Use of monocharacteristic growth forms and phenological phases to describe and differentiate plant communities in Mediterranean-type ecosystems |
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Authors: | Pérez Latorre A.V. Cabezudo B. |
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Affiliation: | (1) Departamento de Biología Vegetal. Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad de Málaga, Apartado 59, E-29080 Málaga, Spain |
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Abstract: | The ecomorphological and phenological study was carried out within aMediterranean vegetation context, in Quercus suberforests,which have been substituted by shrublands of Cistus sppwithin two Natural Parks in the south of the Iberian Peninsula. Theecomorphological characters that show meaningful differences between both typesof vegetation are: location of renewal buds, spinescence, stratification,maximum height of the vegetation, organs periodically shed, leaf consistency,leaf tomentosity, leaf size, and life duration of leaves, plant duration,vegetative regeneration after fire, main vegetative growth season, mainflowering season and fruit type. The phenological phases also help to discernbetween forest and shrubland, specially flower bud formation, fruiting, seeddispersal, and the existence of brachyblast vegetative growth and brachyblastleaf shedding. We propose three new indexes based on phenological phases:active period of the species (APS), active period of thecommunity (APC) and reproductive/vegetative activity of thespecies (RVA). The results of their application, in combination with theecomorphological characters, have proved promising in describing vegetation andin clearly differentiating communities. The results also show the existence ofdifferent ecomorphological groups of plants at community level, with consequentecological, historical, phytocoenological and adaptive implications |
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Keywords: | Cistus shrublands Mediterranean vegetation Phenological indexes Plant functional types Quercus suber forests |
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