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Analysis of institutional authors

Valeriano, CAuthor

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January 17, 2022
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Drought Drives Growth and Mortality Rates in Three Pine Species under Mediterranean Conditions

Publicated to: Forests. 12 (12): 1700- - 2021-12-01 12(12), DOI: 10.3390/f12121700

Authors:

Valeriano, C; Gazol, A; Colangelo, M; Camarero, JJ
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Affiliations

Inst Pirenaico Ecol IPE CSIC, Zaragoza 50192, Spain - Author
Univ Basilicata, Sch Agr Forest Food & Environm Sci SAFE, I-85100 Potenza, Italy - Author
Univ Politecn Madrid, Dept Sistemas Recursos Natur, Ciudad Univ, Madrid 28040, Spain - Author
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Abstract

Drought constrains tree growth in regions with seasonal water deficit where growth decline can lead to tree death. This has been observed in regions such as the western Mediterranean Basin, which is a climate-warming hotspot. However, we lack information on intra- and inter-specific comparisons of growth rates and responses to water shortage in these hotspots, considering tree species with different drought tolerance. We sampled several sites located in north-eastern Spain showing dieback and high mortality rates of three pine species (Pinus sylvestris, Pinus pinaster, Pinus halepensis). We dated death years and reconstructed the basal area increment of coexisting living and recently dead trees using tree ring data. Then, we calculated bootstrapped Pearson correlations between a drought index and growth. Finally, we used linear mixed-effects models to determine differences in growth trends and the response to drought of living and dead trees. Mortality in P. sylvestris and P. pinaster peaked in response to the 2012 and 2017 droughts, respectively, and in sites located near the species' xeric distribution limits. In P. halepensis, tree deaths occurred most years. Dead trees showed lower growth rates than living trees in five out of six sites. There was a strong growth drop after the 1980s when climate shifted towards warmer and drier conditions. Tree growth responded positively to wet climate conditions, particularly in the case of living trees. Accordingly, growth divergence between living and dead trees during dry periods reflected cumulative drought impacts on trees. If aridification continues, tree drought mortality would increase, particularly in xeric distribution limits of tree species.
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Keywords

ClimateConiferous treeDead treesDiebackDigital storageDistributionDroughtDrought stressForestForest diebackForestryGrowthGrowth rateImpactMediterranean coast [spain]Mediterranean environmentMortalityMortality ratePinasterPine speciesPinusPinus halepensis millPinus halepensis millsPinus pinaster aitPinus sylvestris (l.)Pinus sylvestris lPlants (botany)Population distributionPopulation statisticsPopulationsResponsesSitesSpainStressSurvivalTree mortalityTrees

Quality index

Bibliometric impact. Analysis of the contribution and dissemination channel

The work has been published in the journal Forests due to its progression and the good impact it has achieved in recent years, according to the agency WoS (JCR), it has become a reference in its field. In the year of publication of the work, 2021, it was in position 14/69, thus managing to position itself as a Q1 (Primer Cuartil), in the category Forestry.

From a relative perspective, and based on the normalized impact indicator calculated from World Citations provided by WoS (ESI, Clarivate), it yields a value for the citation normalization relative to the expected citation rate of: 2.04. This indicates that, compared to works in the same discipline and in the same year of publication, it ranks as a work cited above average. (source consulted: ESI Nov 13, 2025)

This information is reinforced by other indicators of the same type, which, although dynamic over time and dependent on the set of average global citations at the time of their calculation, consistently position the work at some point among the top 50% most cited in its field:

  • Weighted Average of Normalized Impact by the Scopus agency: 1.83 (source consulted: FECYT Mar 2025)

Specifically, and according to different indexing agencies, this work has accumulated citations as of 2026-04-27, the following number of citations:

  • WoS: 20
  • Scopus: 23
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Impact and social visibility

From the perspective of influence or social adoption, and based on metrics associated with mentions and interactions provided by agencies specializing in calculating the so-called "Alternative or Social Metrics," we can highlight as of 2026-04-27:

  • The use, from an academic perspective evidenced by the Altmetric agency indicator referring to aggregations made by the personal bibliographic manager Mendeley, gives us a total of: 36.

With a more dissemination-oriented intent and targeting more general audiences, we can observe other more global scores such as:

  • The Total Score from Altmetric: 2.
  • The number of mentions on the social network X (formerly Twitter): 3 (Altmetric).

It is essential to present evidence supporting full alignment with institutional principles and guidelines on Open Science and the Conservation and Dissemination of Intellectual Heritage. A clear example of this is:

  • The work has been submitted to a journal whose editorial policy allows open Open Access publication.
  • Assignment of a Handle/URN as an identifier within the deposit in the Institutional Repository: http://hdl.handle.net/11563/188355
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Leadership analysis of institutional authors

This work has been carried out with international collaboration, specifically with researchers from: Italy.

There is a significant leadership presence as some of the institution’s authors appear as the first or last signer, detailed as follows: First Author (VALERIANO PEÑAS, CRISTINA) .

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Awards linked to the item

This research was funded by project FORMAL (RTI2018-096884-B-C31). C.V. acknowledges funding by an FPI fellowship (PRE2019-089800), Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.
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