IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/gam/jsusta/v13y2021i11p6097-d564446.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effect of Seedling Provenance and Site Heterogeneity on Abies cephalonica Performance in a Post-Fire Environment

Author

Listed:
  • Kostas Ioannidis

    (Laboratory of Silviculture, Forest Genetics and Biotechnology, Institute of Mediterranean & Forest Ecosystems, Hellenic Agricultural Organization “Demeter”, 11528 Athens, Greece)

  • Marianthi Tsakaldimi

    (Laboratory of Silviculture, Department of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece)

  • Katerina Koutsovoulou

    (Green Fund, Ministry of Environment and Energy, 14561 Kifisia, Greece)

  • Evangelia N. Daskalakou

    (Laboratory Forest Management & Forest Economics, Institute of Mediterranean & Forest Ecosystems, Hellenic Agricultural Organization “Demeter”, 11528 Athens, Greece)

  • Petros Ganatsas

    (Laboratory of Silviculture, Department of Forestry and Natural Environment, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece)

Abstract

Reforestation constitutes a challenge in post-fire ecosystem restoration, although there are limitations such as species and genotype selection, planting and management design, and environmental conditions. In the present study, the basic issue is the longevity of Abies cephalonica Loudon—the Greek fir seedlings planted extensively in Parnitha National Park (Central Greece), located near the metropolitan city of Athens, following the large-scale wildfire of 2007. Seedling performance was assessed for a 3-year monitoring period (2013–2015) through the establishment of 8 permanent transects, including 400 seedlings at the burned, reforested sites. According to the long-term reforestation project, two seedling provenances were used: (a) from Mt. Mainalon (South Greece, Vytina provenance) and (b) the local one from Mt. Parnitha. Both provenances showed a relatively successful survival rate reaching, in average, 73.8%, with the first summer after planting being crucial for seedling survival. The overall mean seedling height was 39.2 ± 1.1 cm, with a mean crown diameter of 47.3 ± 1.4 cm in the last monitoring survey. Although Parnitha seedlings seem to perform better in terms of growth, seedling performance in both provenances was affected by reforestation site characteristics, mainly altitude and aspect. Approximately one third of seedlings exhibited damage in their crown architecture (29.8%), while apical bud damage was less extensive (12.2%) in the final field measurement. Data indicate that seedling performance has proved to be quite promising for post-fire restoration, although long-term monitoring data should be considered.

Suggested Citation

  • Kostas Ioannidis & Marianthi Tsakaldimi & Katerina Koutsovoulou & Evangelia N. Daskalakou & Petros Ganatsas, 2021. "Effect of Seedling Provenance and Site Heterogeneity on Abies cephalonica Performance in a Post-Fire Environment," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(11), pages 1-16, May.
  • Handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:11:p:6097-:d:564446
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/11/6097/pdf
    Download Restriction: no

    File URL: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/11/6097/
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Vassilis Detsis & Georgios Efthimiou & Olga Theodoropoulou & Stavroula Siorokou, 2020. "Determination of the Environmental Factors that Affect the Growth and Survival of Greek Fir Seedlings," Land, MDPI, vol. 9(4), pages 1-15, March.
    2. Alexandros Dimitrakopoulos & M. Vlahou & Ch. Anagnostopoulou & I. Mitsopoulos, 2011. "Impact of drought on wildland fires in Greece: implications of climatic change?," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 109(3), pages 331-347, December.
    3. Roosa Leimu & Markus Fischer, 2008. "A Meta-Analysis of Local Adaptation in Plants," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 3(12), pages 1-8, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Leonardo Caproni & Lorenzo Raggi & Salvatore Ceccarelli & Valeria Negri & Andrea Carboni, 2019. "In-Depth Characterisation of Common Bean Diversity Discloses Its Breeding Potential for Sustainable Agriculture," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(19), pages 1-20, October.
    2. Vassilis Detsis & Eleni Gkadolou & Katerina Koutsovoulou & Georgios Tolias, 2022. "Long-Term Landscape Dynamics to Assess Land Degradation Hypotheses—An Exploratory Study of Evidence from Travelers’ Narrations," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 14(14), pages 1-14, July.
    3. Gaëlle van Frank & Pierre Rivière & Sophie Pin & Raphaël Baltassat & Jean-François Berthellot & François Caizergues & Christian Dalmasso & Jean-Sébastien Gascuel & Alexandre Hyacinthe & Florent Mercie, 2020. "Genetic Diversity and Stability of Performance of Wheat Population Varieties Developed by Participatory Breeding," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 12(1), pages 1-21, January.
    4. Tuomas Hämälä & Amanda J Gorton & David A Moeller & Peter Tiffin, 2020. "Pleiotropy facilitates local adaptation to distant optima in common ragweed (Ambrosia artemisiifolia)," PLOS Genetics, Public Library of Science, vol. 16(3), pages 1-23, March.
    5. Matthew D Trager & Smriti Bhotika & Jeffrey A Hostetler & Gilda V Andrade & Mariano A Rodriguez-Cabal & C Seabird McKeon & Craig W Osenberg & Benjamin M Bolker, 2010. "Benefits for Plants in Ant-Plant Protective Mutualisms: A Meta-Analysis," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 5(12), pages 1-9, December.
    6. Benjamin E. Goulet-Scott & Matthew C. Farnitano & Andrea L. M. Brown & Charles O. Hale & Meghan Blumstein & Robin Hopkins, 2024. "A multidimensional selective landscape drives adaptive divergence between and within closely related Phlox species," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 15(1), pages 1-11, December.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:11:p:6097-:d:564446. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: MDPI Indexing Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://www.mdpi.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.