The main factors that drive plant dieback under extreme drought differ among Mediterranean shrubland plant biotypes

Questions Knowledge of how extreme drought events induce plant dieback and, eventually, plant mortality, may improve our forecasting of ecosystem change according to future climate projections, especially in Mediterranean drylands. In them, shrublands are the main vegetation communities in transition areas from a subhumid to semi-arid climate. This study analyzed differences in plant dieback after an unusual drought in 2014 and identified their main underlying factors in relation to three groups of explanatory variables: water availability, soil properties and vegetation structure attributes.Location Four Mediterranean shrublands along a climatic gradient in SE Spain.Methods At each experimental field site, we sampled a pool of vegetation structure characteristics, soil depth and soil surface properties, and we also determined water availability by continuously monitoring soil moisture and the microclimate conditions.Results The climatic analysis showed that there was an extreme drought event in 2014, which was below the first percentile of the driest years. Under such conditions, vegetation dieback occurred at all the study sites. However, plant dieback differed between sites and plant biotypes. Subshrubs were the main affected biotype, with diebacks close to 60% at the driest sites, and up to 40% dieback for shrubs depending on their vertical development. Relative extractable water and bare soil surface cover were the best explanatory variables of plant community dieback but changed between plant biotypes. Vegetation structure variables related to plant vertical development (leaf area index [LAI], plant height, phytovolume) were significant explanatory variables of plant dieback in shrubs, subshrubs and grasses. Consecutive dry days fitted the best model to explain subshrub dieback.Conclusions We found that rainfall pattern rather than total annual rainfall was the climatic factor that best determined water availability for plants in Mediterranean drylands. These results also pointed out the relevance of plant structure and soil properties for explaining ecosystem responses to extreme drought.