Buenas prácticas de innovación docente en la Universidad de Córdoba

El proyecto presenta la creación de la figura Bosque Universitario, que se incorpora al currículo docente de la titulación de Ingeniero de Montes para su uso didáctico en la Escuela Técnica Superior de Ingeniería Agronómica y de Montes de la Universidad de Córdoba (UCO). Gracias a esta herramienta –cuya gestión ha costado 1.200 euros–, el alumnado conoce la gestión forestal de un monte y las funciones que se llevan a cabo en beneficio de la sociedad

Climate, drought and hydrology drive narrow-leaved ash growth dynamics in southern European riparian forests

Abstract Mediterranean riparian forests are among the most threatened ecosystems in Europe. These ecosystems are exposed to land-use changes threatening their reduced habitat and by global warming, which is already triggering aridification processes. To assess the impact of these major threats, we studied the radial-growth responses to climate and drought in the narrow-leaved ash (Fraxinus angustifolia). This riparian tree species presents a relatively large ecological spectrum in its habitat preference in the Mediterranean Basin. We studied five sites arranged across a wide geographical range from Iberia to Italy, subjected to contrasting climatic conditions and located in hydrographic basins with different sizes and water regimes. We found diverse growth responses to climate and drought across the Mediterranean distribution range of the narrow-leaved ash at the individual and site levels. The growth of this species increased in response to wet and cool conditions in the prior winter and spring. The response to summer conditions was only observed in the coldest and wettest site (Ticino). Growth responded negatively to 2–14 month droughts that occurred from previous winter up to summer, particularly in the warmest-driest sites. Growth responses to drought peaked in the warmest-driest sites in terms of climate water balance (Odelouca, Donana), but not in the driest sites in terms of annual precipitation (Tudela, Zaragoza). Hydrological conditions also affected the narrow-leaved ash with high discharges in the prior winter and early spring enhancing wood production. Considering projected aridification and increased hydrological alteration, implying limited water supply in the Mediterranean region, climate warming will negatively impact productivity of narrow-leaved ash riparian forests. Further research should combine analyses of growth responses to climate and hydrology from tree to basin scales to disentangle their relative roles as drivers of productivity under different scenarios of climate and hydrological changes, in order to aid adaptive management of these key ecosystems

Climate warming predispose sessile oak forests to drought-induced tree mortality regardless of management legacies

Climate warming-related drought could become a major driver of large-scale forest dieback. However, little is known about how past management legacies modulate the climate-growth responses during recent dieback episodes in central European oak forests. Here, we examine the role played by past management –unmanaged old-growth vs. managed forests– in recent tree mortality events occurring in Quercus petraea (Matt.) Liebl. stands across large areas of western Romania. We analyze how stand structure (tree size, competition) and climatic factors (drought, temperature and precipitation) drive tree radial growth patterns in neighboring standing dead and living trees. We analyzed basal area increments (BAI) trends, past management legacies and climate- and drought-growth relationships during the 20th century to distinguish the roles and interactions on recent warming-induced dieback. We observed that temperature rises and changes in atmospheric water demand during growing season let to increasing drought stress during the late 20th century affecting both managed and unmanaged forests. Dead trees from old-growth and managed forests showed lower growth than living trees after dieback onset. In both forests, dead and living trees displayed divergent growth patterns after dry 1980s, indicating that dieback was triggered by severe extreme conditions. Dead trees from managed stands experienced significant stronger growth reductions after 1980s though they experienced less tree-to-tree competition than dead trees in old-growth forest. High stand density negatively drove growth and enhanced climate sensitivity in old-growth stands. Competition acted synergistically with climate warming and drought causing tree mortality regardless of the management legacies in of Q. petraea forests. Our retrospective assessment of growth rates in relation with climate and structure changes offers valuable information for further forest conservation and management decisions of Q. petraea forests. These findings highlight the importance of past uses legacies driving recent forest dieback in temperate oak forests, making them more vulnerable under forecasted climate-warming related droughts in central Europe.Nemoral Forests under Climate Extremes (NEMKLIM Project, grant number 3517861300), German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (Bundesamt für Naturschutz,BfN), German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany, project PN 19070506, Romanian National Authority from Scientific Research and Innovation, Romanian Ministry of Education and Research, CNCS-UEFISCDI, project number PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2020- 2696, within PNCDI III. projects VUL-BOS project (UPO-1263216 and PinCaR (UHU-1266324), FEDER Funds, Andalusia Regional Government, Consejería de Economía, Conocimiento, Empresas y Universidad 2014-2020), project LESENS (RTI2018-096884-B-C33), Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities.This work was supported by NEMKLIM project: Nemoral Forests under Climate Extremes (NEMKLIM Project, grant number 3517861300), financed by the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation (Bundesamt für Naturschutz,BfN) and the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Germany and by project PN 19070506 financed by Romanian National Authority from Scientific Research and Innovation. I.C. Petritan was supported by a grant of the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research, CNCS-UEFISCDI, project number PN-III-P4-ID-PCE-2020- 2696, within PNCDI III. R. S ´anchez-Salguero was supported by VUL-BOS project (UPO-1263216, FEDER Funds, Andalusia Regional Government, Consejería de Economía, Conocimiento, Empresas y Universidad 2014-2020) and LESENS (RTI2018-096884-B-C33) project from the Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities. A. Hevia was supported by PinCaR project (UHU-1266324, FEDER Funds, Andalusia Regional Government, Consejería de Economía, Conocimiento, Empresas y Universidad 2014-2020). We are also grateful to Lucian Toiu, Nicu Tudose, George Sarbu and Gheorghe Stefan for help in collecting field data. We appreciate the permission and logistic support given by staff of the Barzava and Codrii Beiusului si Sfanta Maria Forest Districts, we are grateful especially to eng. Gheorghe Marc and eng. Jeno Ferko. The authors declare no conflicts of interest

Decaimiento del crecimiento inducido por sequía en bosques de pino carrasco y pino negral del sudeste de España

Climate warming may enhance the negative effects of droughts on radial growth in areas with severe water deficit, such as Mediterranean mountains under semi-arid conditions. The impacts of drought on growth decline of Mediterranean pines have not been evaluated considering species with different vulnerability and areas with contrasting climates. Dendrochronological methods were used to assess the responses of basal area increment to drought in Pinus pinaster and P. halepensis plantations. We compared growth trends of trees with different defoliation degree in two sites in south-eastern Spain (Sierra de los Filabres and Sierra de Baza) with contrasting climatic conditions. In the more xeric area (Filabres) both pine species showed a sharp growth reduction in response to extreme droughts such as those observed in 1994-1995, 1999 and 2005. The radial growth of both species was enhanced by May and June precipitation of the year of tree-ring formation. P. pinaster showed higher defoliation in the xeric area (Filabres) than in the more mesic area (Baza) but needle loss was not linked to an abrupt growth reduction. Contrastingly, divergent radial growth patterns between trees showing high and low defoliation degrees were found for P. halepensis in the more xeric area, where a negative relationship between recent basal area increment and defoliation was found. Pine plantations in Mediterranean mountains under semi-arid conditions are highly vulnerable to warming-induced droughts. Such marginal stands constitute valuable monitoring systems to assess the negative impacts of drought on tree growth, and to test if management strategies as thinning can mitigate the negative impacts of climate warming on similar drought-stressed forests.El calentamiento climático puede aumentar los efectos negativos de la sequía sobre el crecimiento radial de especies arbóreas en zonas con un déficit hídrico elevado como es el caso de la montaña mediterránea semi-árida. Los impactos de la sequía sobre la disminución del crecimiento de las especies forestales mediterráneas no han sido evaluados considerando especies con distinta vulnerabilidad y zonas con diferentes condiciones climáticas. Se usaron métodos dendrocronológicos para evaluar las respuestas del incremento de área basimétrica a la sequía en repoblaciones de Pinus pinaster y P. halepensis. Se compararon las tendencias de crecimiento en árboles con diferente grado de defoliación en dos zonas cercanas del sureste de España (Sierra de los Filabres, Sierra de Baza) con climatología contrastada. En la zona más seca (Filabres) los árboles mostraron una mayor reducción del crecimiento radial en respuesta a las sequías extremas, como las observadas en 1994-1995, 1999 y 2005. El crecimiento de ambas especies respondió positivamente a la precipitación de mayo y junio del año de formación del anillo. Las poblaciones de P. pinaster en el área más seca (Filabres) mostraron una mayor defoliación que en la zona menos seca (Baza), pero dicha defoliación no estaba relacionada con una reducción abrupta del crecimiento. Por el contrario, encontramos una divergencia del patrón de crecimiento entre árboles de alto y bajo grado de defoliación para P. halepensis en la zona más seca, donde se encontró una relación negativa entre el incremento de área basimétrica y la defoliación reciente. Las repoblaciones de pinos de las montañas mediterráneas en condiciones semiáridas son altamente vulnerables a sequías inducidas por el calentamiento climático. Estos bosques marginales constituyen un valioso sistema de seguimiento para evaluar los efectos negativos de las sequías sobre el crecimiento de los bosques y para evaluar si las estrategias de gestión como el aclareo pueden mitigar los impactos negativos del calentamiento climático sobre bosques similares sometidos a un severo déficit hídrico

Forest growth responses to drought at short- and long-term scales in Spain: squeezing the stress memory from tree rings

Drought-triggered declines in forest productivity and associated die-off events have increased considerably due to climate warming in the last decades. There is an increasing interest in quantifying the resilience capacity of forests against climate warming and drought to uncover how different stands and tree species will resist and recover after more frequent and intense droughts. Trees form annual growth rings that represent an accurate record of how forest growth responded to past droughts. Here we use dendrochronology to quantify the radial growth of different forests subjected to contrasting climatic conditions in Spain during the last half century. Particularly, we considered four climatically contrasting areas where dominant forests showed clear signs of drought-induced dieback. Studied forests included wet sites dominated by silver fir (Abies alba) in the Pyrenees and beech (Fagus sylvatica) stands in northern Spain, and drought-prone sites dominated by Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) in eastern Spain and black pine (Pinus nigra) in the semi-arid south-eastern Spain. We quantified the growth reduction caused by different droughts and assessed the short-and long-term resilience capacity of declining vs. non-declining trees in each forest. In all cases, drought induced a marked growth reduction regardless tree vigor. However, the capacity to recover after drought (resilience) at short- and long-term scales varied greatly between declining and non-declining individuals. .

Tree growth and treeline responses to temperature: Different questions and concepts

[No abstract available

Which matters more for wood traits in Pinus halepensis Mill., provenance or climate?

This is a pre-copyedit version of an article published in Annal of Forest Science. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://doi.org/10.1007/s13595-020-00956-yContext: It is essential to disentangle the influence of climate from the effect of provenance on inter- and intra-annual wood traits to identify populations’ responses to climate changes. This will be even more relevant in the drought-prone Mediterranean region, where species have high genetic differentiation among populations. Aims: We investigated the effects of provenance and climate driving Pinus halepensis Mill. wood traits, as imprinted phenotypic adaptations to the Mediterranean climate. Methods: Inter- and intra-annual wood trait variation (ring-, early-, and latewood width, wood density) was studied by microdensitometry in 8 provenances from Spain, France, Greece, and Italy in a common-garden experiment. We related wood traits and density fluctuations with inter-annual climate variations at the trial site and the provenance origin. Results: Provenances showed distinct responses to climate regarding tree growth, wood density, and intra-annual fluctuations. Density fluctuations in latewood were more frequent than in earlywood. Climate at the provenance origin was a more important force for density fluctuations than climatic variations at the planting site, with different trends between coastal and inland provenances, and higher frequency of latewood fluctuations in provenances from arid and semiarid sites. Conclusion: Differences in P. halepensis wood density fluctuations confirmed the imprinted origin provenance control in response to climate variations and indicated a relation with local adaptation of these xylem anatomical features. Moreover, the position of these fluctuations in rings reflected the high plasticity of P. halepensis to cope with high intra-seasonal variability of climatic conditions. This underlines the importance of considering tree-ring features for the selection of provenances in reforestation material for conservation and silvicultural programs.PinCaR project (UHU-1266324, FEDER Funds, Andalusia Regional Government, Consejería de Economía, Conocimiento, Empresas y Universidad 2014–2020); SFRH/BPD/105656/2015, (SFRH/ BPD/111307/2015), FCT with funds from POPH (Portuguese Operational Human Potential Program), QREN Portugal (Portuguese National Strategic Reference Framework), FSE (European Social Fund). Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness IJCI-2015-25845, MCIU funds, CoMo-ReAdapt (CGL2013-48843-C2-1-R) project, RTI2018-096884-B-C31 and RTI2018-096884-B-C33 Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, VULBOS project UPO-1263216, FEDER Funds, Andalusia Regional Government, Consejería de Economía, Conocimiento, Empresas y Universidad 2014–2020