Ramon Vallejo

• University of Barcelona

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...

Postfire Pinus halepensis (Aleppo pine) regeneration is often hyperdense. The overstocked stands created by this hyperdense regeneration considerably increase the risk of biotic and abiotic disturbances, especially fires, by increasing the potential for widespread forest losses. Our aim was to understand the relation between prefire site factors (c...

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...

Recurrent fires can impede the spontaneous recruitment capacity of pine forests. Empirical studies have suggested that this can lead to a prolonged replacement of pine forest by shrubland, especially if shrub species are pyrophytic. Model-based studies, however, have suggested that post-fire succession of pine forest under current climatic conditio...

Citation: Peñuelas, J.; Germain, J.; Álvarez, E.; Aparicio, E.; Arús, P.; Basnou, C.; Blanché, C.; Bonada, N.; Canals, P.; Capodiferro, M.; et al.

One of the most challenging issues in Mediterranean ecosystems to date has been to understand the emergence of discontinuous changes or catastrophic shifts. In the era of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, which encompass ideas around Land Degradation Neutrality, advancing this understanding has become even more critical and urgent. The aim of...

Recent observations suggest that repeated fires could drive Mediterranean forests to shrublands, hosting flammable vegetation that regrows quickly after fire. This feedback supposedly favours shrubland persistence and may be strengthened in the future by predicted increased aridity. An assessment was made of how fires and aridity in combination mod...

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...

Scientific bases for the elaboration of the Spanish National Strategy of Green Infraestructure

Drylands cover about 31% of the European landmass, and are the home of around 25% of its population, thereby making the lives of a substantial part of the European population directly or indirectly dependent on the wellbeing of these drylands. Research done by the European Environmental Agency (EEA), shows that especially the area around the Medite...

The report provides scientifically sound practical guidance for selecting SLM practices that help address DLDD, climate change adaptation and mitigation, and for creating an enabling environment for their large-scale implementation considering local realities. It targets a broad audience from scientists, policy makers, landowners, community stakeho...

Sustainable Land Management (SLM) represents a holistic approach to achieving long-term productive ecosystems by integrating biophysical, socio-cultural and economic needs and values. SLM is one of the main mechanisms to achieve Land Degradation Neutrality (LDN).To foster and facilitate the adoption of SLM practices that address DLDD while mitigati...

In many parts of the world, forests are likely to face novel disturbance regimes as a result of global change processes, and there is concern that the capacity of forest ecosystems to withstand, recover from, or adapt to these novel disturbance regimes may decline. Creation and maintenance of species-diverse forests is seen as an important option t...

The general objectives of our research are (1) to assess the impact of different restoration scenarios in Mediterranean ecosystems on the provision of ecosystem services, with particular attention to landscape capacity for carbon sequestration and (2) identify restoration priority scenarios in Mediterranean landscapes. The specific objective is to...

Soils from arid and semiarid zones are characterized by a low organic matter content from scarce plant biomass and it has been proposed that these soils have a big capacity to carbon sequestration. According to IPCC ARS WG2 (2014) report and WG3 draft, increase carbon storage in terrestrial ecosystems has been identified such a potential tool for m...

Pinus pinaster (maritime pine) is widely planted in the Mediterranean Basin. Maritime pine forests’ carbon stocks are dynamic because of the effect of wildfires and timber activities. Management practices offer an opportunity to mitigate climate change via increasing carbon storage in various ecosystems. In this work, we quantified carbon pools in...

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...

Fire-prone Mediterranean shrublands may be seriously threatened by land degradation due to progressive opening of the vegetation cover driven by increasing drought and fire recurrence. However, information about the consequences of this opening process for critical ecosystem functions is scant. In this work, we studied the influence of vegetation a...

Drought is often an important constraint on plant regeneration in the Mediterranean. Pistacia lentiscus is of particular interest in restoration actions in fire-prone areas. This study addressed the current knowledge gap on the physiological response of this species to drought during its initial development. We hypothesized that the seedlings would...

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:...

Several management actions are applied to restore ecosystem services in degraded Mediterranean rangelands, which range from adjusting the grazing pressure to the removal of grazers and pine plantations. Four such actions were assessed in Quercus coccifera L. shrublands in northern Greece: (1) moderate grazing by goats and sheep, (2) no grazing, (3)...

Transformational socioeconomic changes during the last decades of the 20th century led to the abandonment of mountainous areas in western Mediterranean countries (Puigdefábregas and Mendizábal, 1998). This process was accelerated in the Ayora Valley (inland Valencia province, E Spain) by a major forest fire in 1979. Restoration and management actio...

http://medpine5.ctfc.es/ Session Stand dynamics and forest management, Thursday 25 th Sept 56 Developing silvicultural methods to adapt pine forests to climate change has become a priority. Recommended management include in particular stand thinning in order to reduce competition for water and re-introduction of resprouting hardwood species to prom...

Context The use of native species in ecological restoration is highly recommended but, in practice, it is often impaired by knowledge gaps in the germination ecology of suitable species. & Aims This study aimed to assess the role of storage condi-tions and seed source on the germination of three Mediterranean shrub species with contrasting types of...

Forest fires are an intense and socially traumatic mechanism of ecosystem degradation and desertification. Mediterranean vegetation is highly adapted to fire, but this is not always enough for a proper post-fire regeneration. In these cases it is necessary to intervene and to take actions that guarantee the restoration of the burned areas. This gui...

In this study, we seeded a native plant species and applied a mulch of chopped wood originating from the same burned area to avoid the establishment of invasive species. We evaluated four treatments: (1) seeding, (2) mulch, (3) seeding and mulch, and (4) control. Our objective was to increase plant recovery and to minimize the soil erosion and degr...

The Mediterranean is a hot-spot of climate change, with projections of increased temperatures and a reduction of precipitation. In some semi-arid areas of the Mediterranean there has been a significant reduction of summer storms that bring rainfall in the driest period of the year, being crucial for many sectors (e.g. agriculture, forests, and for...

The current chapter describes the ecological context and post-fire management practices for the most important and fire-prone coniferous tree species in the Mediterranean Basin, the serotinous pine trees. The state of art about evolution, habitat and adaptive strategies of Pinus halepensis Mill, Pinus brutia Ten. and Pinus pinaster Aiton are includ...

Resumen La reforestación es uno de los métodos más ampliamente utilizados para la recuperación de los ecosistemas degradados. En ambientes mediterráneos, las limitaciones impuestas por el clima y, en algunos casos, la severidad de los procesos de degradación hacen que los resultados de las reforestaciones sean pobres. Por otro lado, el seguimiento...

Forest fires represent a major driver of change at the ecosystem and landscape levels in the Mediterranean region. Environmental features and vegetation are key factors to estimate the ecological vulnerability to fire; defined as the degree to which an ecosystem is susceptible to, and unable to cope with, adverse effects of fire (provided a fire oc...

Reforestation efforts in dryland ecosystems frequently encounter drought and limited soil productivity, although both factors usually interact synergistically to worsen water stress for outplanted seedlings. Land degradation in drylands (e.g. desertification) usually reduces soil productivity and, especially, soil water availability. In dry sub-hum...

Prevention and restoration actions to combat desertification: an integrated assessment (PRACTICE) is a support action of the European Commission Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development, which is being developed during three years since September 2009. It gathers scientists and stakeholders from several desertification...

• Context Maritime Pine forests cover important mountain areas in Portugal and are known to be a particularly fire-prone forest type. Understory composition plays an important role in maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem services after recurrent wildfires. • Aims This study aims to improve the knowledge on the germination ecology of understory sp...

IntroductionRestoration of Mediterranean-Type Woodlands and ShrublandsPerspectivesAcknowledgements

Restoration works in opencast mining are mostly done with fast-growing herbaceous species to control the erosion of embankments during rainfall, especially immediately after their construction. Such species often exhibit a high demand for water and their survival is therefore associated to an adequate hydric supply. If this fails, these species can...

This chapter sets the scene for post-fire management and restoration approaches in Southern Europe. It starts with a short overview of wildfire trends in Europe, and then introduces the main questions that need to be addressed when managing burned areas. Key concepts in restoration ecology, as well as a framework for planning post-fire restoration,...

The current chapter describes the ecological context and post-fire management practices for the most important and fire-prone coniferous tree species in the Mediterranean Basin, the serotinous pine trees. The state of art about evolution, habitat and adaptive strategies of Pinus halepensis Mill, Pinus brutia Ten. and Pinus pinaster Aiton are includ...

Wildfires may produce ecosystem damages that would require post-fire mitigation and/or restoration actions. The question is what are the criteria to identify those burned areas that show high degradation risk in order to plan and prioritise restoration projects. To address that question it is necessary to start with the analysis of fire impact, and...

Land degradation and desertification is a common feature in Mediterranean landscapes due to extensive and intensive land use and natural or man induced disturbances. The ecosystem may need external inputs to recover its composition and function as soils are often impoverished and vegetal key stone species lost. We evaluated the effects of the appli...

The ability of a fuel to burn is determined by its flammability, a property that varies from one species to another and is partially determined by different fuel structural traits such as surface-to-volume ratio of twigs and leaves, retention of standing dead twigs, canopy architecture and bulk density. Our aim was to assess the role of these fuel...

In dryland ecosystems, post-transplant water stress produces high seedling mortality after the first summer following outplanting. Our aim was to assess the effects of clay and hydrogel, both on the water holding capacity of the growing media and on various morphological and physiological characteristics of Quercus suber seedlings in the nursery an...

Question: Landscape models of fire occurrence in ecosystems assume that the time since the last fire determines vegetation flammability by enabling the accumulation of dead biomass. In this study we ask if Mediterranean basin shrublands respond to these models or, on the contrary, if initial successional stages in these ecosystems could be more fla...

Forest fires directly affect the soil surface through the increment of temperature andthe deposition of ashes. Fires also result in the reduction or elimination of abovegroundbiomass and organic layers, thereby modifying the impact of raindrops on the soil surface.The post-fire degradation risk is controlled by diverse factors, e.g. climate, pre-fi...

Postprint (published version)

In the Mediterranean Basin, most cultivated areas were abandoned in the last century and are now in various stages of old-field succession. The aim of this work was to analyse the successional trajectories of these ecosystems, and to assess possible deviations in these pathways due to fire occurrence at high or low recurrence levels. Old-fields aba...

Planting woody vegetation is frequently a first step towards the restoration of degraded drylands. Seedling establishment on unfertile soils may be favoured by applying organic amendments such as biosolids. But the outcome of such a practice is strongly dependent on the type of amendment and the application rate used. High application rates may hav...

Introduction In northern Mediterranean regions, extensive abandonment of agricultural, cattle and forest activities, together with large-scale afforestation plans, have resulted in an accumulation of flammable fuels over large parts of these landscapes, being one of the major causes of the drastic alteration of fire regimes observed in recent decad...

Drylands in the northern Mediterranean present significant challenges for efforts to preserve ecosystem services. Warming trends combined with declining and more variable summer precipitation have come with more frequent and more intense droughts, exacerbating water shortages. Depopulation from rural uplands towards urban coastal regions, with farm...

We measured plant and soil carbon (C) storage following canopy-replacing wildfires in woodlands of northeastern Spain that include an understory of shrubs dominated by Quercus coccifera and an overstory of Pinus halepensis trees. Established plant succession models predict rapid shrub recovery in these ecosystems, and we build on this model by cont...

Every year about 45 000 forest fires occur in Europe, burning half a million hectares of forests and rural lands; between 1995 and 2004, more than 4 million hectares burned in the Mediterranean Region alone. Post-fire management of burned areas has been given much lesser attention than combating or preventing fires. However, important questions rai...

The abandonment of agricultural landscapes has been a widespread phenomenon in European Mediterranean areas since the second half of the past century. Land abandonment promotes soil structuration and increases soil organic matter content, even though the abandoned lands are still affected by old degradation processes from cropping. In addition, old...

Recent advances in desertification and land degradation research have provided valuable conceptual and analytical frameworks, degradation indicators, assessment tools and surveillance systems with respect to desertification drivers, processes, and impacts. These findings, together with stakeholders’ perceptions and local/regional knowledge, have he...

Restoration of limestone quarries in the Mediterranean climate: process and evaluation The quarrying of mineral resources results in the land being excavated and in breaks in the natural landscape. Before extraction activities begin, a restoration programme must be submitted and a deposit put down. In general, the restoration process involves obtai...

Differences in morphology, biomass allocations and physiological responses were investigated in seedlings of Mastic tree (Pistacia lentiscus L.) and Cork oak (Quercus suber L.) submitted to contrasting fertilization and light regimes during early growth. These species are two evergreen sclerophyllous Mediterranean species frequently used inMediterr...

Background/Question/Methods In the last decades, in the Valencia region (eastern Spain), as in most northern Mediterranean countries, land abandonment caused profound changes in the structure and functioning of landscapes. The increase of fuel accumulation over large areas led to an increasing number of fires since the mid-1970s. This trend might...

Background/Question/Methods Fire is an important natural disturbance, shaping vegetation structure and constraining ecosystem C storage. However, in many regions fire suppression and other land management choices are leading to fire regimes that are novel to the local ecosystems. An important challenge in ecology is to understand how ecosystems va...

Uptake of (137)Cs was measured in different agricultural plant species (beans, lettuce, barley and ryegrass) grown in 5 undisturbed soil monoliths covering major European soil types. The first cultivation was made three years after soil contamination and plants were grown during 3 successive years. The plant-soil (137)Cs transfer factors varied max...

Question: What is the effect of fuel management practices in the recovery capacity of seeder‐dominated shrublands? Location: Ulex parviflorus shrubland localities in Mediterranean regions of eastern Spain. Methods: We applied prescribed burning and brush‐chipping as fuel management techniques in three young and three mature shrublands, and evaluate...

Because Mediterranean ecosystems are prone to fire, their soils are expected to contain relevant amounts of black carbon (BC); nevertheless, quantitative information is scarce. Herein, we provide data on the abundance of BC in the surface soil (uppermost 5 cm) of shrubland plots on old agricultural fields diversely affected by fires (0, 1, or 2 wil...

Ecological restoration represents an important tool for combating land degradation and increasing ecosystem resistance and resilience to disturbance, thus favoring the recovery of functions and services. Degraded drylands constitute very harsh conditions for the natural regeneration and rangeland restoration of the ecosystems. Scarcity of rainfall...

Long-term post-fire restoration not only aims to restore the ecosystem structure and function, but also endeavors to recover ecosystem fire resilience and reduce future fire propogation potential. This generally requires restoration strategies that promote secondary succession towards more mature, more resilient plant communities at a landscape sca...

The current paper presents a study on the interaction between land abandonment and soil responses to fire in old agricultural terraced landscapes. The study area, located near the Guadalest reservoir (E Spain), was partially affected by a forest fire in August 1998. We monitored burned and unburned areas as well as two pre-fire stand ages since agr...

Durante las últimas dos décadas, el grupo de investigación forestal de la Fundación CEAM y del departamento de Ecología de la Universidad de Alicante han estudiado las condiciones que afectan al comportamiento hidrológico y la erosión postincendio en los suelos forestales mediterráneos. El presente trabajo muestra las aportaciones más relevantes de...

In the last chapter of Part II the topic was passive restoration and autoregeneration, eg., through encouraging natural dispersal of acorns by animals and the subsequent colonization of trees. In Part III we address seeding and planting techniques, used for afforestation and the active restoration of cork oak woodlands. Both processes entail severa...