Contrary to what was thought, that monoculture forests are more productive , a study by the Group of Forest Ecology and Restoration of the University of Alcalá has shown that biological diversity increases the carbon storage capacity and productivity of stands forestry.
The research, in which the National Institute of Agricultural and Food Technology (INIA), the CSIC, the University of Quebec and the German Max Planck Institute have collaborated, and published in the journal Global Ecology & Biogeography, analyzes the role of diversity as a driver of forest productivity and carbon sequestration in different types of forests in Spain.
Scientists have found that the variety of species is decisive and increases carbon storage by 32% and tree productivity by 21%, compared to monoculture forests.
In the research, more than 50,000 plots of forest inventories have been analyzed, of a great variety of ecosystems, from Atlantic temperate to Mediterranean sclerophyllous. According to Paloma Ruiz Benito, co-author of the article, the loss of biodiversity can significantly influence the functioning of ecosystems through two mechanisms.
On the one hand, with respect to complementarity, which consists in the fact that in the most diverse forests the different species can generate a greater use of resources thanks to the processes of distribution of ecological niches, since the species that compete with each other use resources in a complementary.
On the other hand, in terms of selection, since the most abundant species are those that control some functions of the system, such as carbon sequestration. The more diversity there is, the greater the probability of including these species.
The work is part of the FunDivEUROPE project funded by the European Commission and with the participation of 15 countries. Its purpose is to quantify the effects of biodiversity on forests in Europe with a view to the exploitation of resources such as wood or cork and to coordinate environmental services such as the regulation of the hydrological cycle or carbon sequestration.
Some of the scientists involved are also collaborating in a project that studies the resilience of forests worldwide in the face of extreme droughts, an increasingly common phenomenon due to climate change.
