The effect of drought and subsequent precipitation pulse on productivity, species composition, and carbon fluxes of the herbaceous understorey in a cork oak woodland
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- Instituto Superior de Agronomia, Tapada da Ajuda, Lisboa, Portugal
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- Document Type:
- Presentation
- Date:
- Received 01 September 2009 13:17 UTC; Posted 02 September 2009
- Subjects:
- Ecology
- Abstract:
In the Iberian Peninsula, the cork oak woodlands are of great ecological and socio-economic importance. These savanna-type woodlands are characterized by an herbaceous understorey, dominated by C3 annual species. The productivity and related ecosystem processes of this understorey are highly dependent on timing and magnitude of precipitation events.
Climate change scenarios for the Iberian Peninsula suggest not only increasing air temperatures, but also the possibility of decreasing spring precipitation, accompanied by an increase in the interval between precipitation events, which might cause drought conditions to occur, with more severe effects on productivity and ecosystem processes.
An experiment was carried out in southern Portugal to assess the effect of a drought treatment, with a subsequent extreme precipitation event, on the herbaceous component of managed cork oak woodland. The facility consisted of five plots with rainout shelters (2.5×2.5 m), which exclude normal rainfall inputs (drought treatment), and five non-sheltered control plots (control treatment). In the drought treatment, 193 mm of precipitation was excluded in the period from mid March to mid May, with a subsequent precipitation pulse of 50 mm in the middle of May. Variables measured included productivity, plant community composition, soil respiration and soil microbial activity.
- Collection:
- 2009 Annual Meeting of the Ecological Society of America
- Presented at:
- Ecological Society of America - 2009 Annual Meeting, Albuquerque, NM, 04 August 2009
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- License:
- This document is licensed to the public under the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License
- How to cite this document:
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Jongen, Marjan, Caldeira, Maria C. , and Pereira, João S.. The effect of drought and subsequent precipitation pulse on productivity, species composition, and carbon fluxes of the herbaceous understorey in a cork oak woodland. Available from Nature Precedings <http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/npre.2009.3706.1> (2009)
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