A model of stand dynamics for holm oak-aleppo pine forests

Understanding the mechanisms controlling forest species dynamics and composition is a fundamental issue in silviculture and plant ecology (Oliver and Larson 1990; Crawley 1997). Over the last few decades a growing literature on ecophysiology, population biology and ecosystem ecology has contributed to the empirical, expertise developed by practical forestry during the last century. As a whole these disciplines have documented some of the most important processes that take place in forest ecosystems at different levels of biological organization, from leaf physiology to ecosystem function. Nevertheless, there is a rather limited understanding of how species differences scale from physiology to whole plant performance and how these whole plant processes interact with competition to determine stand dynamics and composition.