Alejandra E. Muñoz, Pilar M. Gil, Jorge Saavedra‐Torrico, M. Jesús Ramírez, Nicolas Arcos, Eduardo C. Arellano
{"title":"Spontaneous vegetation recovery in recently abandoned avocado (Persea americana Mill.) orchards in semi‐arid Central Chile","authors":"Alejandra E. Muñoz, Pilar M. Gil, Jorge Saavedra‐Torrico, M. Jesús Ramírez, Nicolas Arcos, Eduardo C. Arellano","doi":"10.1002/ldr.5241","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Avocado (<jats:italic>Persea americana</jats:italic> Mill.) is an important commodity with substantial global growth in semi‐arid regions under irrigation, such as Central Chile. This region of Chile has faced severe drought that has resulted in the abandonment of avocado orchards, previously established in a global biodiversity hotspot. This study investigates the early effects of abandonment of avocado farms on vegetation recovery and soil after severe droughts. We measured and characterized early plant successional processes by identifying the flora, vegetation coverage, similarity, and soil characterization through 42 transects distributed in four recently abandoned sites, a productive farm, and a natural site. Multivariate analysis was used to identify significant relationships between soil and habitat properties and vegetation abundance and coverage variations for the dominant species. The Jaccard similarity coefficient was used to compare sites. The establishment of native or endemic species was extremely limited and variable between sites. In total, we recorded 55 vascular plants (49.1% were native). The results indicated that <jats:italic>Schinus molle</jats:italic> L. has become a dominant colonizer, particularly in highly disturbed planting rows in abandoned farms. Factors such as the sources of <jats:italic>S. molle</jats:italic> propagules, soil salinity, and organic matter accumulation were identified as key predictors of its coverage and presence in abandoned farms. The study concludes that the abandonment of avocado farms, coupled with severe drought, has created favorable conditions for the recruitment of this species, adversely impacting other native species. This research underscores the importance of considering the remaining features of soil and habitat in new successional processes in highly disturbed areas.","PeriodicalId":203,"journal":{"name":"Land Degradation & Development","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":3.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-07-29","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Land Degradation & Development","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1002/ldr.5241","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Avocado (Persea americana Mill.) is an important commodity with substantial global growth in semi‐arid regions under irrigation, such as Central Chile. This region of Chile has faced severe drought that has resulted in the abandonment of avocado orchards, previously established in a global biodiversity hotspot. This study investigates the early effects of abandonment of avocado farms on vegetation recovery and soil after severe droughts. We measured and characterized early plant successional processes by identifying the flora, vegetation coverage, similarity, and soil characterization through 42 transects distributed in four recently abandoned sites, a productive farm, and a natural site. Multivariate analysis was used to identify significant relationships between soil and habitat properties and vegetation abundance and coverage variations for the dominant species. The Jaccard similarity coefficient was used to compare sites. The establishment of native or endemic species was extremely limited and variable between sites. In total, we recorded 55 vascular plants (49.1% were native). The results indicated that Schinus molle L. has become a dominant colonizer, particularly in highly disturbed planting rows in abandoned farms. Factors such as the sources of S. molle propagules, soil salinity, and organic matter accumulation were identified as key predictors of its coverage and presence in abandoned farms. The study concludes that the abandonment of avocado farms, coupled with severe drought, has created favorable conditions for the recruitment of this species, adversely impacting other native species. This research underscores the importance of considering the remaining features of soil and habitat in new successional processes in highly disturbed areas.
期刊介绍:
Land Degradation & Development is an international journal which seeks to promote rational study of the recognition, monitoring, control and rehabilitation of degradation in terrestrial environments. The journal focuses on:
- what land degradation is;
- what causes land degradation;
- the impacts of land degradation
- the scale of land degradation;
- the history, current status or future trends of land degradation;
- avoidance, mitigation and control of land degradation;
- remedial actions to rehabilitate or restore degraded land;
- sustainable land management.