Emerging stability of forest productivity by mixing two species buffers temperature destabilizing effect

  • M. del Río (Creator)
  • H. Pretzsch (Creator)
  • Ricardo Ruíz-Peinado (Creator)
  • Hervé Jactel (Creator)
  • Lluís Coll (Creator)
  • Magnus Löf (Creator)
  • Jorge Aldea (Creator)
  • Christian Ammer (Creator)
  • A. Avdagic (Creator)
  • Ignacio Barbeito (Creator)
  • Kamil Bielak (Creator)
  • Felipe Bravo (Creator)
  • Gediminas Brazaitis (Creator)
  • Jakub Cerný (Creator)
  • Catherine Collet (Creator)
  • Sonia Condés (Creator)
  • Lars Drössler (Creator)
  • Marek Fabrika (Creator)
  • Michael Heym (Creator)
  • Stig Olof Holm (Creator)
  • Gro Hylen (Creator)
  • Aris Jansons (Creator)
  • Viktor Kurylyak (Creator)
  • Fabio Lombardi (Creator)
  • B. Matović (Creator)
  • Marek Metslaid (Creator)
  • Renzo Motta (Creator)
  • Thomas Nord-Larsen (Creator)
  • Arne Nothdurft (Creator)
  • Jan den Ouden (Creator)
  • Maciej Pach (Creator)
  • Marta Pardos (Creator)
  • Charlotte Poeydebat (Creator)
  • Quentin Ponette (Creator)
  • Tomas Pérot (Creator)
  • Ditlev Otto Juel Reventlow (Creator)
  • Roman Sitko (Creator)
  • Vit Sramek (Creator)
  • Mathias Steckel (Creator)
  • Miroslav Svoboda (Creator)
  • Kris Verheyen (Creator)
  • Sonja Vospernik (Creator)
  • Barbara Wolff (Creator)
  • T. Zlatanov (Creator)
  • Andrés Bravo-Oviedo (Creator)

Dataset

Description

The increasing disturbances in monocultures around the world are testimony to their instability under global change. Many studies have claimed that temporal stability of productivity increase with species richness, although the ecological fundaments have mainly been investigated through diversity experiments. To adequately manage forest ecosystems, it is necessary to have a comprehensive understanding of the effect of mixing species on the temporal stability of productivity and the way in which this it is influenced by climate conditions across large geographical areas. Here, we used a unique dataset of 261 stands combining pure and two-species mixtures of four relevant tree species over a wide range of climate conditions in Europe to examine the effect of species mixing on the level and temporal stability of productivity. Structural equation modelling was employed to further explore the direct and indirect influence of climate, overyielding, species asynchrony and additive effect (i.e. temporal stability expected from the species growth in monospecific stands) on temporal stability in mixed forests. We showed that by adding only one tree species to monocultures, the level (overyielding: +6%) and stability (temporal stability: +12%) of stand growth increased significantly. We identified the key effect of temperature on destabilizing stand growth, which may be mitigated by mixing species. We further confirmed asynchrony as the main driver of temporal stability in mixed stands, through both the additive effect and species interactions, which modify between-species asynchrony in mixtures in comparison to monocultures. Synthesis and applications. This study highlights the emergent properties associated with mixing two-species, which result in resource efficient and temporally stable production systems. We reveal the negative impact of mean temperature on temporal stability of forest productivity and how the stabilizing effect of mixing two species can counterbalance this impact. The overyielding and temporal stability of growth addressed in this paper are essential for ecosystem services closely linked with the level and rhythm of forest growth. Our results underline that mixing two species can be a realistic and effective nature-based climate solution, which could contribute towards meeting EU climate target policies.
Date made available8 Aug 2022
PublisherINIA

Keywords

  • mixed forests
  • Quercus petraea
  • additive effect
  • Basal area growth
  • forest ecosystems productivity
  • Pinus sylvestris
  • overyielding
  • Fagus sylvatica
  • climate effect
  • species asynchrony
  • Picea abies
  • Temporal stability
  • Agriculture, forestry, and fisheries
  • Emerging stability of forest productivity by mixing two species buffers temperature destabilizing effect

    del Río, M., Pretzsch, H., Ruiz-Peinado, R., Jactel, H., Coll, L., Löf, M., Aldea, J., Ammer, C., Avdagić, A., Barbeito, I., Bielak, K., Bravo, F., Brazaitis, G., Cerný, J., Collet, C., Condés, S., Drössler, L., Fabrika, M., Heym, M. & Holm, S. O. & 25 others, Hylen, G., Jansons, A., Kurylyak, V., Lombardi, F., Matović, B., Metslaid, M., Motta, R., Nord-Larsen, T., Nothdurft, A., den Ouden, J., Pach, M., Pardos, M., Poeydebat, C., Ponette, Q., Pérot, T., Reventlow, D. O. J., Sitko, R., Sramek, V., Steckel, M., Svoboda, M., Verheyen, K., Vospernik, S., Wolff, B., Zlatanov, T. & Bravo-Oviedo, A., Nov 2022, In: Journal of Applied Ecology. 59, 11, p. 2730-2741

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticleAcademicpeer-review

    Open Access
    32 Citations (Scopus)

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