diveRpine: Diversification of pine plantations in Mediterranean mountains. An interactive R tool to help decision makers
Metadata
Show full item recordEditorial
Elsevier
Materia
Pine plantations Mountainous landscapes Naturalization Decision support Climate change
Date
2023-02-18Referencia bibliográfica
A.J. Pérez-Luque and R. Zamora et al. diveRpine: Diversification of pine plantations in Mediterranean mountains. An interactive R tool to help decision makers. Ecological Indicators 147 (2023) 110021[https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2023.110021]
Sponsorship
Project LIFE-ADAPTAMED LIFE14 CCA/ES/000612; Ministry of Science and Innovation through the FEDER funds from the Spanish Pluriregional Operational Program LifeWatch-2019-10-UGR-01Abstract
Forest plantations are an example of widespread land-use change shaping terrestrial ecosystems. They usually
have high stand density, low tree diversity, and homogeneous structure. Their conversion into more natural
forests, i.e. naturalization, to foment active regeneration, heterogeneous structure, high biodiversity levels, and
high resilience to disturbances such as pests and fires, is urgently needed. More diverse and heterogeneous forest
stands display greater resilience to global change, in addition to protecting the ecosystem services that moun tainous pine-plantations provide.
We present diveRpine (diveRsification of pine plantation), an interactive application designed to show how the
species richness (and therefore resilience) varies in pine plantations based on the mountain landscape config uration, the internal structure of the stand, and the composition of the dispersal vectors. The aim of the appli cation is double. On the one hand, it would provide a guidance tool for natural resource managers that aid in the
naturalization of forest plantations to recover the multifunctionality of these ecosystems. On the other hand, this
tool could be a valuable teaching resource in ecology and conservation classes, since it has great value to explore
virtual scenarios and demonstrate the process of prioritization of the management actions. The user can simulate
different combinations and analyze how they would affect the tree-species richness in a specific pine plantation
stand. It also allows the user to visualize some of the complex ecological processes that underlie the diversifi cation of pine plantations in Mediterranean mountain areas. This tool provides a valuable aid for decision
making, for example helping managers to decide whether or not to intervene in a certain pine stand, by pro jecting the most probable ecological succession under a specific scenario. Our diveRpine concept combining
scientific rigor with simplicity of presentation and interpretation is applicable in any restoration context.