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Effects of Afforestation on Plant Diversity and Soil Quality in Semiarid SE Spain
| Content Provider | MDPI |
|---|---|
| Author | Mar, ía N. Jiménez Emilia, Fernández-Ondoño Segura, Carmen Navarro, Francisco B. |
| Copyright Year | 2021 |
| Description | Farmland afforestation has been promoted in recent decades and is one of the main strategies included in the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration to recover degraded areas. However, the impacts of afforestation on plant diversity and soil quality indicators are still not well-understood in semiarid environments. In this study, we assessed the relationships between plant diversity indicators (abundance, total richness, richness by functional groups, and Shannon diversity) and a large number of variables in 48 afforestation sites in southeast Spain. We considered associated environmental factors, such as geographical, climatic or edaphic variables, age, and land-use history. We compared plant diversity and soil properties following land-use change from cereal cropping to afforestation, which is one of the most common land-use changes in Mediterranean areas. Plant diversity in afforested sites was found to be dependent on previous land use, the proximity of natural vegetation, several soil properties (texture, pH, and total nitrogen), and plantation age. Afforested soils showed higher plant diversity and an improvement in edaphic parameters related to multifunctionality in semiarid ecosystems (i.e., soil organic carbon, nitrogen, and potassium) than arable cropped soils. |
| Starting Page | 1730 |
| e-ISSN | 19994907 |
| DOI | 10.3390/f12121730 |
| Journal | Forests |
| Issue Number | 12 |
| Volume Number | 12 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | MDPI |
| Publisher Date | 2021-12-08 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Forests Soil Science Active Restoration Functional Groups Plant Richness Soil Properties Land-use Change Mediterranean Region Un Decade On Ecosystem Restoration |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Article |