STUDY ON DYNAMICS OF MEDITERRANEAN OAK FORESTS HIGHLIGHTED BY THE EUROPEAN FOREST INSTITUTE

Several studies have forecasted that in the long run the Mediterranean region will be the most vulnerable to global change. Nevertheless, there is still a scarce understanding of the responses of these forests to future conditions. In a paper recently published by the scientific journal Global Change Biology, a research team which includes CIBIO-InBIO researcher Francisco Moreira compared the long-term forest persistence and land coverage change between evergreen and deciduous oak forests, in order to evaluate the importance of anthropogenic and environmental drivers on changes registered in the Portuguese territory.

The results of this study, which has also been highlighted by the European Forest Institute, indicate that increasing human pressure and climate change may lead to further decline of evergreen oak forest and the replacement of deciduous oak forests by more xeric species. Overall, this work stresses out the need for a better understanding of forest dynamics and the inclusion of anthropogenic drivers for the improvement of prediction vegetation models.

To know more about this topic, please follow the link below:

“Global change and the dynamics of Mediterranean oak forests” | EFIMED News | September 29, 2016

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