RT Journal Article
T1 Assessing the relative role of climate on litterfall in Mediterranean cork oak forests
A1 Andivia Muñoz, Enrique
A1 Bou, Jordi
A1 Fernández Martínez, Manuel
A1 Caritat, Antonia
A1 Alejano Monge, Reyes
A1 Vilar, Lluís
A1 Vázquez Piqué, Javier
AB Litterfall plays a key role in the dynamic of forest ecosystems, ultimately determiningforest productivity and carbon and nutrient cycling. Increasing ourunderstanding on the role of structural and environmental factors controllinglitterfall amount and seasonality is of paramount importance for modelling andestimating soil carbon sequestration and nutrient cycling under climate changescenarios. However, the effect of climatic conditions on litterfall has beenscarcely studied, especially in Mediterranean ecosystems. Here, we used nineyears of seasonally collected litterfall data in two contrasting Mediterraneancork oak forests to evaluate the effect of climatic variables on leaf fall and litterfall.First, we isolated the litterfall seasonal trend and the between-sitesdifferences in production by using linear mixed models. Then, we evaluatedthe effect of climatic variables and whether this effect was site-specific. Wefound a consistent litterfall seasonal pattern, mainly determined by leaf shedding(70% of litterfall). Leaf fall mainly occurs in spring with a second butmuch smaller peak in autumn some years. Mean temperature, precipitationand mean wind speed strongly influenced litterfall, but this effect was sitespecific.In the forest site located at higher latitude and altitude, leaf fall increasedlinearly with temperature and showed a positive quadratic response toprecipitation. In the water-limited site, leaf fall was reduced as temperatureincreased and did not respond to precipitation. These results have implicationsfor modelling and predicting soil carbon sequestration, nutrient cycling,and the forest ecosystem productivity. Specifically, carbon and nutrient cyclingmodels can be improved by incorporating idiosyncratic forest sites responsesto climatic variability.
PB Italian Society of Silviculture and Forest Ecology
SN 1971-7458
YR 2018
FD 2018-01
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10272/16297
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10272/16297
LA eng
NO Andivia, E., Bou, J., Fernández, M., Caritat, A., Alejano, R., Vilar, L.,  Vázquez Piqué, J.  Assessing the relative role of climate on litterfall in Mediterranean cork oak forests. iForest - Biogeosciences and Forestry, 11(6), 786–793. (2018). DOI: https://doi.org/10.3832/ifor2825-011
NO This study was supported by Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain, the National Agriculture Research Institute (INIA; ref: SUM2006-00026-00-00), and the Diputacio de Girona, Spain. EA was supported by a postdoctoral grant founded by the Universidad Complutense in Madrid. We gratefully acknowledge the logistic support from the Montseny Natural Park, and the valuable help of numerous people during the sampling along the study period. We are also very grateful to Zoe Rohrer for the revision of the English language. The comments and suggestions of two anonymous reviewers contributed to improve previous version of this manuscript.
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Huelva
RD 30 may 2026