Abstract
ABSTRACT Irrigation can be a strategy to overcome the high mortality and declining vigour of cork oak trees facing increasing drought stress in the Mediterranean basin. Through a three-year irrigation experiment in a semi-arid Mediterranean region, which encompassed two sets of 100 planted individuals that had a 24-year age gap and the direct seeding of 100 acorns, we tested the influence of water irrigation on distinct stages of cork oak establishment and development, namely (1) acorn germination, (2) emerged seedling survival, (3) growth of planted seedlings, (4) vertical and (5) radial growth, and (6) the vigour of 28-year-old trees. Water irrigation significantly improved acorn germination and the growth of both cork oak seedlings and trees but did not affect the survival of emerged seedlings to the dry season. The vigour of 28-year-old trees (height-to-diameter ratio) showed no significant differences between the plants growing in watered and in controlled conditions.
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