Forest Conservation and Restoration Using the Emberger Index: Cork Oak as Study Case

Abstract

The Mediterranean Basin is frequently stricken by huge disasters, and it represents an important biodiversity hotspot. Designing a synthetic approach, which is user-friendly with a low cost, that aims to summarize the main climatic factors that determine vegetation geographical ranges is a strategic solution to plan forest restoration actions and quickly act in cases of urgency. Here, we propose an updated version of the Emberger Index, applied to Quercus suber, an emblematic species of many ecosystems in the Mediterranean. Our investigation couples the latest spatially continuous climatic data, a high-resolution distribution map, and modelling techniques. The results evidence the effective benefits of the updated process, with insights into the optimal climatic requirements of a species within its real spatial domain, including projections for the next decades and the detection of putative refugia. Those outputs were not possible before because of a lack of data covering a certain area. Cork oak revealed an excellent study case, able to highlight the potentiality of Emberger’s approach, and understand the ecological amplitude and vulnerabilities of the target species. If genetic information is available, the Emberger Index can even be applied at the haplotype scale, thus benefitting the applied research. Such an index mirrors the optimal plasticity and physiologic characteristics of a species, supporting the decision makers in selecting the correct plants to use in future reforestation and restoration activities.