RT Journal Article
T1 Successional stages in Mediterranean grasslands differ in the quality of ecosystem services in urban greenspaces
A1 Quintana Nieto, José Ramón
A1 Fernández Sanjulián, Javier
A1 González Ubierna, Sergio
A1 Casermeiro Martínez, Miguel Ángel
A1 García Torija, Miriam
A1 Alía, Teresa
A1 Vázquez de la Cueva, Antonio
A1 Molina Abril, José Antonio
AB Urban habitats represent new opportunities to study natural processes such as ecological succession. Our work focused for the first time on the changes in ecosystem services occurring in the ecological succession from annual to perennial grasslands in Mediterranean peri-urban greenspaces. Student’s t test was used to analyse the influence of the grassland type on plant and soil features, and showed that soil under perennial grassland had a significantly higher C content and arylamidase and arylsulfatase activity than annual grasslands. In contrast, annual grasslands showed a significantly higher plant-species richness, and their soils had higher bulk density and phenoloxidase and arylamidase activity compared to perennial grasslands. Neither the labile nor recalcitrant fractions of the organic matter showed any significant difference between communities. When all the soil factors were included together, Redundancy Analysis revealed a significant gradient in soil phenoloxidase activity and organic matter distinguishing perennial from annual grasslands. We conclude that when annual grasslands give way to perennial grasslands through natural succession in Mediterranean greenspaces, certain ecosystem services such as soil carbon storage and water regulation improve, while biodiversity maintenance declines. Thus, Mediterranean urban greenspaces where natural succession occurs should be handled in such a way as to preserve both type of habitats in order to improve a wider range of ecosystem services.
PB Elsevier
SN 2351-9894
YR 2024
FD 2024-10
LK https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/111205
UL https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/111205
LA eng
NO Quintana JR, Fernández-Sanjulián J, González-Ubierna S, Casermeiro MÁ, Torija MG, Alía T, Vázquez De La Cueva A, Molina JA. Successional stages in Mediterranean grasslands differ in the quality of ecosystem services in urban greenspaces. Global Ecology and Conservation 2024;54:e03118. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gecco.2024.e03118.
NO Acknowledgements:This study was supported by the Next Generation EU: (Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación) – Project: Ecosystem benefits of Mediterranean urban greenspaces for an ecological transition (TED 2021-130043B-100).
NO European Commission
NO Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (España)
DS Docta Complutense
RD 13 abr 2025