the salt stress response at the physiological and molecular level of different Broccoli (Brassica oleracea L. var. Italica Plenck) cultivars that were previousl...
Water scarcity is the main limiting factor for Mediterranean pine forests and its availability conditions both forest functionality and ecosystem services. In a global change context, the predicted increments in aridity in these areas render the need for in-depth ecohydrological knowledge. In this chapter, we review the main functional characterist...
Broccoli is a cruciferous crop rich in health-promoting metabolites. Due to several factors, including anthropogenic global warming, aridity is increasing in many cultivation areas. There is a great demand to characterize the drought response of broccoli and use this knowledge to develop new cultivars able to maintain yield under water constraints....
Minimum water potential (Ψmin) is a key variable for characterizing dehydration tolerance and hydraulic safety margins (HSMs) in plants. Ψmin is usually estimated as the absolute minimum tissue Ψ experienced by a species, but this is problematic because sample extremes are affected by sample size and the underlying probability distribution.
We comp...
Open-pit mining results in profound modifications at different environmental scales that
may persist for very long time periods, or even indefinitely. Considerable research efforts in mine
reclamation strategies have been made, although reclamation failures are still common. In dry
climates, such as in the Mediterranean Basin, successful actions ma...
Plant functioning and survival in drylands are affected by the combination of high solar radiation, high temperatures, low relative humidity, and the scarcity of available water. Many ecophysiological studies have dealt with the adaptation of plants to cope with these stresses in hot deserts, which are the territories that have better evoked the id...
Droughts can have strong environmental and socioeconomic impacts in the Mediterranean region, in particular for countries relying on rain-fed agricultural production, but also in areas in which irrigation plays an important role and in which natural vegetation has been modified or is subject to water stress. The purpose of this review is to provide...
Research Highlights: Seedlings of different Quercus suber L. populations and half-sib families differ in their response to multiple stressors, which may have consequences on the future distribution of this Mediterranean species. Background and Objectives: Global change will likely increase the frequency and severity of drought in drylands. Plant sp...
Cork oak (Quercus suber L.) is a suitable species for restoring Mediterranean ecosystems due to its capacity to resprout after wildfires and its economic importance for the use of cork. Several studies have focused on improving the seedling quality and abiotic conditions at the outplanting site to favour the field performance of Q. suber, however,...
Assessing differences in plant functional traits (PFTs) along climatic gradients is potentially useful for understanding variation within and across populations, and for predicting their responses to climate change. This study investigates the intraspecific variability of several PFTs in Stipa tenacissima (Alpha grass) seedlings from different popu...
Under the ongoing climate change with more frequent and prolonged drought and heat waves, the future of the forests ecosystems in the Mediterranean is unpredictable. Pinus halepensis, a native tree species forms large forests in extensive areas. Its morpho-functional characteristics show high plasticity to tolerate the variability and the severity...
Introduction:
Resprouter species, by regenerating rapidly, can maintain an optimal carbon balance and improve the resilience of ecosystems that have been disturbed or are at high risk of fire.
Objective:
To assess the effect of light availability and soil moisture on the ecophysiological variables of six resprouter species planted under cover of P...
Supplementary material
Climate models predict increasing mean temperatures and reduced precipitation for Mediterranean ecosystems already subjected to major hydrological fluctuations. Forest decline phenomena relate extreme droughts or heat waves with other organisms, e.g., insects or microorganisms acting as pests, but their role needs to be elucidated. A biotic factor...
In recent years, a big concern has arisen over large-scale climate-induced reductions on forest growth and survival (Allen et al., 2015), and their impact on the water cycle (Mekonnen & Hoekstra, 2011). Specifically, the higher drought frequency under warmer temperatures (known as "hotter-droughts" or "global change-type droughts") has been related...
Predictions of warmer droughts causing increasing forest mortality are becoming abundant, yet fewer studies have investigated the mechanisms of forest persistence. To examine the resistance of forests to warmer droughts, we used a five-year precipitation reduction (~45% removal), heat (+4°C above ambient) and combined drought and heat experiment in...
Background
Forest species ranges are confined by environmental limitations such as cold stress. The natural range shifts of pine forests due to climate change and proactive-assisted population migration may each be constrained by the ability of pine species to tolerate low temperatures, especially in northern latitudes or in high altitudes. The aim...
Forests provide many environmental services, especially those related to the water cycle. In semiarid areas where water is a limiting factor for ecosystem functioning, forested areas can have a strong impact on ground water recharge. In these areas, proper knowledge of forests’ water balance is necessary to promote management practices that may ens...
Climate warming should result in hotter droughts of unprecedented severity in this century. Such droughts have been linked with massive tree mortality and data suggest warming interacts with drought to aggravate plant performance. Yet, how forests will respond to hotter droughts remains unclear, as does the suite of mechanisms trees use to deal wit...
Identifying the degree of adaptation to particular environmental constraints at small geographical scales (e.g., intra-population variability) is particularly valuable to select plant reproductive material in restoration projects. We analyzed possible differences among progeny characteristics of Quercus coccifera L. a species of interest in forest...
Oak forests can naturally regenerate from seed or from sprouts. Both strategies result in the establishment of a tree layer, but they involve a crucial difference: i.e. regeneration from seeds affects population genetics while sprouting assures the recovery of biomass after a disturbance but it does not involve sexual reproduction. In addition the...
Oak forests can naturally regenerate from seed or from sprouts. Both strategies result in the establishment of a tree layer, but they involve a crucial difference: i.e. regeneration from seeds affects population genetics while sprouting assures the recovery of biomass after a disturbance but it does not involve sexual reproduction. In addition the...
Resumen. Las proyecciones del cambio climático indican que en el área mediterránea se producirá un aumento en la frecuencia de sequías extremas, lo que causará impactos en sus masas forestales y en los servicios ecosistémicos que estas prestan. En los últimos años se han registrado eventos de decaimiento y mortalidad asociados a fuertes sequías, lo...
Mediterranean plants are subjected to high levels of drought stress during summer periods and, in some cases, dry conditions surpass security levels producing xylem cavitation. One of the key questions when analyzing the capacity of survival is: what is the capacity to recover xylem functionality after intense drought events with high levels of xyl...
In a climate variability context, knowledge about Alpha grass (Stipa tenacissima) seed germination and seedling establishment requirements is a key factor given the relevance of this species in wide areas of North Africa and southern Europe. Such knowledge can help to collect information about current S. tenacissima populations allowing the conserv...
Drought is one of the main constraints determining forest species growth, survival and productivity, and therefore one of the main limitations for reforestation or afforestation. The aim of this study is to characterize the drought response at the physiological and molecular level of different Pinus halepensis (common name Aleppo pine) seed sources...
Disentangling the relative impacts of precipitation reduction and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) on plant water dynamics and determining whether acclimation may influence these patterns in the future is an important challenge. Here, we report sap flux density (FD), stomatal conductance (Gs), hydraulic conductivity (KL) and xylem anatomy in piñon pine...
Tropical Andean ecosystems have been identified as very vulnerable to climate change. Changes in climatic conditions, especially drought as envisaged by climate change projections, could affect the establishment of new individuals that are responsible for ensuring the persistence of species and plant communities. The aim was to study the main morph...
The frequency and magnitude of climate extremes are expected to increase in the future according to climate change forecasts.Forest mortality is, among others, a consequence of extreme drought events caused by of the increase of temperature and the decrease of precipitation. In the last years, forest mortality induced by events of extreme drought w...
The adoption of sustainable land management strategies and practices that respond to current climate and human pressures requires both assessment tools that can lead to better informed decision-making and effective knowledge-exchange mechanisms that facilitate new learning and behavior change. We propose a learning-centered participatory approach t...
El presente trabajo consiste en el seguimiento y evaluación de los resultados de la restauración forestal ecológica realizada en la cuenca de Albatera durante los años 2003 y 2004, poniendo énfasis en la supervivencia después del verano de 2014 comparada con la supervivencia registrada en los años anteriores.
Para la toma de los datos ha sido nece...
Understanding and predicting plant response to disturbance is of paramount importance in our changing world. Resprouting ability is often considered a simple qualitative trait and used in many ecological studies. Our aim is to show some of the complexities of resprouting while highlighting cautions that need be taken in using resprouting ability to...
XIV World Forestry Congress, Durban, ZAF, 07-/09/2015 - 11/09/2015
Abstract
Key message
Pine mortality was related to water stress, which caused xylem cavitation. Hydraulic failure and carbon starvation are likely interrelated, and bark beetles attacks did not seem to be directly involved.
Abstract
Forests are extremely important for society given the many services they provide. Climate models reflect increases in...
Key message
Aleppo pine stands resilience can be increased by introducing local resprouting hardwood species. Pine density management impacts seedlings establishment by modifying resources availability and abiotic stress. Under Mediterranean conditions moderate pine density should be preferred to promote seedlings establishment.
Abstract
Context:...