Establecimiento de cuatro especies de Quercus en el sur de la ...

Capítulo 3
environmental conditions. The same happens for plant growth during the first year,
which is more markedly dependent on seed reserves than on the particular
environmental conditions. On the other hand, survival and establishment success
depend, at least partly, on water availability. A scarcity of this resource can lead to
strongly limited survival in some zones. The spatial aggregation patterns for seedling
survival and establishment success persist during the dry season and only vanish when
plant mortality is very high (e.g. under extremely dry conditions such as that of
summer in the studied year or in species with a high sensitivity to this limitation).
Acknowledgements
This study was funded in the framework of the coordinated projects DINAMED
(CGL2005‐05830‐C03‐02/BOS) and INTERBOS (CGL2008‐04503‐C03‐02), both by
Spain's Ministry of Science and Innovation, and co‐funded by FEDER (European Union).
Victoria González Rodríguez wishes to acknowledge award of a grant and an FPI‐MEC
pre‐doctoral contract (BES‐2006‐13059), and José Luis Quero a MCINN post‐doctoral
contract (2007‐0572). The authors are grateful to José Manuel Quero, Director of the
“Sierra de Cardeña y Montoro” Natural Park and Pedro Lara for access to its facilities;
Fernando Puig and Bartolomé Arévalo for allowing us to collect acorns from their
farms. Our group is a member of the Globimed network (www.globimed)
99