The Desertification Research Centre (CIDE, UV-CSIC-GVA) participates in a new study that analyses how some plant species, facilitating plants, contribute to the establishment of other plants in adverse climatic conditions. In the study, recently published in the journal Ecology Letters, there are also researchers from King’s College London (United Kingdom) and the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF, UAB–IEC–UB-CSIC-Generalitat de Catalunya), from the Autonomous University of Madrid and the University of Jaén.

Plants are geographically distributed on our planet depending on different variables, including climatic conditions. If these conditions vary, they can have notable effects on said distribution. This study analyses how facilitating plants help the establishment of others in climatic conditions different from those of their usual niche, which contributes to the structure of the plant communities thus established.

The results of the study show that facilitating plants provide protection, in the form of vegetation cover, for other species that would have a very difficult time surviving in warmer and arid environments, or with colder temperatures. “Thanks to this protective effect, new generations of plants can successfully establish themselves in areas far from their optimal climate. On the contrary, the understory plant communities thus established would see their survival compromised if this protective plant cover disappeared”, explains Miguel Verdú, CSIC researcher at CIDE.

The work was carried out in 28 locations throughout the south of the Iberian Peninsula. The sampled area covers a wide range of environmental conditions both in terms of temperature and precipitation, including three main climate types: Mediterranean climate, mostly towards the central and western areas; semi-arid climate, which mostly covers the eastern part of the study region; and alpine-Mediterranean climate, in the mountain peaks. A total of 26,252 individuals of 141 different plant species were recorded.

Facilitation in the face of change

The implications of these results are very important in the current context of climate change. Buffering against high temperatures could be key in maintaining biodiversity and the ecosystem services it offers in typically Mediterranean climates, where extreme temperatures can be lethal for seedlings.

“This facilitating function allows the establishment of species less adapted to arid conditions, but also favours the establishment in cold environments of the high Mediterranean mountains, then acting as a reservoir of species adapted to climate change”, explains María A. Pérez Navarro, first author of this study and researcher at CREAF and the Department of Geography, King’s College London (United Kingdom).

The type of study developed by this team allows us to observe plant distribution patterns, focusing on microclimatic conditions, compared to the usual studies that analyse climatic conditions on a macro scale. This change in scale represents a leap in studies in plant ecology.

Reference:

Pérez-Navarro, M. A., Lloret, F., Molina-Venegas, R., Alcántara, J. M. & Verdú, M. (2024). Plant canopies promote climatic disequilibrium in Mediterranean recruit communities. Ecology Letters, 27, e14391. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.14391