Thinning improves growth and resilience after severe droughts in Quercus subpyrenaica coppice forests in the Spanish Pre-Pyrenees

During the past years, growth and productivity of different oak species have been constrained by water shortage in seasonally dry regions such as the Mediterranean Basin. Thinning could improve oak radial growth in these drought-prone regions through the reduction of tree competition for soil water in summer. However, we still lack adequate, long-term assessments on how lasting are thinning treatments effects and to what extent they contribute to oak growth recovery after drought. Here we aim: (i) to study the radial growth sensitivity to drought of Quercus subpyrenaica in the Spanish Pre-Pyrenees, and (ii) to verify if thinning represents a suitable option to enhance growth resistance to drought and post-drought growth recovery. We analysed basal area increment (BAI) trends in the period 1960–2020 of formerly coppiced oak stands thinned in 1984 and compared them with unthinned plots and also with coexisting Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) growing in thinned plots. We used the Standardized Precipitation Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI) to estimate the severity of droughts and we also assessed climate-growth relationships. Oaks in thinned plots showed higher BAI (369 mm2) than those in unthinned plots (221 mm2). Growth rates remained higher in thinned than in unthinned plots also under severe drought stress. A severe summer drought in 1986 caused abrupt BAI reductions in both oaks (- 40.5%) and pines (- 40.1%). The positive effect of thinning on growth lasted for over 20 years and slightly declined as canopies closed. In the thinned plots, trees with smaller diameter showed the greatest growth release. Oaks in unthinned plots and Scots pine were more sensitive to short-term droughts in terms of growth reduction than oaks in thinned plots, while long term droughts have similar effects on oaks from both thinned and unthinned plots. Oaks were resilient to drought, showing recovery periods lasting from 1 to 2 years in both thinned and unthinned plots. However, intense and prolonged droughts could strongly reverse the expected growth enhancement of thinned plots, and a greater frequency of droughts would limit coppice growth and productivity thus lengthening the rotation periods.