Fernando Ojeda

Universidad de Cádiz | UCA · Department of Biology

Tree plantations are considered as a solution to reduce the impacts of climate change and can enhance biodiversity. Consequently, many tree planting schemes around the world have been started to achieve these dual objectives. However, many of these tree plantations are being implemented without proper design or post‐plantation management, often ove...

In most ecosystems, the increasingly strong effects of climate change on biodiversity co-occur with other anthropogenic pressures, most importantly land-use change. However, many long-term studies of population dynamics focus on populations monitored in protected areas, and our understanding of how climate change will affect population persistence...

Planting three billion trees to capture carbon and seeking measures to reverse pollinator decline are two key pledges of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. Although planting trees could be adequate to restore biodiversity in degraded landscapes and mitigate anthropogenic carbon emissions, it can also negatively impact biodiversity of naturally...

Ambiguous information on conservation actions threatens biodiversity. Communication between science, practice, and diffusion is critical.

The Mediterranean heath or herriza is a representative habitat of the Strait of Gibraltar region. It constitutes the southernmost representative of the European dry heath, habitat of community interest (HIC) 4030, and the one with the greatest botanical richness and uniqueness. Due to its plant diversity and its striking flowering, the herriza is a...

Jornada sobre la Herriza: Valores y amenazas de un hábitat olvidado. Con el objetivo de establecer el primer foro de intercambio de conocimiento y debate sobre la ecología y biodiversidad de este hábitat, el pasado 15 de abril de 2023, investigadores del grupo FEBIMED (https://www.febimed.org) de la Universidad de Cádiz celebraron la I Jornada sobr...

Herriza es el nombre con el que se conoce en la provincia de Cádiz al brezal seco europeo (HIC4030). Se trata de un hábitat arbustivo distribuido por toda la Europa atlántica, frecuente en las cumbres y crestas de areniscas de la región del estrecho de Gibraltar, donde destaca por sus elevados niveles de biodiversidad. La función de esta guía es la...

The growing demand for timber and the boom in massive tree-planting programs could mean the spreading of mismanaged tree plantations worldwide. Here, we apply the concept of ecological intensification to forestry systems as a viable biodiversity-focused strategy that could be critical to develop productive, yet sustainable, tree plantations. Tree p...

For many species, facilitation can result in transient species coexistence, but subsequent competition can limit long-term coexistence. Adaptive phenotypic variation in response to increased competition following facilitation, however, could be a means of prolonging coexistence, although this hypothesis remains largely unexplored. Resprouting shrub...

Context It has been proposed that the distribution of resprouter and seeder Erica in the Cape Floristic Region (CFR) of South Africa is determined by drought rather than by fire frequency. Seedlings of Erica seeders are predicted to withstand the mild droughts of the southwest CFR better than those of Erica resprouters, which would account for the...

Calluna vulgaris (Ericaceae) is the most widespread and prevalent woody species of the European dry heathland, from the African side of the Strait of Gibraltar to northern Europe. However, previous biogeographic analyses of this species have ignored the western Mediterranean region, despite its preponderant role as a major glacial refugium for Euro...

Erica australis plants have been used in infusions and folk medicine for years for its diuretic and antiseptic properties and even for the treatment of infections. In addition, a recently published thorough study on this species has demonstrated its antioxidant, antibiotic, anti-inflammatory, anticarcinogenic and even antitumoral activities. These...

Most carnivorous plants show a conspicuous separation between flowers and leaf-traps, which has been interpreted as an adaptive response to minimize pollinator-prey conflicts which will reduce fitness. Here, we used the carnivorous subshrub Drosophyllum lusitanicum (Drosophyllaceae) to explore if and how carnivorous plants with minimal physical sep...

Some fire ecology studies that have focused on garrigue-like vegetation suggest a weak selective pressure of fire in the Mediterranean Basin compared to other Mediterranean-type regions. However, fire-prone Mediterranean heathland from the western end of the Mediterranean Basin has been frequently ignored in the fire ecology literature despite its...

The Andalusian roe deer (Capreolus capreolus var. garganta) is a medium-sized ungulate species whose unique biological features and protected, red-listed status have made it a highly prized hunting trophy. This game species is relatively abundant in forest ecosystems of southern Spain (province of Cádiz), at the European side of the Strait of Gibra...

Drosophyllaceae is the only plant family endemic to the Mediterranean Floristic Region. It includes a single species, the carnivorous Drosophyllum lusitanicum, which is hypothesised to be a relict plant. Our aim here is to reconstruct the evolutionary history of Drosophyllum to evaluate whether the African-European disjunction across the Strait of...

From a western society’s perspective, wildfires are catastrophic events that jeopardise biodiversity and cause soil erosion, not to mention risk to human lives and properties. However, many Mediterranean-type ecosystems are not only resilient to wildfires but sensitive to the lack of wildfires. This communication focuses on the Mediterranean heathl...

The South African Cape fynbos heath Erica coccinea subsp. coccinea is polymorphic for post-fire regeneration mode (seeder/resprouter), flower colour (red/yellow), flowering time (summer-autumn/winter-spring), as well as anther size. These polymorphisms tend to occur between, rather than within, populations. Here, we aimed to understand flower colou...

Background and aims: Little is known about the evolutionary and ecological drivers of carnivory in plants, particularly for those terrestrial species that do not occur in typical swamp or bog habitats. The Mediterranean endemic Drosophyllum lusitanicum (Drosophyllaceae) is one of very few terrestrial carnivorous plant species outside of Australia...

RESUMEN Drosophyllum lusitanicum (Drosophyllaceae) es una planta carnívora endémica del brezal mediterráneo del oeste de la península ibérica y norte de África (herriza), especialmente presente en Portugal y España (principalmente en la región del estrecho de Gibraltar). Esta especie es el paradigma de singularidad de la herriza por su rareza geogr...

In ecosystems subject to regular canopy fires, woody species have evolved two general strategies of post‐fire regeneration. Seeder species are killed by fire and populations regenerate solely by post‐fire recruitment from a seed bank. Resprouter species survive fire and regenerate by vegetative regrowth from protected organs. Interestingly, the abu...

Background: Heathlands are relatively abundant in the landscape of the western Mediterranean region, especially in the Strait of Gibraltar region, where it is locally known as herriza. They are associated with a mild Mediterranean climate regime and with acid, nutrient-poor soils. They harbour a high plant diversity, often viewed as a consequence o...

The recent catastrophic wildfires in Portugal and Chile shared similar features, not just because they developed under extreme weather conditions but also because extensive forest plantations were involved. Dense forest plantations of flammable pine and eucalypt species favor the development of high-intensity large fires, threatening people and the...

In fire-prone ecosystems, many plant species have specialized mechanisms of seed dormancy that ensure a successful recruitment after fire. A well-documented mechanism is the germination stimulated by fire-related cues, such as heat shock and smoke. However, less is known about the role of inhibitory germination signals (e.g. allelopathy) in regulat...

Disturbance interactions Drosophyllum lusitanicum elasticities environmental drivers integral projection models (IPM) livestock disturbance quasi-extinction stochastic population growth rate (log λs)

Many plants in fire-prone ecosystems produce seeds that are cued to germinate after fire. However, fire is not uniform in the landscape, and there are often refugia where fire does not reach, like rocky outcrops or moist valleys. Erica coccinea, a heath shrub from the South African fynbos, has two distinct pyrophyte forms (a resprouter and a seeder...

Erica australis and Erica arborea are morphologically and ecologically similar heather species. Erica australis is restricted to the western Mediterranean Basin where it overlaps with the westernmost distribution of E. arborea. Here we investigate the role of the Strait of Gibraltar (SG) as a potential biogeographical barrier to dispersal and/or as...

Fire is a topical issue in the management of many ecosystems globally that face a drying climate. Understanding the role of fire in such ecosystems is critical to inform appropriate management practices, particularly in the case of rare and ecologically specialised species. The Mediterranean heathlands are highly fire-prone and occur in a biodivers...

Question Does the number and relative abundance of sandstone specialist woody species in Mediterranean heathland ( herriza ) communities of the Strait of Gibraltar decrease with increasing sandstone patch isolation? If so, does this reduction suggest deterministic (ecological filtering) or random (ecological drift) effects? Location Strait of Gibr...

Quantifying interactive effects of environmental drivers on population dynamics can be critical for a robust analysis of population viability. Fire regimes, among the most widespread disturbances driving population dynamics, are increasingly modified by and interact with human activities. However, viability of fire‐adapted species is typically asse...

Background and aims: In a cost-benefit framework, plant carnivory is hypothesized to be an adaptation to nutrient-poor soils in sunny, wetland habitats. However, apparent exceptions to this cost-benefit model exist, although they have been rarely studied. One of these exceptions is the carnivorous subshrub Drosophyllum lusitanicum, which thrives i...

Bayesian models Integral Projection Models stochastic demography

Dormant life stages are often critical for population viability in stochastic environments, but accurate field data characterizing them are difficult to collect. Such limitations may translate into uncertainties in demographic parameters describing these stages, which then may propagate errors in the examination of population-level responses to env...

Post-fire recruitment by seeds is regarded as an adaptive response in fire-prone ecosystems. Nevertheless, little is known about which heritable seed traits are functional to the main signals of fire (heat and smoke), thus having the potential to evolve. Here, we explored whether three seed traits (pubescence, dormancy and shape) and fire regime mo...

Interactive effects of fire cues and seed pubescence on the percentage of survival of H. aromaticum populations. Crosses represent plant individuals and there is one regression line per population (with different colours). Population codes in the box are in decreasing order of fire frequency (see codes in Fig 1 legend). (TIF)

Interactive effects of fire cues and seed shape (length-to-width ratio) on the percentage of survival of H. aromaticum populations. Crosses represent plant individuals and there is one regression line per population (with different colours). Population codes in the box are in decreasing order of fire frequency (see codes in Fig 1 legend). (TIF)

Relationship between the level of dormancy of H. aromaticum populations and the percentage of germination after fire cues (80°C, 100°C and smoke). Crosses represent plant individuals and there is one regression line per population (with different colours). Population codes in the box are in decreasing order of fire frequency (see codes in Fig 1 leg...

Interactive effects of fire cues and fire frequency on the percentage of survival of H. aromaticum populations. Dots represent the mean value of populations and error lines are 2SE. There is one regression line per treatment (different colours). (TIF)

Excel file with the raw data. (XLS)

Description of the 10 study sites, located in the Metropolitan County (Central Chile) and where the seeds of H. aromaticum were collected. (a) Number of fires per year, in 26 years (extracted from Gómez-González et al. 2011). (b) Personal observation of land owners and managers in relation to the fire history of the sites (modified from Gómez-Gonzá...

Correlation matrix for the seed traits included in the phenotypic selection analysis. Significant correlations between traits are highlighted in bold (P < 0.05). There is no colinearity between pairs of traits (r< 0.8 in all cases, Pearson correlations, n = 67 individuals). (DOC)

The genus Erica represents the epitome of plant biodiversity in the South African Cape fynbos with over 700 species. This genus is composed of seeder and resprouter species, but both species diversity and endemism are strongly linked to the seeder habit and concentrated in the southwestern Cape Floristic Region (CFR). Erica coccinea is a relatively...

Reproductive biology of carnivorous plants has largely been studied on species that rely on insects as pollinators and prey, creating potential conflicts. Autogamous pollination, although present in some carnivorous species, has received less attention. In angiosperms, autogamous self-fertilization is expected to lead to a reduction in flower size,...

A higher frequency of natural selection is expected in populations of organisms with shorter generation times. In fire-prone ecosystems, populations of seeder plants behave as functionally semelparous populations, with short generation times compared to populations of resprouter plants, which are truly iteroparous. Therefore, a stronger signature o...

Fire-prone Mediterranean heathlands are biodiversity hotspots and home to a multitude of fire-dependent species. Fire-suppression policies worldwide have increased the risk of extinction of such species or have delegated relative prominence to other disturbances. This study explores how such a substitution of disturbances can alter the realized nic...

• Carnivorous plants have unusually modified leaves to trap insects as an adaptation to low-nutrient environments. Disparate mechanisms have been suggested as luring traits to attract prey insects into their deadly leaves, ranging from very elaborate to none at all. Drosophyllum lusitanicum is a rare carnivorous plant with a common flypaper-trap me...

Mediterranean heathlands or herrizas show one of the highest levels of plant diversity within the Strait of Gibraltar. This plant community is also characterized by a high number of pyrophytic species whose seed germination is triggered by fire cues. Thus, the age of theses populations would be in accordance with time since last fire. This study an...

AimAlthough all five of the major mediterranean-climate ecosystems (MCEs) of the world are recognized as loci of high plant species diversity and endemism, they show considerable variation in regional-scale richness. Here, we assess the role of stable Pleistocene climate and Cenozoic topography in explaining variation in regional richness of the gl...

Background/Question/Methods The stress-gradient hypothesis predicts that facilitation becomes a more frequent process in community interactions as abiotic stress increases. However, debate exists as to whether, at high levels of stress, competition remains prominent. We address this question using Drosophyllum lusitanicum (L.) Link (Drosophyllace...

Many habitat specialist species are originally composed of small, discontinuous populations because their habitats are naturally fragmented or patchy. They may have suffered the long-term effects of natural patchiness. Mediterranean heathlands, a representative habitat in the Strait of Gibraltar region, are associated with nutrient-poor, acidic san...

High diversification of woody seeder lineages is characteristic of the south-western cape floristic region (CFR), South Africa, which has been explained as a consequence of its mild Mediterranean climate and reliable winter rainfall. Such climatic regime reduces the risk of post-fire recruitment failure, acting as an ecological filter that favours...

CONTENTS: I. II. III. IV. V. VI. VII. VIII. References SUMMARY: Resprouting as a response to disturbance is now widely recognized as a key functional trait among woody plants and as the basis for the persistence niche. However, the underlying mechanisms that define resprouting responses to disturbance are poorly conceptualized. Resprouting ability...

The higher growth rates of resprouting shoots compared with those of mature plants in resprouter woody species are supported by higher rates of photosynthesis and transpiration. In this contribution we hypothesize that species with higher resprouting vigour will show a larger enhancement of photosynthesis in resprouting shoots. We test this hypothe...

Resprouting woody plants are vulnerable to large mammal herbivores in the early stages of regeneration after disturbance (e.g., fire, slashing), because herbivory reduces the storage of below-ground starch reserves and may thus compromise regeneration success. Defence from herbivory may incur a cost to resprouter plants in terms of lengthening the...

Understanding the processes of biological diversification is a central topic in evolutionary biology. The South African Cape fynbos, one of the major plant biodiversity hotspots out of the tropics, has prompted several hypotheses about the causes of generation and maintenance of biodiversity. Fire has been traditionally invoked as a key element to...

Recurrent wildfires constitute a major selecting force in shaping the structure of plant communities. At the regional scale, fire favours phenotypic and phylogenetic clustering in Mediterranean woody plant communities. Nevertheless, the incidence of fire within a fire-prone region may present strong variations at the local, landscape scale. This st...

Enriched genomic libraries were used to isolate and characterize dinucleotide microsatellite loci in Erica coccinea, a South African Cape fynbos heath species with distinct resprouter and seeder populations. Microsatellites were required to investigate the effect of the contrasting demographic pattern driven by these two post-fire responses in the...

Plant trait information is essential for understanding plant evolution, vegetation dynamics, and vegetation responses to disturbance and management. Furthermore, in Mediterranean ecosystems, changes in fire regime may be more relevant than direct changes in climatic conditions, making the knowledge of fire‐related traits especially important. Thus...

It is generally assumed that belowground starch reserves are consumed partially and gradually after successive resprouting events in resprouter woody plants. We have explored the aboveground (biomass) and belowground (root starch) response of three species of Erica, Ericaaustralis L., Ericascoparia L., and Ericaarborea L., after different histories...

The S Iberian Peninsula and NW Africa constitute one of the main hotspots for plant biodiversity within the Mediterranean Basin. At the core of this hotspot, across the Strait of Gibraltar, lies a smaller region whose singular Cenozoic history and ecological features have created a distinct, nested sub-hotspot. In particular, an important relict fl...

The physiology and biochemistry of Phaeodactylum tricornutum have been extensively studied, and some aspects of its biology are well known. Phenotypic plasticity is probably one of its most remarkable features. Two basic morphotypes, fusiform and triradiate, can be found in natural liquid environments. Although the transformation from one morphotyp...