| Title: | Tree diversity mitigates defoliation after a drought-induced tipping point |
| Author(s): | Sousa-Silva R; Verheyen K; Ponette Q; Bay E; Sioen G; Titeux H; Van de Peer T; Van Meerbeek K; Muys B; |
| Address: | "Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Division of Forest, Nature and Landscape, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. Forest & Nature Lab, Ghent University, Gontrode-Melle, Belgium. Earth and Life Institute, Environmental Sciences, Universite Catholique de Louvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium. Observatoire Wallon de la Sante des Forets (OWSF) - Direction du Milieu forestier (DEMNA-DMF), Service Public de Wallonie (SPW), Gembloux, Belgium. Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO), Brussels, Belgium" |
| ISSN/ISBN: | 1365-2486 (Electronic) 1354-1013 (Linking) |
| Abstract: | "Understanding the processes that underlie drought-related tree vitality loss is essential for anticipating future forest dynamics, and for developing management plans aiming at increasing the resilience of forests to climate change. Forest vitality has been continuously monitored in Europe since the acid rain alert in the 1980s, and the intensive monitoring plots of ICP Forests offer the opportunity to investigate the effects of air pollution and climate change on forest condition. By making use of over 100 long-term monitoring plots, where crown defoliation has been assessed extensively since 1990, we discovered a progressive shift from a negative to a positive effect of species richness on forest health. The observed tipping point in the balance of net interactions, from competition to facilitation, has never been reported from real ecosystems outside experimental conditions; and the strong temporal consistency of our observations with increasing drought stress emphasizes its climate change relevance. Furthermore, we show that higher species diversity has reduced the severity of defoliation in the long term. Our results confirm the greater resilience of diverse forests to future climate change-induced stress. More generally, they add to an accumulating body of evidence on the large potential of tree species mixtures to face manifold disturbances in a changing world" |
| Keywords: | Belgium *Biodiversity *Climate Change *Droughts Fagus/physiology Food Chain *Herbivory Quercus/physiology Trees/*physiology biodiversity climate change crown condition drought stress forest management; |
| Notes: | "MedlineSousa-Silva, Rita Verheyen, Kris Ponette, Quentin Bay, Elodie Sioen, Geert Titeux, Hugues Van de Peer, Thomas Van Meerbeek, Koenraad Muys, Bart eng Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't England 2018/05/29 Glob Chang Biol. 2018 Sep; 24(9):4304-4315. doi: 10.1111/gcb.14326. Epub 2018 Jun 21" |
