Verónica Cruz-Alonso

• PhD
• PostDoc Position at Complutense University of Madrid

Forest area is increasing in temperate biomes through active and passive restoration of old fields. Despite the large extension of restored forests, the success of contrasting restoration strategies (active – planted forests ‐ vs. passive – secondary forests ‐) over time has never been evaluated in Mediterranean forests. We studied how restoration...

Recovery of Mediterranean forests after field abandonment is a slow process, even without propagule limitations. This is mainly due to stressful conditions for seedling establishment. In this context, shrubs play a critical role in facilitating tree recruitment, but how this process unfolds after field abandonment is not entirely known. We evaluate...

Context The current expansion of forests in Europe is expected to be affected by transient colonization credits (i.e. species deficits compared to long-established forests), especially due to plant species with limited dispersal ability. Objectives We aimed to disentangle the role of forest connectivity and climatic aridity in the assembly of wood...

In recent decades there has been an increasing demand by ecologists for harmonized climatic data at large spatial scales and spanning long periods. Here we present easyclimate, a software package to obtain daily climatic data at high resolution (0.0083º, ~1 km) with R. The package facilitates the downloading and processing of precipitation, minimum...

The declaration of the United Nations Decade on Ecosystem Restoration 2020‐2030 has established the need to focus on human rights in restoration initiatives, including gender equality. Although this goal raises a need to monitor gender biases on ecosystem restoration, we still lack basic gender information and evaluations on the current situation....

Aim: Climate change is driving increasingly frequent and intense extreme climatic events, pushing many forests worldwide beyond their physiological thresholds. Despite the major role played by forests in the global carbon cycle, climate change threatens the future potential for carbon sequestration in forests. Hence, studies of recent changes in st...

Climate change is one of the main challenges that human societies are currently facing. Given that forests represent major natural carbon sinks in terrestrial ecosystems, administrations worldwide are launching broad‐scale programs to promote forests, including stands of non‐native trees. Yet, non‐native trees may have profound impacts on the funct...

International commitments are challenging countries to restore their degraded lands, particularly forests. These commitments require global assessments of recovery timescales and trajectories of different forest attributes to inform restoration strategies. We use a meta-chronosequence approach including 125 forest chronosequences to reconstruct pas...

ECOSISTEMAS consolidates its commitment to an open and fair publishing system and moves towards its internationalization

Acknowledgement to reviewers and guest editors of ECOSISTEMAS in the year 2023

Exotic species have been introduced in afforestation and reforestation initiatives worldwide. Climate change, including increased aridity and extreme events, can promote the spread of exotic species used in forest plantations while hampering the performance of natives. Evaluating whether climate change may affect the success of biological invasions...

Context Global change is leading to more frequent and intense tree damage and mortality events. Drought-induced tree mortality is occurring worldwide leading to broad-scale events, but the spatial patterns of tree damage and mortality, their underlying drivers and their variation over time is largely unknown. Objectives We investigated the spatial...

Key message Above 40° N/S, increasing latitude is linked to greater post-fire tree regeneration. However, species dominance shifts from conifers to short-lived deciduous trees, which may negatively impact flora, fauna, and ecosystem services dependent on coniferous forests. These results were primarily driven by studies from North America, highligh...

Los incendios forestales pueden impedir la regeneración forestal en ciertos ecosistemas sensibles. Los bosques de latitudes altas podrían ser particularmente vulnerables al fracaso de la regeneración arbórea post-incendio debido a sus estaciones de crecimiento cortas, sus duras condiciones ambientales y su baja diversidad de árboles. Esta revisión...

Oak (Quercus spp.) colonization is a slow process especially in Mediterranean environments, with apparent important differences among species. We do not know the magnitude of differences in colonization of oak species in the Iberian Peninsula and how these differences are driven by interacting abiotic (e.g., drought) and biotic (e.g., seed dispersa...

Non-native trees may have significant impacts on the carbon sink capacity of forested lands. However, large-scale patterns of the relative capacity of native and non-native forests to uptake and store carbon remain poorly described in the literature, and this information is urgently needed to support management decisions. In this study, we analyzed...

Questions: What is the role of native and domestic herbivores in native-alien vegetation changes in sub-Antarctic forests? Does herbivory suppression increase native while reducing alien species diversity? Location: Central-eastern Tierra del Fuego Island, Argentina Methods: In four sites, we set up three different treatments, i.e. excluded grazing...

Context Land-use and climate change are leading to more frequent and intense tree damage and mortality events. Drought-induced tree mortality is occurring worldwide leading to broad-scale events, but the spatial patterns of tree damage and mortality, their underlying drivers and their variation over time is largely unknown. Objectives We investiga...

Periodic flooding limits livestock farming on cattle ranches in floodable areas. In order to propose recommendations for sustainable management of these ranches, we examined the relationships between surface water hydrological processes (infiltration and evaporation) and vegetation cover in the Paraguayan Humid Chaco. A total of 24 evaporation and...

Ecological restoration actions are increasing globally to mitigate forest ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss. However, restored forests do not commonly recover pre-disturbance levels of structure, functions or services. One of the obstacles for forest restoration success may be our limited understanding of their recovery process at large t...

tring and easyclimate: two R packages to analyze long-term responses of forest ecosystems

Los árboles trasmochos son árboles con una morfología particular, producidos por podas especiales y repetidas en el tiempo. A pesar de que existen trasmochos con diferentes formas, en los bosques de hoy en día los identificamos como árboles de gran tamaño cuya ramificación se origina a una altura relativamente baja. Las hayas trasmochas son las más...

Since the mid‐20th Century, Europe has experienced an unprecedented forest expansion associated with the abandonment of rural landscapes. Secondary forests may provide relevant ecosystem services such as landscape defragmentation, biodiversity conservation, control of hydrological cycling and carbon sequestration. Secondary forests may benefit from...

Climate and forest structure are considered major drivers of forest demography and productivity. However, recent evidence suggests that the relationships between climate and tree growth are generally non‐stationary (i.e., non‐time‐stable), and it remains uncertain whether the relationships between climate, forest structure, demography and productiv...

Restoration ecology is a young scientific discipline with limitations that compromise the recovery of ecosystem biodiversity and functions. Specifically for forest restoration planning and assessment, we first recommend measures prior to land use changes to deal with the common lack of efforts to anticipate and plan restoration. Second, we suggest...

The data includes the maximum height, wood density, leaf mass per area and seed mass of 60 vegetal species. The data is associated with the Journal of Applied Ecology publication "Long-term recovery of multifunctionality in Mediterranean forests depends on restoration strategy and forest type"

In order to obtain necessary information to promote ecosystem-based management strategies, ecosystem services were assessed in a cattle rangeland in the Paraguayan Humid Chaco. Carbon sequestration in forest biomass, carbon sequestration in wetlands soil, water quality in wetlands, functional connectivity of forest islets, economic valuation of a s...

We describe research on infiltration and evaporation in the South American humid chaco, mostly to contribute in recommendations for restoration of hydrologic processes.It attends the current productive rangeland management context with alternatives for revegetation and biodiversity conservation.

Se presenta una iniciativa de investigación y producción en el Chaco húmedo de Paraguay, llevada a cabo por el Centro de Investigación del Chaco Americano. El objetivo es la búsqueda de una producción ganadera rentable y sostenible, que permita la conservación, sirva como base para la restauración ecológica y la gestión de recursos hídricos y, a la...

En este trabajo se presenta un prototipo de infiltrómetro inundador mejorado de anillo simple (Infiltest). Comprende una serie de elementos que facilitan la realización de mediciones en campo. Además, el gasto de agua es reducido y el coste del propio aparato económico. Consta de un cilindro de metacrilato, sujeto mediante un cilindro de acero que...

Las laderas de la cuenca alta del río Corneja (Ávila), hasta hace unos ciento cincuenta años, estu-vieron cubiertas por bosques densos de encina y roble. Pero su gestión tradicional tuvo como resul-tado su destrucción prácticamente completa, debido a aprovechamientos irracionales de leña y madera, roturaciones, sobrepastoreo e incendios, fundamenta...