APPLYING PLANT FACILITATION TO FOREST RESTORATION: A META‐ANALYSIS OF THE USE OF SHRUBS AS NURSE PLANTS

After a millenarian history of overexploitation, most forests in the Mediterranean Basin have disappeared, leaving many degraded landscapes that have been recolonized by early successional shrub‐dominated communities. Common reforestation techniques treat these shrubs as competitors against newly planted tree seedlings; thus shrubs are cleared before tree plantation. However, empirical studies and theory governing plant– plant interactions suggest that, in stress‐prone Mediterranean environments, shrubs can have a net positive effect on recruitment of other species. Between 1997 and 2001, we carried out experimental reforestations in the Sierra Nevada Protected Area (southeast Spain) with the aim of comparing…

• MD
  Ministerio de Educación, Cultura y Deporte