The Role of Plant-Plant Interactions in Forest Response to Climate Change: Sessile Oak and Beech in the Western Pyrenees

This study quantified how interactions between sessile oak and beech seedlings and adult trees vary along an altitudinal gradient in the western Pyrenees, showing that high-elevation competition limits oak survival but future warming will reduce this competition and promote oak’s uphill migration relative to beech.

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Many models of forest response to climate change ignore biotic interactions. We conducted an in situ experiment along a 600 m elevation gradient in the western Pyrenees to measure interactions between sessile oak (Quercus petraea) and common beech (Fagus sylvatica) seedlings under adult canopies. Seedling survival data revealed that competition from beech increased sharply with elevation for oak, due to cooler, shaded microclimates limiting growing season length. Beech seedlings showed less sensitivity. Under projected warming, oak’s greater phenological response to heat should reduce this competitive pressure, accelerating its altitudinal migration and amplifying species-range shifts.

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Projekt

Innovations agronomiques

Innovations agronomiques

Mesto
France
Avtorji
Richard MICHALLET, Yannick VITASSE et Sylvain DELZON
Namen
Adopt innovative practices

Vrsta datoteke
dokument
Ustvarjeno
01. nov. 2015
Izvorni jezik
French
Uradna spletna stran projekta
Innovations agronomiques
Licenca
CC BY