Could green-oak woodlands thrive in the south of Navarre? An approximation through species distribution modelling

Abstract

Peralta, J., Zepeda, N.A., Imbert, J.B. 2013. . 2013. Could green-oak woodlands thrive in the south of Navarre? An approximation through species distribution modelling. Ecosistemas 22(3):58-65. Doi.: 10.7818/ECOS.2013.22-3.09.

According to some potential vegetation maps, various climatic and edaphic factors limit the suitable habitat for green-oak woodlands (Quercus rotundifolia) in the South of Navarre (NE Spain). This area has been used for agriculture and livestock since ancient times, making it difficult to assess whether environmental or anthropic factors are the cause of the scarcity of green-oak woodlands. To try to answer this question green-oak distribution models were built with Maxent and generalized linear models (GLM). Their outcome was then compared with potential vegetation maps and previous models built for the Iberian Peninsula applied to data from Navarre. The environmental variables used to build the models were August mean rainfall, continentality, January mean maximum temperature, January irradiation, slope and soil development; all were significant in the GLM analysis. The variable that most contributed to Maxent model was August mean rainfall. Predictions of spatial distributions of green-oak woodlands by models and maps mainly differ for the north-eastern and southern range of Navarre. Our models and the pre-existent ones suggest that the studied environmental variables do not limit the habitat suitability for green-oak woodlands at least in some areas of southern Navarre, which were not considered in traditional potential natural vegetation maps.