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

Capítulo 4
For non‐irrigated seedlings, survival after the first summer was mainly determined by
the mother tree, except in the case of Q. faginea, for which none of the studied
variables had a significant effect (Table 2). In addition, for Q. suber, survival of nonirrigated
plants depended on seed mass and spring soil moisture, both of them having
a positive effect.
Second‐year survival was much lower than first year‐survival for all species
(Table 1). Summer irrigation in the previous year influenced second‐year seedling
survival for both Q. ilex and Q. faginea, but its effect differed between mother trees
(Table 2). In the case of Q. suber, survival in year 2 was related to seed mass although
this effect was only marginally significant. For Q. pyrenaica seed mass also played a
role, being its effect on second‐year survival positive but with differing slopes between
light conditions (Table 2).
Establishment success relates to the partial contribution of consecutive
processes, from seedling emergence to subsequent survival. Therefore, much lower
values were found, ranging between 5.7 and 8.5% (Table 1). For Q. ilex it was
determined by maternal factors, for Q. faginea by summer irrigation in the first year,
for Q. suber by seed mass (positive) and for Q. pyrenaica by the interactions between
seed mass and light conditions and mother tree and irrigation (Table 2), which
determined different responses to irrigation in year 1 depending on maternal origin,
and different responses to light availability depending on seed mass.
Morphological traits and growth parameters
Aboveground biomass for Q. ilex, Q. suber and Q.faginea was only determined
by maternal traits (Table 3, Fig. 3). For Q. pyrenaica none of the explored factors had a
significant effect.
For Q. ilex none of the studied variables had any influence on aerial leaf mass
fraction (LMF a ), but for the other species maternal plant had a significant effect.
Additionally for Q. faginea light availability had a positive effect on LMF a (Table 3).
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