The persistence capacity of the Iberian forests

to natural disturbances:
Main trends and temporal evolution
Martina Snchez-Pinillos ;
1* Aitor Ameztegui ;
1, 2 Llus Coll1, 2, 3
1 Forest Sciences Centre of Catalonia (CEMFOR-CTFC); 2 Center for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF);
3 Department of Agriculture and Forest Engineering (AGROF), University of Lleida

IN A NUTSHELL RESULTS
The current context of global change leads to focus management Temporal evolution of PI
efforts on preserving the ecosystems persistence and associated
services.
Trait-based approaches can be used to assess the persistence capacity
of communities to deal with disturbances.

In this study
We related the Iberian forest dynamics with the temporal evolution of
their persistence capacity facing fire, drought, and windstorm events.
We used permanent plots of the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Spanish National
Forest Inventory (SNFI) to cover changes in 20 years.
The persistence capacity of the Iberian forests has increased along the
last 20 years, This result relates with:
Increments in the stands functional diversity and canopy cover.
Fig. 1. Changes in PI values between the 2SNFI and the 3SNFI for each plot Fig. 2. Changes in PI values between the 3SNFI and the 4SNFI for each plot
Growing presence of non-native species in some regions.
This approach allows to assess the consequences that past disturbances Forest dynamics
Table 2. Mean values of forest cover (FC) for each inventory and region
and management decisions in the persistence capacity of forests.
General Galicia La Rioja Madrid Murcia Pas Vasco
2SNFI 67.0 66,1 71,5 61,4 54,7 73,5
FC (%) 3SNFI 72.6 70,8 76,8 69,2 56,9 82,1
METHODOLOGY 4SNFI 75.2 74,3 80,3 69,7 60,1 83,5
The Persistence Index (PI):
Rationale of PI
An ecosystem will be more resilient and resistant to disturbances if it
contains a greater presence of species with a given set of response
traits.
PI integrates three components related to the ecosystem persistence
capacity:
Number of response traits.
Abundance of species presenting response traits.
Redundancy of response traits across species.
Formulation of PI
PI RTR RTA
Response Trait Richness (RTR) Response Trait Abundance (RTA)

M M S
w max( v1,t ,..., vS ,t ) wt vi ,t xi
RTR t 1 t
RTA t 1 i 1

t 1 wt
M M
t 1
wt

Requirements to calculate PI
Table 1. Requirements to calculate PI theoretically and in our case study, and corresponding formula parameters

General Case study Formulation

Disturbances Fire Fig. 3. Forest dynamics between the 2SNFI and the 3SNFI (left panels) and between the 3SNFI and the 4SNFI (right panels) measured as percentage of plots in the previous
threatening the Drought inventory that remains or converts into each forest type. Bottom and right axes show the number of plots for each forest type and inventory (PF: pine forests; CF: other conifer-
forests; DB: deciduous-broadleaf; EB: evergreen-broadleaf; MB: mixed evergreen-deciduous broadleaf; NNF: forests of non-native species; OMF: other mixed forests)
community Windstorm
xi: species relative Forests hardly changed in composition.
Tree species
S target species abundance Mixed forests was the most variable forest type.
(2SNFI, 3SNFI, 4SNFI)
vit: value of response There was a general reduction of pine forests.
Resprouting ability trait t for the species I There was an increment in mixed forests that lead to an increment in the RTR component.
Rooting depth
A greater presence of non-native species well adapted to the target disturbances also increased the RTR.
Hard downy leaves
M response traits Forest cover increased along 20 years, leading to an increment in the RTA component.
Bark thickness wt: response trait
considered relevant
Stimulated recruitment weight (optional)
Seed bank longevity Acknowledgements
Wood density This study was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness via the RESILFOR (AGL-2012-40039-C02-01)
and the EST_RES (AGL2015-70425-R) projects and a predoctoral contract (BES-2013-063019) provided to MSP.

*Corresponding author:
E-mail address: martina.sanchezpinillos@ctfc.es (M. Snchez-Pinillos)