The AKIS International Conference was organised in the frame of ARIMNet2 (Coordination of Agricultural Research in the Mediterranean; 2014-2017), an ERA-NET project involving 24 partners from 15 Mediterranean countries, funded through the European Union's 7th Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration, and whose objective is to enhance the coordination of Agricultural Research in the Mediterranean area so as to benefit stakeholders and improve the economy of the region. The conference gathered 75 participants from 16 countries with diverse and complementary profiles, including ARIMNet2 consortium representatives and stakeholders such as farmers, agribusiness entrepreneurs, funders, policy-makers, researchers, NGOs, etc. During two days, they brainstormed and discussed about ways to improve transnational agricultural research and innovation. They finally came up with concrete recommendations to impact future collaborative research & innovation programmes and initiatives on Mediterranean agriculture.
The AKIS International Conference was organised in the frame of ARIMNet2 (Coordination of Agricultural Research in the Mediterranean; 2014-2017), an ERA-NET project involving 24 partners from 15 Mediterranean countries, funded through the European Union's 7th Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration, and whose objective is to enhance the coordination of Agricultural Research in the Mediterranean area so as to benefit stakeholders and improve the economy of the region. The conference gathered 75 participants from 16 countries with diverse and complementary profiles, including ARIMNet2 consortium representatives and stakeholders such as farmers, agribusiness entrepreneurs, funders, policy-makers, researchers, NGOs, etc. During two days, they brainstormed and discussed about ways to improve transnational agricultural research and innovation. They finally came up with concrete recommendations to impact future collaborative research & innovation programmes and initiatives on Mediterranean agriculture.
The AKIS International Conference was organised in the frame of ARIMNet2 (Coordination of Agricultural Research in the Mediterranean; 2014-2017), an ERA-NET project involving 24 partners from 15 Mediterranean countries, funded through the European Union's 7th Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration, and whose objective is to enhance the coordination of Agricultural Research in the Mediterranean area so as to benefit stakeholders and improve the economy of the region. The conference gathered 75 participants from 16 countries with diverse and complementary profiles, including ARIMNet2 consortium representatives and stakeholders such as farmers, agribusiness entrepreneurs, funders, policy-makers, researchers, NGOs, etc. During two days, they brainstormed and discussed about ways to improve transnational agricultural research and innovation. They finally came up with concrete recommendations to impact future collaborative research & innovation programmes and initiatives on Mediterranean agriculture.
The AKIS International Conference was organised in the frame of ARIMNet2 (Coordination of Agricultural Research in the Mediterranean; 2014-2017), an ERA-NET project involving 24 partners from 15 Mediterranean countries, funded through the European Union's 7th Framework Programme for research, technological development and demonstration, and whose objective is to enhance the coordination of Agricultural Research in the Mediterranean area so as to benefit stakeholders and improve the economy of the region. The conference gathered 75 participants from 16 countries with diverse and complementary profiles, including ARIMNet2 consortium representatives and stakeholders such as farmers, agribusiness entrepreneurs, funders, policy-makers, researchers, NGOs, etc. During two days, they brainstormed and discussed about ways to improve transnational agricultural research and innovation. They finally came up with concrete recommendations to impact future collaborative research & innovation programmes and initiatives on Mediterranean agriculture.
Received 30 April 2015, Revised 26 October 2015, Accepted 26 October 2015, Available online 2 November 2015 ; Evidence of tree regeneration failure of some species in the Iberian Peninsula forests warns us about the impact that the global change may exert on the preservation of Mediterranean forests, such as we know them. Predictions agree about an exacerbation of the summer drought there, acknowledged as the main limiting factor for the recruits' survival. On the other hand, many studies have also proved the relevant role that local heterogeneity has over the spatial distribution of forest species recruitment by providing safe sites. Therefore, to unravel how climate interacts with local factors over juveniles' performance seems crucial for the design of successful management strategies that allow facing the global warming. Here, we surveyed the natural recruitment of four dominant tree species in seven mountainous regions in the Iberian Peninsula, along entire elevational ranges as surrogates of their climatic ranges. Two of them have alpine and temperate distributions with populations at their rear edge in the Spanish mountains: Fagus sylvatica and Pinus uncinata; and the other two have a genuine Mediterranean distribution: Quercus ilex and Pinus nigra. Our main goal was to analyze for each species the effect of climate, local factors (i.e. light availability, stand structure and ground cover) and the interactions among them to identify the main drivers leading the regeneration process, assessed in terms of presence, abundance and mean annual growth of juveniles. The results showed different environmental factors determining the recruitment patterns of each species. Nevertheless, they highlighted the pervasive role exerted by both climate and fine scale factors, particularly the co-occurring vegetation on recruits' abundance, and the light availability on their growth. Moreover, we found some interactions among annual mean temperature and local factors, suggesting that climate and local heterogeneity act hierarchically, i.e. the local conditions may mitigate or exacerbate the impact of climate on juveniles. These results advocate for further research to increase our knowledge on the complex net of interactions among factors involved in recruitment at different scales, which in turn should be taken into account and incorporated in forthcoming management strategies. ; Funding was also provided by the Spanish Ministry for Innovation and Science with the Grant Consolider-Montes (CSD2008_00040), and the European Union with the projects BACCARA (CE: FP7-226299, 7FP), FunDivEUROPE (CE: FP7-ENV-2010. 265171), and IMBALANCE-P (ERC Synergy project SyG-2013-610028). ; RB was funded by a Marie Curie IEF fellowship (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF). ; Peer reviewed
Evidence of tree regeneration failure of some species in the Iberian Peninsula forests warns us about the impact that the global change may exert on the preservation of Mediterranean forests, such as we know them. Predictions agree about an exacerbation of the summer drought there, acknowledged as the main limiting factor for the recruits' survival. On the other hand, many studies have also proved the relevant role that local heterogeneity has over the spatial distribution of forest species recruitment by providing safe sites. Therefore, to unravel how climate interacts with local factors over juveniles' performance seems crucial for the design of successful management strategies that allow facing the global warming. Here, we surveyed the natural recruitment of four dominant tree species in seven mountainous regions in the Iberian Peninsula, along entire elevational ranges as surrogates of their climatic ranges. Two of them have alpine and temperate distributions with populations at their rear edge in the Spanish mountains: Fagus sylvatica and Pinus uncinata; and the other two have a genuine Mediterranean distribution: Quercus ilex and Pinus nigra. Our main goal was to analyze for each species the effect of climate, local factors (i.e. light availability, stand structure and ground cover) and the interactions among them to identify the main drivers leading the regeneration process, assessed in terms of presence, abundance and mean annual growth of juveniles. The results showed different environmental factors determining the recruitment patterns of each species. Nevertheless, they highlighted the pervasive role exerted by both climate and fine scale factors, particularly the co-occurring vegetation on recruits' abundance, and the light availability on their growth. Moreover, we found some interactions among annual mean temperature and local factors, suggesting that climate and local heterogeneity act hierarchically, i.e. the local conditions may mitigate or exacerbate the impact of climate on juveniles. These results advocate for further research to increase our knowledge on the complex net of interactions among factors involved in recruitment at different scales, which in turn should be taken into account and incorporated in forthcoming management strategies. ; RB was funded by a Marie Curie IEF fellowship (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF). Funding was also provided by the Spanish Ministry for Innovation and Science with the Grant Consolider-Montes (CSD2008_00040), and the European Union with the projects BACCARA (CE: FP7-226299, 7FP), FunDivEUROPE (CE: FP7-ENV-2010. 265171), and IMBALANCE-P (ERC Synergy project SyG-2013-610028).
Climate change is expected to alter the geographic distribution of many plant species worldwide. However, there is still no clear evidence showing a generalised direction and magnitude of these distribution shifts. Here, we have surveyed, in nine mountainous regions in Spain, an array of tree species along entire elevational ranges, as surrogates of their global climatic ranges, to test for elevational shifts towards cooler locations. We analysed the distribution recruitment patterns of five dominant tree species, recording the abundance and measuring the primary growth of juveniles in 306 plots. Three of the species have a temperate-boreal distribution with populations at their southern edge in the Mediterranean mountain ranges: Pinus sylvestris, Pinus uncinata and Fagus sylvatica; and the other two species have a Mediterranean distribution: Quercus ilex and Pinus nigra. Despite the contrasting phylogenies and biogeographies, we identified a similar pattern in recruitment abundance across species, with an asymmetric distribution of juveniles (more recruits in the middle-upper elevation of their range), but higher annual growths at lower elevations. This survival-growth trade-off at the early recruitment stage may potentially counterbalance at population level the negative effect of global warming on recruit survival at the lower edge of species ranges. These findings suggest a demographic stabilisation process at the early recruitment stage of these tree species, and highlight the importance of considering the different demographic stages across the whole climatic range to understand the effects that climate change may exert on species distributions and population dynamics. ; RB was funded by a Marie Curie IEF fellowship (FP7-PEOPLE-2011-IEF). Funding also was provided by the Spanish Ministry for Innovation and Science with the grant Consolider-Montes (CSD2008_00040), VULGLO (CGL2010 22180 C03 03), MOUNTAINS (CGL-2012-38427), the Community of Madrid grant REMEDINAL 2 (CM S2009 AMB 1783) and the European Union with the projects BACCARA (CE: FP7-226299, 7FP) and FunDivEUROPE (CE: FP7-ENV-2010. 265171).
