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Response of Mediterranean Shrub Ecosystems to Climate Change
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Response of Mediterranean Shrub Ecosystems to Climate Change

A special issue of Plants (ISSN 2223-7747). This special issue belongs to the section "Plant Response to Abiotic Stress and Climate Change".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 June 2023) | Viewed by 7223

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Jean-Philippe Mevy

E-Mail Website1 Website2
Guest Editor
IMBE-UMR CNRS 7263/IRD 237, Aix-Marseille Université, 13331 Marseille, France
Interests: mediterranean shrub ecosystems; mediterranean forest ecosystems; drought adaptation; climate change; chemical ecology; metabolomics; photosynthesis; chlorophyll fluorescence; plant physiology; ecophysiology; adaptive genetics; transcriptomics
Dr. Ilja Marco Reiter

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
CNRS, Research Federation ECCOREV FR3098, 13545 Aix-en-Provence, France
Interests: experimental climate change, ecology, plant ecophysiology, drought stress, plant competition, ozone impact, ecosystem functioning

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The Mediterranean ecosystems are well adapted to a climatic regime generally characterized by hot and dry summers and cool and rainy winters (275–900 mm of annual precipitation). These ecosystems are mainly constituted of broadleaved and sclerophyllous trees and shrubs or shrub-like plants, often evergreen, and cover an area of about 1.8 million km2, more than half of it located around the Mediterranean Basin and on its islands. In the Mediterranean, we currently encounter climatic issues such as a drop in precipitation (20–30%) and an increase in temperature, which are predicted to become more severe by the end of this century, going beyond the environmental conditions inherent to the Holocene.

The Mediterranean region is one of the world's biodiversity hotspots and displays a wide variety of shrubland ecosystems. It hosts about 25,000 plant species, half of them endemic. This biodiversity richness and related complex biogeographical and functional characterization issues make conservation a great challenge. Typical hazards are the impact of fire, its frequency on Mediterranean ecosystems and how climate change will act on biotic interactions. Quite a number of studies have and are currently experimentally simulating the impact of mostly abiotic stresses on the biotic components of shrub ecosystems. Biodiversity emerges as a driver to mitigate changes. Nevertheless, our knowledge of how these Mediterranean shrub ecocomplexes will face climate change remains limited.

This Special Issue welcomes original research papers, perspectives, hypotheses, opinions, reviews, modelling approaches and methods focused on this topic and, in particular, concerning soil microorganisms and fauna, plant–insect interactions, plant–plant interactions, and plant responses to changes and extreme events predicted for the Mediterranean. Studies on ecosystem functioning, biodiversity, plant traits, (eco)physiology, biochemistry, plant nutrition and nutrient cycling, abiotic and biotic stressors, as well as transcriptome, proteome, metabolome, and epigenome studies from cellular, sub-cellular, whole individuals, and fields, are welcome.

Short summary

The different biomes will have to confront important global changes. The shrub ecosystems of the Mediterranean basin will not be spared from this. For the specific case of climate change, the effects of various variables and their coactions on these ecosystems are far from being known.
This Special Issue is devoted to research topics related to the response of all biological compartments, including their interactions, to predicted changes of decreased precipitation and increased temperature in the Mediterranean region.

Dr. Jean-Philippe Mevy
Dr. Ilja Marco Reiter
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Plants is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2700 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • Mediterranean
  • shrubland
  • drought and temperature adaptation
  • climate change
  • extreme events
  • fire ecology
  • chemical ecology
  • biodiversity
  • germination
  • regeneration
  • allelopathy
  • biotic interactions
  • litter decomposition
  • microorganisms
  • mycorrhiza
  • metabolomics
  • adaptive genetics
  • transcriptomics
  • epigenomics
  • nutrient cycle

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Published Papers (3 papers)

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Research

15 pages, 5449 KiB  
Article
The Role of Gorse (Ulex parviflorus Pourr. Scrubs) in a Mediterranean Shrubland Undergoing Climate Change: Approach by Hyperspectral Measurements
by Audrey Marteau, Martin Fourmaux and Jean-Philippe Mevy
Plants 2023, 12(4), 879; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants12040879 - 15 Feb 2023
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1587
Abstract
The goal of this study was to observe the neighbor effect of Gorse, a plant of the Fabaceae family, on three typical species of Mediterranean shrubland: kermes oak, white Cistus and rosemary. For this purpose, a hyperspectral analysis and the application of vegetation [...] Read more.
The goal of this study was to observe the neighbor effect of Gorse, a plant of the Fabaceae family, on three typical species of Mediterranean shrubland: kermes oak, white Cistus and rosemary. For this purpose, a hyperspectral analysis and the application of vegetation indices (VIs) were carried out. We provide the spectral signature of Gorse, which differs mainly from that of its companion species in the band between 700 and 1350 nm. This supposed Gorse effect was tested in natural conditions and in conditions of forced drought to simulate the effects of the climate change predicted for the Mediterranean Basin. Field spectrometry demonstrated the existence of such interactions between the four species. In control stands, the presence of Gorse significantly modifies the spectral responses of kermes, white Cistus and rosemary, mainly in the near-infrared region (700–1350 nm). Both tri- and tetra-specific plant assemblages also exhibited spectral changes, suggesting an indirect effect of Gorse. Under drought conditions, one-way ANOVA followed by Fisher’s LSD test led us to identify the features involved in plants’ coexistence with Gorse. The Cistus albidus reflectance spectrum was clearly increased in the presence of Gorse in rain-exclusion conditions. The application of several VIs allowed us to extract new information on the variation of spectral signatures. Unexpectedly, nitrogen supply by Gorse was not shown, except for Cistus, as shown by the VI NDVI (N) analysis. However, this study proved that Gorse can modify the behavior of its companion species in controls, but also in drought conditions, by increasing their photosynthesis activity (NIRvP) and water content (ratio R975/R900). Gorse therefore appears as a key species in the ecosystem of the Mediterranean shrubland, but its high vulnerability to drought leaves a vacant ecological niche in plant communities. While the spectral reflectance increases linearly with the specific richness in the lack of any disturbance, by contrast, climate aridification imposes a double reciprocal profile. This clearly means that multispecific plant communities cope better with climate change. Nevertheless, knowledge of the underlying mechanisms requires further structural, chemical, and biochemical investigation. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Response of Mediterranean Shrub Ecosystems to Climate Change)
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15 pages, 4162 KiB  
Article
The Optical Response of a Mediterranean Shrubland to Climate Change: Hyperspectral Reflectance Measurements during Spring
by Jean-Philippe Mevy, Charlotte Biryol, Marine Boiteau-Barral and Franco Miglietta
Plants 2022, 11(4), 505; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants11040505 - 12 Feb 2022
Cited by 6 | Viewed by 2117
Abstract
Remote sensing techniques in terms of monitoring plants’ responses to environmental constraints have gained much attention during recent decades. Among these constraints, climate change appears to be one of the major challenges in the Mediterranean region. In this study, the main goal was [...] Read more.
Remote sensing techniques in terms of monitoring plants’ responses to environmental constraints have gained much attention during recent decades. Among these constraints, climate change appears to be one of the major challenges in the Mediterranean region. In this study, the main goal was to determine how field spectrometry could improve remote sensing study of a Mediterranean shrubland submitted to climate aridification. We provided the spectral signature of three common plants of the Mediterranean garrigue: Cistus albidus, Quercus coccifera, and Rosmarinus officinalis. The pattern of these spectra changed depending on the presence of a neighboring plant species and water availability. Indeed, the normalized water absorption reflectance (R975/R900) tended to decrease for each species in trispecific associations (11–26%). This clearly indicates that multispecific plant communities will better resist climate aridification compared to monospecific stands. While Q. coccifera seemed to be more sensible to competition for water resources, C. albidus exhibited a facilitation effect on R. officinalis in trispecific assemblage. Among the 17 vegetation indices tested, we found that the pigment pheophytinization index (NPQI) was a relevant parameter to characterize plant–plant coexistence. This work also showed that some vegetation indices known as indicators of water and pigment contents could also discriminate plant associations, namely RGR (Red Green Ratio), WI (Water Index), Red Edge Model, NDWI1240 (Normalized Difference Water Index), and PRI (Photochemical Reflectance Index). The latter was shown to be linearly and negatively correlated to the ratio of R975/R900, an indicator of water status. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Response of Mediterranean Shrub Ecosystems to Climate Change)
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15 pages, 2431 KiB  
Article
Unexpected Vulnerability to High Temperature in the Mediterranean Alpine Shrub Erysimum scoparium (Brouss. ex Willd.) Wettst
by Águeda María González-Rodríguez, Eva María Pérez-Martín, Patricia Brito and Beatriz Fernández-Marín
Plants 2021, 10(2), 379; https://doi.org/10.3390/plants10020379 - 17 Feb 2021
Cited by 3 | Viewed by 2378
Abstract
Current understanding of the effects of extreme temperature on alpine evergreens is very limited for ecosystems under Mediterranean climate (characterised by a drought period in summer), despite being exceptionally biodiverse systems and highly vulnerable under a global change scenario. We thus assessed (i) [...] Read more.
Current understanding of the effects of extreme temperature on alpine evergreens is very limited for ecosystems under Mediterranean climate (characterised by a drought period in summer), despite being exceptionally biodiverse systems and highly vulnerable under a global change scenario. We thus assessed (i) seasonal change and (ii) effect of ontogeny (young vs. mature leaves) on thermal sensitivity of Erysimum scoparium, a keystone evergreen of Teide mountain (Canary Islands). Mature leaves were comparatively much more vulnerable to moderately high leaf-temperature (≥+40 and <+50 °C) than other alpine species. Lowest LT50 occurred in autumn (−9.0 ± 1.6 °C as estimated with Rfd, and −12.9 ± 1.5 °C with Fv/Fm). Remarkably, young leaves showed stronger freezing tolerance than mature leaves in spring (LT50 −10.3 ± 2.1 °C vs. −5.6 ± 0.9 °C in mature leaves, as estimated with Rfd). Our data support the use of Rfd as a sensitive parameter to diagnose temperature-related damage in the leaves of mountain plants. On a global change scenario, E. scoparium appears as a well-prepared species for late-frost events, however rather vulnerable to moderately high temperatures. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Response of Mediterranean Shrub Ecosystems to Climate Change)
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