Site-specific factors influence the richness and phenology of snowbed plants in the Pyrenees

Although the timing of snowmelt and growth temperatures appear to be the main factors that influence the species richness and phenology of snowbed plants, site-specific characteristics may also play a role in modifying the effects of the timing of snowmelt and temperature. In this study, the effects of site-specific factors (microtopography and snow origin) on species richness and plant phenology were evaluated in 72 plots in two snowbeds in the Andorran Pyrenees. Snowmelt patterns influenced the spatial distribution of species richness and abundance. Site-specific factors had significant effects on the responses of species (shortening or lengthening the duration of the phenophase) and on the extent to which the timing of snowmelt influenced leaf expansion and flowering. Notably, the highest rates of leaf expansion occurred on late snowmelt isoclines, where, nevertheless, the time taken to reach peak flowering was significantly longer than on the early snowmelt isoclines. The results of this study highlight the fact that, in addition to the effects of interannual variability in climate, site-specific factors have a significant effect on the phenology and reproductive success of the commonest plants in the snowbed communities of the Pyrenees

FLORAPYR: Evaluación, seguimiento y conservación de la flora pirenaica ante el cambio climático

FLORAPYR es un proyecto de cooperación transfronteriza a lo largo de todo el Pirineo que, en el marco de los proyectos del Observatorio Pirenaico del Cambio Climático (OPCC), está permitiendo la evaluación, monitorización y conservación de la flora pirenaica ante el cambio climático. Parte de los resultados de proyectos previos y de recursos compartidos entre los socios del proyecto.FLORAPYR es un proyecto de cooperación transfronteriza a lo largo de todo el Pirineo que, en el marco de los proyectos del Observatorio Pirenaico del Cambio Climático (OPCC), está permitiendo la evaluación, monitorización y conservación de la flora pirenaica ante el cambio climático. Parte de los resultados de proyectos previos y de recursos compartidos entre los socios del proyecto.FLORAPYR es un proyecto de cooperación transfronteriza a lo largo de todo el Pirineo que, en el marco de los proyectos del Observatorio Pirenaico del Cambio Climático (OPCC), está permitiendo la evaluación, monitorización y conservación de la flora pirenaica ante el cambio climático. Parte de los resultados de proyectos previos y de recursos compartidos entre los socios del proyecto

Flora alóctona de la cordillera de los Pirineos: catalogación y análisis

Póster presentado en el III Simposio Anual de Botánica Española celebrado en el Institut Botànic de Barcelona, Barcelona, 25-26 de noviembre de 2022En el marco del proyecto transfronterizo FLORAPYR AVANCE, con participación de equipos de botánicos de las dos vertientes de los Pirineos, se ha elaborado un catálogo completo y actualizado de la flora alóctona de la cordillera. Sobre este catálogo se han analizado una serie de aspectos ecológicos y biogeográficos, y también se han establecido los principales patrones de distribución geográfica de las plantas alóctonas que se encuentran en los Pirineos. En estos momentos, el número de taxones alóctonos conocidos en los Pirineos es de 615, pertenecientes a 99 familias, en sus cerca de 50.000 km2 de extensión; se trata de una cifra sustancialmente mayor a la de los Alpes (509 taxones en unos 170.000 km2). Esta diferencia sería atribuible, entre otros factores, a la mayor proximidad de zonas muy pobladas (áreas metropolitanas de Barcelona y de Toulouse, y litoral catalán). Los géneros más diversos de la flora alóctona pirenaica son Amaranthus (13 taxones), Solanum (10), y Erigeron y Prunus (9). Aproximadamente un tercio de los taxones proceden del continente americano, mientras que la cuenca mediterránea y la zona paleártico-occidental suman conjuntamente otro tercio. La principal vía de introducción es la jardinería (57,2%), seguida de la agricultura y el comercio, mientras que la silvicultura es marginal. La mayoría de los taxones exóticos son terófitos (hierbas anuales), mientras que el resto de formas biológicas están menos representadas. La flora alóctona no se encuentra distribuida uniformemente por los Pirineos; las áreas geográficas con más taxones son las más orientales (que son también las más antropizadas). Todo ello nos lleva a considerar a los Pirineos como un hotspot de flora alóctona y a remarcar la necesidad de implantar estrategias de prevención y control para evitar la expansión de estas plantas por el territorio y reducir el impacto sobre las especies y ecosistemas autóctonos

TRY plant trait database – enhanced coverage and open access

Plant traits - the morphological, anatomical, physiological, biochemical and phenological characteristics of plants - determine how plants respond to environmental factors, affect other trophic levels, and influence ecosystem properties and their benefits and detriments to people. Plant trait data thus represent the basis for a vast area of research spanning from evolutionary biology, community and functional ecology, to biodiversity conservation, ecosystem and landscape management, restoration, biogeography and earth system modelling. Since its foundation in 2007, the TRY database of plant traits has grown continuously. It now provides unprecedented data coverage under an open access data policy and is the main plant trait database used by the research community worldwide. Increasingly, the TRY database also supports new frontiers of trait‐based plant research, including the identification of data gaps and the subsequent mobilization or measurement of new data. To support this development, in this article we evaluate the extent of the trait data compiled in TRY and analyse emerging patterns of data coverage and representativeness. Best species coverage is achieved for categorical traits - almost complete coverage for ‘plant growth form’. However, most traits relevant for ecology and vegetation modelling are characterized by continuous intraspecific variation and trait–environmental relationships. These traits have to be measured on individual plants in their respective environment. Despite unprecedented data coverage, we observe a humbling lack of completeness and representativeness of these continuous traits in many aspects. We, therefore, conclude that reducing data gaps and biases in the TRY database remains a key challenge and requires a coordinated approach to data mobilization and trait measurements. This can only be achieved in collaboration with other initiatives

Developmental instability as an index of adaptation to drought stress in a Mediterranean oak

An increase in temperature and water deficits caused by the ongoing climate change might lead to a decline growth rates and threaten the persistence of tree species in drought-prone areas within the Mediterranean Basin. Developmental instability (the error in development caused by stress) may provide an index of the adaptability of woody plants to withstand climatic stressors such as water shortage. This study evaluated the effects of drought stress on growth variables in three stands of a Mediterranean oak (Quercus faginea) exposed to differing climatic conditions (xeric, mesic and cooler) along an altitudinal gradient in northeastern Spain, in two climatically contrasting years (wet and dry years). Two indices of developmental instability, fluctuating and translational asymmetries, which reflect environmental stress, were measured in leaves and current-year shoots, respectively. We also measured branch biomass and fractal complexity of branches as indicators of the species' performance. After a period of drought the individuals' at the most xeric site presented lower developmental instability and less branch biomass than did the individuals from the mesic and cooler sites. We interpret that difference as an adaptive response to drought which reflects a trade-off between maintenance of homeostasis and growth when water is scarce. The study demonstrated that developmental instability constitutes a useful index to assess the degree of adaptation to stressful environmental conditions. The assessment of developmental instability in sites and years with contrasting climatic conditions provides a means of quantifying the capacity of plants to develop plastic adaptive responses to climatic stress.We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Spanish Economy and Competition Ministry (PN-MICINN) (CGL2008-00655/BOS and CGL2011-27259). We thank the AEMET for providing meteorological information. We thank G. Montserrat-Martí for providing relevant information of the oak trees populations. We also thank Bruce MacWhirter and two anonymous referees for critically reading and providing helpful suggestions on the manuscript.Peer Reviewe

Modeling shrub encroachment in subalpine grasslands under different environmental and management scenarios

Woody plants are spreading in many alpine and subalpine ecosystems and are expected to continue increasing in response to land abandonment and global warming. This encroachment threatens species diversity, and considerable efforts have been deployed to control it. In this study, we combined a lattice model and field data to investigate the efficiency of different management strategies in controlling shrub encroachment in alpine grasslands. The model parameter values were estimated in the field based on the thorny shrub Echinospartum horridum (erizón) which is currently encroaching in central Spanish Pyrenees. Our study shows that encroachment could accelerate if climate warming continues. Different management scenarios consisting of a gradient of livestock pressures, fire events and mechanical removal were simulated to identify scenarios able to control the expansion of shrubs into grasslands. Our study shows that grazing alone cannot stop encroachment. Rather, a combination of grazing and shrub removal (either by fire or mechanical removal) is needed, and our model can help estimate the frequency and intensities of the shrub removal. This model can be used to investigate the consequences of different management scenarios and environmental variability which could be of practical value in the preservation of alpine grasslands. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd.We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Spanish Science and Innovation Ministry (PN-MICINN) (CGL2008-00655/BOS) and Spanish Environmental Ministry (MMAMRM 002/2007). The Ordesa-Monte Perdido National Park (OMPNP) provided logistic support and access to the national park. We thank the AEMet for providing meteorological information. We thank Bruce MacWhirter and Sara Palacios and two anonymous referees for critically reading and providing helpful suggestions on the manuscript. SK's research is founded by a Humboldt fellowship from the Alexander von Humboldt foundation to S.K.Peer Reviewe

Fluctuating asymmetry and Echinospartum horridum fitness components

I[EN] n the last two decades, fluctuating asymmetry (FA) has been used commonly as an indicator of the stress experienced by individual organisms during development, although the technique has not been without controversy. In general, estimates of FA in populations have been positively correlated with measures of stress but, in the few studies in which it has been investigated, the correlations between estimates of FA and stress in individuals have been inconsistent. This study compared the FA in the opposite spines of stems and flowers to other bio-indicators of physiological stress in plants, such as annual crown growth ratio, annual flower production, annual crown death ratio, and branch fractal dimension. The position of an individual Echinospartum horridum within a patch influenced the stress conditions, and influenced its colonization strategy. Plants in the interior of patches are under high intraspecific competition due to negative density feedback (low flower production and branch biomass, and high annual crown death ratio), showed larger flower FA and spines FA repeatability (within-individual variation in FA) than plants at the periphery. Plant growth rates and the FA of spines were negatively correlated, but flower asymmetry and flower production was not significantly correlated, which reflects the capacity of E. horridum to adjust flower production to its developing conditions. We concluded that because organisms respond differently to different conditions, enhanced by the plasticity of plants in the development of morphological structures in response to changes in the environment, it is advisable to use multiple parameters to assess physiological stress in plants. © 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Spanish Science and Innovation Ministry (PN-MICINN) (CGL2008-00655/BOS) and Spanish Environmental Ministry (MMAMRM 002/2007). We thank Bruce MacWhirter for critically reading and providing helpful suggestions on the manuscript.Peer Reviewe

Spatial patterns of species distributions in grazed subalpine grasslands

11 páginas, 3 tablas, 1 apéndice.-- El PDF del artículo es la versión manuscrita de autor.Spatial patterns of species diversity have important influences on the functioning of ecosystems, and the effect of livestock grazing on spatial heterogeneity can differ depending on the scale of the analysis. This study examined the effects of grazing on the spatial patterns of species distributions and whether the effects of grazing on the spatial distributions of a species vary with the scale of the analysis. Data were collected at three locations in the subalpine grasslands of Ordesa-Monte Perdido National Park and Aísa Valley, Central Pyrenees, Spain, which differed in mean stocking rates. Aspect explained about one-third of the environmental variation in species distributions. In flat areas, spatial variation in species composition varied with grazing intensity at two scales. At a coarse scale (among vegetation patches), grazing promoted patchiness, and among-transect variation in species diversity and grazing intensity were positively correlated. At a fine scale (within vegetation patches), the disruption of the self-organizing processes of the species spatial distributions resulted in a reduction in the long-range spatial autocorrelations of some of the characteristic species and in the homogenization of species spatial distributions. The presence of encroaching Echinospartum horridum had a significant influence on the effect of grazing on south-facing grassland slopes.We gratefully acknowledge the support of the Spanish CICYT project CGL2005-01131/ BOS.Peer reviewe