TITLE:
Phytoclimatic Dynamics of Mediterranean Forests under Climate Change. A Case Study in a Southern European Pinus sylvestris L. Stand
AUTHORS:
Javier M. García-López, Carmen Allué
KEYWORDS:
Biodiversity; Complexity; Suitability; Competition; Phytoclimatology; Scots Pine; European Beech
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Plant Sciences,
Vol.4 No.3A,
March
29,
2013
ABSTRACT: Some effects
of climate change on the composition and competitive capacity of southern European Pinus sylvestris L. forests in the Mediterranean basin were evaluated. The variation
over the period 1910-2008 through 30-year mobile averages of a Phytoclimatic
Suitability Index (PSI) of the main tree species of the forest cover are used
to indicate the competitive hierarchy of Pinus sylvestris and Fagus
sylvatica L. The methodology was applied at a specific location on
the Spanish south-facing slopes of the Pyrenees mountain range in the Iberian Peninsula, where the increase in the average temperature was 1.4?C in the
period of observation. The results indicated that the apparent equilibrium
between the two species studied changed from the 1934-1963 average. Due to the
loss of competitive capacity of Scots pine with respect to European beech,
particularly from the years 1970-1999, the model predicted an inversion of the
situation as it was up until now, so that beech had a higher PSI than pine. The
phytoclimatic approach proposed here offers new methodological horizons for the
study of the effects of climate change on the future of the forests.