RT journal article
T1 Beware of trees: Pine afforestation of a naturally treeless habitat reduces flower and pollinator diversity
A1 Pérez Gómez, Alvaro
A1 Godoy del Olmo, Oscar
A1 Ojeda Copete, Fernando
A2 Biología
K1 EU Biodiversity strategy
K1 European dry heathland
K1 Herriza
K1 Insect conservation
K1 Strait of Gibraltar
AB Planting three billion trees to capture carbon and seeking measures to reverse pollinator decline are two key pledges of the EU Biodiversity Strategy for 2030. Although planting trees could be adequate to restore biodiversity in degraded landscapes and mitigate anthropogenic carbon emissions, it can also negatively impact biodiversity of naturally treeless habitats. To explore whether these two pledges might conflict, we focused on the European dry heathland, a treeless habitat frequent in the southwestern Iberian Peninsula, where it is locally known as herriza. The herriza stands out by its high plant biodiversity and profuse flowering that supports a wide range of insect pollinators. Yet, the herriza has been heavily afforested with pine trees until the onset of the 21st century. This past activity provides a unique natural experiment to assess the effect of afforestation on flower abundance and associated pollinator diversity. We conducted a two-year field study of the diversity and abundance of flowers and pollinators in five selected sites, each consisting of two adjacent plots of open and afforested herriza. Afforested herriza plots had consistently lower diversity and abundance of flowers and insect pollinators than open herriza plots. Our results highlight the negative impact of afforestation of a treeless habitat on its flowering pattern and associated insect pollinator guilds. We thus suggest seeking alternatives to afforesting naturally treeless habitats in order to avoid conflicts between carbon sequestration and pollinator conservation.
PB Elsevier B.V.
SN 2351-9894
YR 2024
FD 2024
LK http://hdl.handle.net/10498/32674
UL http://hdl.handle.net/10498/32674
LA eng
DS Repositorio Institucional de la Universidad de Cádiz
RD 12-nov-2026